Bessie Love

Acting

Bessie Love

Born — Died

1898-09-09 — 1986-04-26

Place of birth

Midland, Texas, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

70 titles

Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton, September 10, 1898 - April 26, 1986) became one of the most recognizable faces of early American cinema. After her family moved to Los Angeles, she was sent to Biograph Studios, where legendary director D.W. Griffith noticed her talent and cast her in several films, including Intolerance (1916). During the silent era, she gained popularity for her lively, wholesome screen presence and worked with major stars such as Douglas Fairbanks. Her career soared in the 1920s, and she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1922, marking her as one of Hollywood’s most promising young actresses. Love made a successful transition to sound films—something many silent stars stru…

Known for

ITV Play of the Week poster
4.0

A UK anthology series of single plays from major playwrights old and new. It ran from 1955 to 1974, producing about five hundred ninety-minute episodes from Granada Television. Season 1 also incorporates the Plays from the 'H.M. Tennant Globe Theatre' series, some of which were incorporated and labelled in listings as official Play of the Week episodes and some of which were played in place of Play of the Week episodes in alternative ITV regions. All 8 plays have been incorporated into this entry for convenience.

ITV Play of the Week

1955

On Her Majesty's Secret Service poster
6.6

With the help of Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse crime syndicate, and Draco's troubled daughter Tracy, James Bond tracks his archnemesis, Ernst Stravro Blofeld, to a mountaintop retreat in the Swiss Alps, where he is training an army of beautiful, lethal women.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

1969

No artwork available
8.0

Story Parade specialized in adaptations of modern novels. It was broadcast on June 5, 1964 and repeated on August 28, 1964. The teleplay was by Terry Nation (who invented "Blake's 7" and the Daleks in Dr. Who), and Elijah Baley was played by the late Peter Cushing. It also starred John Carson John Carson as R. Daneel Olivaw and Kenneth J. Warren. The master tapes of the program were erased, however a few clips from the production have turned up in various documentaries about Isaac Asimov's work.

Story Parade

1964

No artwork available
7.5

The global adventures of Ken Franklin, ace operative of the William J. Burns Detective Agency, qualify as a pop-culture curio if only for star Arthur---later Art---Fleming, who hosted the original `Jeopardy!'

International Detective

1959

Man of the World poster
7.2

Michael Strait is a world-renowned photographer whose assignments lead him into investigating mysterious goings-on amongst the rich and glamorous and intrigue from far-flung places as Iraq, French Indochina, and Algiers.

Man of the World

1962

The Hunger poster
6.7

Five-thousand-year-old vampire Miriam promises her lovers the gift of eternal life. When John, her cellist companion for centuries, discovers that he has suddenly begun growing old, he attempts to seek out the help of Dr. Sarah Roberts, a researcher on the mechanisms of aging.

The Hunger

1983

Film credits

1980s · 4 titles

1970s · 7 titles

Vampyres poster
6.0

A duo of bisexual female vampires prey on passing motorists, whom they seduce and murder in the English countryside.

Vampyres

1974

The Ritz poster
6.0

To escape from a mobster, businessman Gaetano Proclo orders a cab driver to take him to a place where he can't be found. Unfortunately for Gaetano, the place turns out to be a gay bathhouse.

The Ritz

1976

Sunday Bloody Sunday poster
6.5

Recently divorced career woman Alex Greville begins a romantic relationship with glamorous mod artist Bob Elkin, fully aware that he's also intimately involved with middle-aged doctor Daniel Hirsh. For both Alex and Daniel, the younger man represents a break with their repressive pasts, and though both know that Bob is seeing both of them, neither is willing to let go of the youth and vitality he brings to their otherwise stable lives.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

1971

Catlow poster
5.1

An outlaw tries to avoid interference as he journeys to Mexico to pull off a $2,000,000 gold robbery.

Catlow

1971

Edward & Mrs. Simpson poster
10.0

While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intentions to marry her.

Edward & Mrs. Simpson

1978

Gulliver's Travels poster
5.6

Based on the novel of the same name by Jonathan Swift and built around the Lilliput and Blefuscu episode. It was made partly in live action and partly animated.

Gulliver's Travels

1977

Mousey poster
5.2

A high school teacher separated from his son plots revenge on his ex-wife.

Mousey

1974

1960s · 9 titles

On Her Majesty's Secret Service poster
6.6

With the help of Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse crime syndicate, and Draco's troubled daughter Tracy, James Bond tracks his archnemesis, Ernst Stravro Blofeld, to a mountaintop retreat in the Swiss Alps, where he is training an army of beautiful, lethal women.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

1969

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone poster
6.9

An aging actress travels to Rome with her husband; after he suddenly dies during the flight, she begins a passionate affair with a young gigolo.

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

1961

Children of the Damned poster
6.1

Six children are found spread through out the world that not only have enormous intelligence, but identical intelligence and have a strange bond to each other.

Children of the Damned

1964

Isadora poster
6.2

A biography of the dancer Isadora Duncan, the 1920s dancer who forever changed people's ideas of ballet. Her nude, semi-nude, and pro-Soviet dance projects as well as her attitudes on free love, debt, dress, and lifestyle shocked the public of her time.

Isadora

1968

Battle Beneath the Earth poster
4.8

Government officials discover a horrible plot: the Chinese are tunneling their way to the United States.

Battle Beneath the Earth

1967

I'll Never Forget What's'isname poster
5.4

Advertising golden boy Andrew Quint is fed up with his fabulously successful life. In very dramatic fashion, he quits his job to return to writing for a small literary magazine. He wants to leave his former life behind, going as far as saying good-bye to his wife and mistresses. He finds, however, that it's not so easy to escape the past.

I'll Never Forget What's'isname

1967

Too Young to Love poster
7.1

A court case ensues when a 47-year old man is caught with a 15-year old girl, and he claims he never knew she was so young.

Too Young to Love

1960

The Wild Affair poster
5.3

Young office assistant Majorie will marry soon, however, she's plagued by doubts if her fiance is the right one. On her last day at work, her male colleagues don't miss a chance to comfort her...and flirt.

The Wild Affair

1965

Promise Her Anything poster
4.1

A widowed mother decides to go after the child psychologist she works for because she thinks he'll be able to provide for her toddler, the catch is her employer doesn't know about her son and he doesn't particularly care for children despite his profession.

Promise Her Anything

1966

1950s · 7 titles

The Barefoot Contessa poster
6.8

A washed-up filmmaker gets a second chance at stardom when he discovers stunning peasant Maria Vargas dancing in a Madrid nightclub. Goaded by his producer, the director convinces Maria to screen test for, and then star in, his next big picture. But as the producer's possessive nature and the realities of stardom weigh on Maria, she seeks a genuine lover with whom she can escape.

The Barefoot Contessa

1954

No Highway in the Sky poster
7.0

James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design flaw that manifests itself only after the aircraft has flown a certain number of hours. En route to a crash site to prove his theory, Honey discovers that he is aboard a plane rapidly approaching his predicted deadline.

No Highway in the Sky

1951

Nowhere to Go poster
6.6

A professional thief is sprung from prison with the assistance of a new partner who wants to know where he's hid his loot.

Nowhere to Go

1958

The Weak and the Wicked poster
6.5

Jean Raymond an upper class woman with a gambling addiction, is given a twelve-month prison sentence resulting from her inability to pay her debts. At first she is overwhelmingly depressed by life in the women's prison; gradually, however, her misery is relieved by the many close friends she makes there. This sympathetic drama traces the contrasting lives and often faltering progress of the inmates of a women's prison.

The Weak and the Wicked

1954

The Magic Box poster
6.5

Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green. He changed his name to include his first wife's for the photographic portrait work he excelled at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.

The Magic Box

1952

The Story of Esther Costello poster
7.0

Eighteen-year-old Esther has been deaf and blind since the accident that killed her mother. Wealthy Margaret Landi, a native of Esther's village in Ireland, is persuaded to help educate and possibly heal Esther. Margaret grows to love Esther as a daughter, but finds Esther's innocence threatened by sleazy promoters and her own sleazy ex-husband.

The Story of Esther Costello

1957

Next to No Time poster
7.7

Unassuming planning engineer David Webb finds himself on the Queen Elizabeth to New York with instructions to negotiate a high-powered loan. His lack of confidence means he is completely out of his depth, at least until he finds his personality changes every day during the hour the ship's clocks stop to make allowance for their westward passage.

Next to No Time

1958

1920s · 20 titles

The Lost World poster
6.7

The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.

The Lost World

1925

The Broadway Melody poster
5.1

The vaudeville act of Harriet and Queenie Mahoney comes to Broadway, where their friend Eddie Kerns needs them for his number in one of Francis Zanfield's shows. When Eddie meets Queenie, he soon falls in love with her—but she is already being courted by Jock Warriner, a member of New York high society. Queenie eventually recognizes that, to Jock, she is nothing more than a toy, and that Eddie is in love with her.

The Broadway Melody

1929

Dress Parade poster
7.2

An amateur boxing champion stops at West Point to see a dress parade and falls for the commandant's daughter. He wins an appointment to the Academy and begins a rivalry for her affection.

Dress Parade

1927

The Matinee Idol poster
6.6

The famous matinee idol and blackface comedian, Don Wilson, heads out of town to escape adulation. There, calling himself Harry Mann, he accidentally joins a traveling acting troupe, and falls in love with Ginger Bolivar, who runs the troupe and stars in their Civil War melodrama. Don's producer sees the play, and thinks it's a comic masterpiece, and just what Don's Broadway show needs. But when Ginger finds out she's been played for a fool, will she forgive Don? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in 1997.

The Matinee Idol

1928

Anybody Here Seen Kelly? poster
8.0

A French girl falls in love with an American soldier, and after the War she follows him to New York, where he is a police officer. A lost film.

Anybody Here Seen Kelly?

1928

Soul-Fire poster
10.0

Eric Fane (Richard Barthelmess) is a composer unwilling to compromise his dream for a steady job back home in the United States. After his studies in Italy, he moves to Paris, where he is forced to write popular songs for money when he stops receiving support from his father. He tires of selling out and, after an encounter with the mob, starts to travel. He begins a madcap journey from Paris to Port Said, Egypt, and to the South Seas, where he believes he has found love with Teita (Bessie Love).

Soul-Fire

1925

Gentle Julia poster
9.0

Gentle Julia is a 1923 American silent romantic drama film based on the popular novel Gentle Julia by Booth Tarkington. Directed by Rowland V. Lee, the film starred Bessie Love.

Gentle Julia

1923

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 poster
5.7

An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

1929

A Harp in Hock poster
7.0

A Harp in Hock, also known as The Samaritan, is a lost 1927 American silent melodrama film directed by Renaud Hoffman, produced by DeMille Pictures, and distributed by Pathé Exchange. The film starred Rudolph Schildkraut, Junior Coghlan, May Robson, and Bessie Love, and was based on the short story by Evelyn Campbell.

A Harp in Hock

1927

Souls for Sale poster
6.3

A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.

Souls for Sale

1923

Torment poster
10.0

Torment is a 1924 American silent film crime drama produced and directed by Maurice Tourneur and distributed by Associated First National. This film stars Bessie Love, Owen Moore, and Jean Hersholt.

Torment

1924

St. Elmo poster
7.0

St. Elmo is a man who killed his romantic rival in a brawl. Traveling the world as a confirmed misogynist, St. Elmo returns to home and hearth only to fall in love with the daughter of the local blacksmith. The film is based on the 1867 novel of the same name written by Augusta Jane Evans. Today, St. Elmo is a lost film.

St. Elmo

1923

The King On Main Street poster
7.3

A European Ruler falls in love with an American.

The King On Main Street

1925

The Girl in the Show poster
6.0

In this drama, a traveling troupe of actors find themselves in danger of becoming unemployed when their manager up and leaves. Two of the actors decide to marry and settle down. The lead actor helps set up the rest of the troupe with some performances. He then destroys the new marriage. Later the woman and the head actor fall in love. He then gives her the lead role in his newest show.

The Girl in the Show

1929

Night Life in Hollywood poster
7.0

A picture depicting the engrossing adventures of a small town youth in Hollywood and showing the intimate home life of some of the screen's greatest stars.

Night Life in Hollywood

1922

Pegeen poster
9.0

Pegeen O'Neill must fend for herself when her father Dan becomes mentally unbalanced after his wife Mary's death. Dan spends his days searching for his wife, setting fires in the belief that the flames will illuminate his Mary. The townspeople, enraged at the arson that is slowly destroying their village, track down Dan and trap him in a burning cabin. Pegeen rushes to comfort her dying father, who consoles himself at death with the hallucination that his wife has returned in the figure of his daughter. Pegeen is then rescued from the raging fire by Jimmie, who proposes to the waif as he delivers her from the flames.

Pegeen

1920

Those Who Dance poster
10.0

A federal agent assigned to stop a bootlegging gang joins forces with the gang leader's wife and the sister of one of the ring's truck drivers to break up the gang.

Those Who Dance

1924

The Village Blacksmith poster
5.3

(survived only 10 minutes) As young men, the squire (Marshall) and the village blacksmith (Walling) are in love with the same woman (Boardman), whom the blacksmith marries. This angers the squire. Years later, the squire's son Anson (Yearsley) dares the blacksmith's son Johnnie (Hackathorne) to climb a tree, from which he falls and is crippled. As adults, Anson and the blacksmith's daughter Alice (Valli) fall in love, which angers the blacksmith, who chastises his daughter. The blacksmith's other son Bill (Butler) returns from college and is injured in a train accident. Anson steals $480 from a church fund which is currently in Alice's possession. Alice is struck by lightning. The blacksmith take Anson and the squire to church where they both repent.

The Village Blacksmith

1922

A Son of His Father poster
9.0

'Big Boy' Morgan and his friend, invalid Charlie Grey, must overcome the efforts of the villainous Holdbrook to foreclose on the Los Rosas ranch and make off with the beautiful Nora Shea.

A Son of His Father

1925

Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12 poster
NR

Another entry in the popular one-reel series.

Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12

1922

1910s · 7 titles

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages poster
7.1

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

1916

The Good Bad-Man poster
6.2

An outlaw calling himself Passin' Through halts his "evil" ways long enough to help out some children in difficulty.

The Good Bad-Man

1916

A Sister of Six poster
7.5

A young woman and her five little brothers and sisters are left orphans by the murder of their father over gold found on his ranch. Together the seven offspring fight against their greedy neighbors to keep what is rightfully theirs.

A Sister of Six

1916

Polly Ann poster
NR

Young Polly-Ann works in a small town inn as a maidservant. A troupe of actors comes to town and the innocent girl falls in love with one of its members. Howard Straightlane is sent to the small town by his father, to work as a schoolteacher in hopes of smartening up the young man from his wild ways. Howard soon meets Polly-Ann and saves her from the unscrupulous actor.

Polly Ann

1917

Cupid Forecloses poster
9.0

Geraldine Farleigh, a timid village schoolteacher, supports her family and must pay off her late father's debt to Bruce Cartwright.

Cupid Forecloses

1919

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish poster
5.9

Coke Ennyday, the scientific detective, divides his time into periods of "Sleep", "Eat", "Dope" and "Drinks". In fact, he overcomes every situation with drugs: consuming cocaine to increase his energy or injecting it in his opponents to incapacitate them. To help the police, he tracks down a contraband of opium (which he eagerly tastes) transported within "leaping fishes", saving a "fish-blower" girl from blackmail along the way.

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish

1916

Carolyn of the Corners poster
NR

The story of an orphan girl and her dog.

Carolyn of the Corners

1919

Series credits

ITV Play of the Week poster
4.0

A UK anthology series of single plays from major playwrights old and new. It ran from 1955 to 1974, producing about five hundred ninety-minute episodes from Granada Television. Season 1 also incorporates the Plays from the 'H.M. Tennant Globe Theatre' series, some of which were incorporated and labelled in listings as official Play of the Week episodes and some of which were played in place of Play of the Week episodes in alternative ITV regions. All 8 plays have been incorporated into this entry for convenience.

ITV Play of the Week

1955

No artwork available
8.0

Story Parade specialized in adaptations of modern novels. It was broadcast on June 5, 1964 and repeated on August 28, 1964. The teleplay was by Terry Nation (who invented "Blake's 7" and the Daleks in Dr. Who), and Elijah Baley was played by the late Peter Cushing. It also starred John Carson John Carson as R. Daneel Olivaw and Kenneth J. Warren. The master tapes of the program were erased, however a few clips from the production have turned up in various documentaries about Isaac Asimov's work.

Story Parade

1964

No artwork available
7.5

The global adventures of Ken Franklin, ace operative of the William J. Burns Detective Agency, qualify as a pop-culture curio if only for star Arthur---later Art---Fleming, who hosted the original `Jeopardy!'

International Detective

1959

No artwork available
7.5

The global adventures of Ken Franklin, ace operative of the William J. Burns Detective Agency, qualify as a pop-culture curio if only for star Arthur---later Art---Fleming, who hosted the original `Jeopardy!'

International Detective

1959

Man of the World poster
7.2

Michael Strait is a world-renowned photographer whose assignments lead him into investigating mysterious goings-on amongst the rich and glamorous and intrigue from far-flung places as Iraq, French Indochina, and Algiers.

Man of the World

1962

Hollywood poster
8.4

A 1980 documentary series exploring the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture.

Hollywood

1980

Edward and Mrs Simpson poster
6.8

While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intention to marry her.

Edward and Mrs Simpson

1978

The Sentimental Agent poster
6.5

The Sentimental Agent is a television drama series spin-off from Man of the World. Produced in the United Kingdom in 1963 by Associated Television and distributed by ITC Entertainment, the series ran for 13 one-hour monochrome episodes. Some episodes were edited into a 1962 feature film Our Man in the Caribbean. Argentinian Carlos Varela is a successful import-export agent based in London, whose company takes him into unusual and sometimes dangerous situations. Impeccably dressed, cigar smoking and using wit, ingenuity, and charm, which often involves a damsel in distress, he is typically assisted by Chin, a resourceful Chinese manservant, and Miss Carter, an ultra-efficient secretary.

The Sentimental Agent

1963

The Andromeda Breakthrough poster
6.5

Kidnapped by Intel representative Kaufman, John Fleming—along with Professor Madeleine Dawnay and Andromeda, the artificially constructed female humanoid—are brought to Azaran, a small Middle Eastern country. Upon arrival, the group discover a duplicate of Fleming's machine has been built by Intel. After many dangers, Fleming finds both the reason for the original message having been sent and the means to bring the machine under human control.

The Andromeda Breakthrough

1962

Behind the camera