Seena Owen

Acting

Seena Owen

Born 1894-11-13 · Spokane, Washington, USA

From Wikipedia Seena Owen (November 14, 1894 – August 15, 1966) was a Danish-American silent film actress. Born Signe Auen at Spokane, Washington, the youngest of three children raised by Jens Christensen and Karen (née Sorensen) Auen. Her father and mother came from Denmark in the late 1880s and settled in Minnesota where they married in 1888. Within a short period of time they relocated to Portland and then Spokane, where her father became proprietor of the Columbia Pharmacy. Her first important film was A Yankee From the West (1915) under the name Signe Auen at the age of 21. She was later convinced to change her name and settled on Seena Owen, the phonetic spelling of her real name. In 1916 she performed in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance. The same year she married George Walsh whom she had met on the set of Intolerance. The marriage lasted until their divorce in 1924. A regular player for the rest of the silent era, Owen appeared in films such as Maurice Tourneur's Victory in 1919 where she was photographed to great effect by Tourneur's cameraman, Rene Guissart. In 1920, she appeared in "The Gift Supreme" with Lon Chaney, who appeared with her in Victory. She co-starred with Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron in the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928), as the mad Queen who whips Swanson in one scene. With the arrival of sound in movies, Owen's weak voice became a problem and forced her to retire from the silver screen in 1933. After her retirement, she worked on a number of films in the 1930s/40s as a screenwriter including two starring Dorothy Lamour: Aloma of the South Seas and Rainbow Island, both in 1941. The former was written in part with her sister, Lillie Hayward, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Seena Owen died on August 15, 1966 at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, aged 71, and was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Acting credits

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

Sisters poster
NR

Cherry, the youngest daughter of Dr. Strickland, marries Martin Lloyd; and Peter, a neighbor who was in love with her, unhappily begins a world tour. Returning home, Peter finds that the doctor has died, leaving the older daughter, Alix, alone; and he marries her out of desperation. Cherry, unhappy with her marriage, leaves her husband and comes to live with her sister and Peter; learning that Peter still loves her, Cherry agrees to run away with him, but they are discovered by his wife and upbraided. Martin is injured in a logging camp accident, and Cherry, realizing that she still loves her husband, goes to him. Peter resolves to free Alix, but she forgives him and they agree to start anew.

Sisters

1922

Victory poster
6.2

Adaptation of Joseph Conrad novel about lust and violence on a South Seas Island.

Victory

1919

Martha's Vindication poster
NR

A 1916 film directed by Chester M. Franklin.

Martha's Vindication

1916

Queen Kelly poster
6.5

A convent girl is abducted and seduced by a prince before being sent off to a brothel in East Africa.

Queen Kelly

1929

The Fall of Babylon poster
6.2

After the relatively low box office takings of 'Intolerance', D. W. Griffith would revisit his epic film three years later by releasing two of the film's interlocking stories as standalone features, with some new additional footage. The first of the two was 'The Fall of Babylon', which depicts the conflict between Prince Belshazzar of Babylon and Cyrus the Great of Persia.

The Fall of Babylon

1919

Lavender and Old Lace poster
8.0

Mary Ainslie has been waiting 30 years for her fiancé, a sea captain, to return. She has kept a light burning in her window to guide him home. His son Carl, by another woman, arrives on vacation in the New England village where Mary lives. Mary is overcome by the resemblance between the young man and his father. The young man falls in love with Ruth, Mary's young comrade. On her deathbed, Mary wishes Carl and Ruth the romantic life that she did not live.

Lavender and Old Lace

1921

The Blue Danube poster
10.0

Marguerite, the beauty of an Austrian village, loves the poverty-stricken Baron Erich von Statzen, although her mother is opposed to the affair, having been made suspicious by the hunchback Ludwig, who is smitten by Marguerite's charms and insanely jealous of Statzen. Statzen's uncle would have him marry Helena Boursch, the local brewer's daughter, to save his dwindling estate. Ordered to the front when war is declared, Statzen is forced to leave without saying goodby to Marguerite.

The Blue Danube

1928

Riders of Vengeance poster
6.5

Harry's bride is murdered at their wedding along with Harry's mother and father, and the good-hearted outlaw turns grimly malevolent.

Riders of Vengeance

1919

No artwork available
7.0

A jealous politician tries to force a woman to marry him by framing her father for a crime.

I Am the Man

1924

The Price of Redemption poster
7.0

Returning to England a hero after saving a British garrison in India, Leigh Dering marries Jean Desmond, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Humiliated by the patronage of his wealthy father-in-law, Leigh turns to drink, estranging him from Jean. Returning home one night he finds the body of his wife's father. When Jean accuses her husband of the crime, Leigh disappears, making it seem as if he has been killed in a railway accident.

The Price of Redemption

1920

A Fugitive from Matrimony poster
9.0

The Riggs family, newly wealthy from Oklahoma oil, move to an estate in Ossining, New York, adjoining that of eligible bachelor Stephen Van Courtlandt, who wants to avoid marriage. Mrs. Riggs, anxious to break into society, wants her daughter Barbara to marry Stephen.

A Fugitive from Matrimony

1919

Sinners in Love poster
5.0

Ann Hardy heads to the big city where she falls in love with Ted Wells, but she is heartbroken to learn he is just using her.

Sinners in Love

1928

The Gift Supreme poster
7.0

Bradford Vinton falls in love with a girl singer from the slums, but his father makes plans to break the relationship; when the plans fail, he disinherits his son.

The Gift Supreme

1920

For Woman's Favor poster
7.0

A modern love story is the framework for a costume love story, based on Boccaccio's "The Falcon."

For Woman's Favor

1924

The Flame of the Yukon poster
10.0

George Fowler, a young man from the states, arrives at the Mias saloon, and the proprietor, "Blak Jack" Hovey, orders a saloon girl, known only as "The Flame," to fleece him. When she learns he doesn't have any money she gets him a job at a café. News of a gold strike in the Ophir area comes, and George sets out, with a dog team supplied by Flame. Meanwhile a woman comes to town, says she is Mrs. Fowler and is looking for her husband.

The Flame of the Yukon

1926

The Marriage Playground poster
6.0

A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their intermarriages and blend thoroughly, and you have a mixture a too-young-to-believe Frederic March will try to straighten out.

The Marriage Playground

1929

The Life Line poster
7.0

Jack Hearne, known as the Romany Rye, prefers living with the gypsies rather than claiming the right to his part of his half brother Phillip Royston's country estate, Cragsnest. When he saves Ruth Heckett, the daughter of his friend Joe, a London bird shop owner and burglar, from a theater fire, however, he changes his mind and marries her. As Ruth and Jack board a steamer for America to find witnesses to his parents' wedding for proof of his inheritance, Joe's partner Bos gives Ruth a Bible that he stole from Cragsnest, as a present.

The Life Line

1919

Officer Thirteen poster
6.6

A motorcycle policeman's partner is deliberately run off the road and killed by a member of a syndicate that controls the gambling--and much of the justice system--in his town. When the killer is freed because of perjured testimony and the corrupt legal system, the dead officer's partner quits the force and vows to bring the killer to justice.

Officer Thirteen

1932

His Last Haul poster
8.0

1928 American silent crime drama film directed by Marshall Neilan.

His Last Haul

1928

A Man And His Money poster
10.0

Inheriting a fortune allows Harry Lathrop to indulge in extravagant spending and wild wine parties with chorus girls, decides to change his ways after his childhood sweetheart, Betty Dalrymple, gives back her engagement ring because he arrives drunk for dinner.

A Man And His Money

1919

Man-Made Women poster
9.0

The man who loved her showed her how to hold the man she loved. A novel picture story packed with drama, thrills and laughs.

Man-Made Women

1928

No artwork available
NR

Abigail, the pretty daughter of a village school teacher, and Jared Guild are lovers. Bertha comes from the city to visit in the little town. Her charms prove too strong for Jared, who neglects Abigail to dance attendance upon the new belle. The country girl is broken-hearted, though she hides her sorrow from her erstwhile sweetheart. A wealthy young planter, however, soon cuts out Jared with Bertha.

An Old-Fashioned Girl

1915

The City of Comrades poster
9.0

A young man becomes a burglar due to hunger, but after gathering up his booty feeds himself from the victims' larders, and thus, no longer hungry, feels compelled to return the loot. In one case, he is discovered in the act by a young lady who finds in him a suitable case for reclamation.

The City of Comrades

1919

Behind the camera