
Acting
Claire McDowell
Born — Died
1877-10-31 — 1966-10-23
Place of birth
New York City, New York, USA
Known for
Acting
Credits
61 titles
Claire McDowell (2 November 1877 – 23 October 1966) was an American actress. She appeared in 360 films between 1908 and 1945. Still somewhat of a youthful beauty when she started in early silent films, McDowell appeared in numerous films, eventually graduating to playing character and mother types. She can be seen to good advantage in Douglas Fairbanks's 1920 The Mark of Zorro. McDowell appeared in two of the biggest films of the silent era, The Big Parade (1925) and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), both in which she played mothers. She was married to silent screen character actor Charles Hill Mailes from 1906 to his 1937 death. The couple appeared in numerous silent films together, i…
Known for
7.5The original concept of the show was to allow the viewer to see the inner workings of a movie studio and featured interviews with MGM stars and explanations of how movies were made. Later, the format changed to show edited versions of MGM films.
MGM Parade
1955
7.8A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leaves them behind.
It Happened One Night
1934
6.1Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.
Test Pilot
1938
5.9Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Tom's only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.
Young Tom Edison
1940
7.2A love story centered on the lives of three young German soldiers in the years following World War I. Their close friendship is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman who is dying of tuberculosis.
Three Comrades
1938
7.3Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1925
Film credits
1940s · 13 titles
5.9Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Tom's only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.
Young Tom Edison
1940
6.6Famed reporter Stephen O'Malley travels to a small town to investigate the death of a national hero.
Keeper of the Flame
1943
6.9During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda, a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal "Hangman of Europe", Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and is wounded in the process. In his attempt to escape, he is helped by history professor Stephen Novotny and his daughter Mascha.
Hangmen Also Die!
1943
6.4Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant.
Presenting Lily Mars
1943
6.4A rough and tumble man of the sea falls for a meek librarian.
Adventure
1945
7.1Somewhere in Europe, in a city occupied by the Nazis, a gentle school teacher finds himself torn between collaboration and resistance, cowardice and courage.
This Land Is Mine
1943
6.5Hat check man Louis Blore is in love with nightclub star May Daly. May, however, is in love with a poor dancer but wants to marry for money. When Louis wins the Irish Sweepstakes, he asks May to marry him and she accepts even though she doesn't love him. Soon after, Louis has an accident and gets knocked on the head, where he dreams that he's King Louis XV pursuing the infamous Madame Du Barry.
Du Barry Was a Lady
1943
5.4A Chicago gang led by Slade carries out an audacious brokerage robbery. Lieutenant Bill Mason takes the case, continuing his friendly-enemy relationship with crime reporter Ann Rogers. One gang member is caught; eventually, others follow. But Mason hasn't a clue to Slade, principally because he's unaware she's a woman.
Lady Scarface
1941
6.8A young doctor gives up big-city success to help his father set up a small-town clinic.
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
1940
5.9A mild-mannered insurance salesman gets mixed up with gangsters.
The Golden Fleecing
1940
6.5A famous singer reflects on her life, including her journey from being an orphan to her fame as a singer, as she tries to decide which of her three suitors she will choose.
Men on Her Mind
1944
6.2Andy is going to Wainwright College as did his father. He sees a pretty blonde on the train and he is alternately winked at or slapped every time he sees her. Andy is clueless. On the train Andy meets Kay and Dr. Standish who are both headed for Wainwright. Andy likes Kay, but Dr. Standish also seems to take an interest in her. Things are going well at College with Kay, but the blonde is nice one minute and ignores Andy the next. When Andy finds out that the blonde is really identical twins, he tries to help them out with their father but gets caught at their rooming house after midnight.
Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble
1944
5.5The story of Abraham Lincoln's 30-year struggle of persistence-through-failure is told to an unemployed 50 year old man.
A Failure at Fifty
1940
1930s · 30 titles
7.8A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leaves them behind.
It Happened One Night
1934
6.1Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.
Test Pilot
1938
7.2A love story centered on the lives of three young German soldiers in the years following World War I. Their close friendship is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman who is dying of tuberculosis.
Three Comrades
1938
7.0A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
Imitation of Life
1934
6.1A fast-talking reporter befriends a young woman and her male companion who are wanted for a policeman's shooting.
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
1932
6.8Devout but iron-willed Father Flanagan leads a community called Boys Town, a different sort of juvenile detention facility where, instead of being treated as underage criminals, the boys are shepherded into making themselves better people. But hard-nosed petty thief and pool shark Whitey Marsh, the impulsive and violent younger brother of an imprisoned murderer, might be too much for the good father's tough-love system.
Boys Town
1938
5.0Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.
Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President
1939
6.6Convicted of manslaughter for a drunken driving accident, Kent Marlowe is sent to prison, where he meets vicious incarcerated figures who are planning an escape from the brutal conditions.
The Big House
1930
6.1A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.
Idiot's Delight
1939
6.8At the height of the Great Depression, Tommy's mother has been out of work for months when Eddie's father loses his job. Eager not to burden their parents, the two high school sophomores decide to hop the freight trains and look for work.
Wild Boys of the Road
1933
6.3This MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short shows the role the crime laboratory plays in the solving of cases, and how even the smallest detail can become a major clue.
They're Always Caught
1938
6.0A southern aristocrat clashes with a driver transporting stolen slaves to freedom.
Stand Up and Fight
1939
5.9A Night at the Movies is a short film starring Robert Benchley. It was Benchley's greatest success since How to Sleep, and won him a contract for more short films that would be produced in New York. In this comedic short, a man and his wife suffer through a night at the movies. The film was nominated for an Academy Award at the 10th Academy Awards, held in 1937, for Best Short Subject (One-Reel).
A Night at the Movies
1937
6.6A foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed. Two types of New York City journalists descend on Cornwall, one interested in facts, the other in getting sensational "news". Mrs. Ferguson is known to have been friendly with a local banker. The Fergusons quarrel the evening he is killed (by "burglars", his wife tells the police later), and she is arrested, spurred on by the "bad" journalists, who also manage to badger the banker's wife into the hospital. Meanwhile, young Bruce Foster runs the Cornwall Courier, and shows the big city reporters how to dig out real news while they attempt to subvert justice for their own ends.
The Famous Ferguson Case
1932
6.5A successful shoe manufacturer named John Reeves goes on vacation and meets the grown children of his recently deceased and much-respected competitor; they're on the verge of losing the family legacy through their careless behavior. Reeves takes it upon himself to save his rival's company by teaching the heirs a lesson in business.
The Working Man
1933
5.8In the days leading up to the Russian Revolution, Stephen Locke, a minor British diplomat in St Petersburg, falls in love with a Russian spy.
British Agent
1934
6.0Aviator Jim Blaine and his brother Neil are rivals not only as daredevil flyers, but also for the love of parachutist Jill Collins.
Central Airport
1933
5.9A woman murders her husband's mistress and someone else gets accused of the crime.
Journal of a Crime
1934
5.7In Russia in the early 1900s, Fedya, a handsome, self-indulgent womanizer, falls in love with and marries Lisa, his friend Victor's fiancée. Fedya quickly tires of domestic life and resumes his profligate ways, drinking and gambling away his family's fortune. Lisa refuses to leave him despite his deplorable ways, so he takes drastic measures to ensure that she will no longer be harmed by his actions and reputation.
Redemption
1930
5.0A prominent New York doctor, unable to have a child, discovers her philandering husband has impregnated her best friend.
Dr. Monica
1934
6.3A social climber charms a debutante, seduces a factory worker and commits murder.
An American Tragedy
1931
7.7This MGM Passing Parade series short tells the story of Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross.
Angel of Mercy
1939
7.0A lawyer handing a divorce case discovers the attorney for the opposition is his ex-wife.
Two Heads on a Pillow
1934
5.6Henry Wilton is an elderly millionaire saddled with his selfish young second wife Emmy 'Sweetie' Wilton and a pair of spoiled grown children, Peggy and Eddie. To test his family's mettle, Henry pretends to have gone broke. Just as he suspected they would, his children rally to their father's side and change their ways: Peggy forsakes the fortune hunter George Struthers for the nice young man she's really in love with, the polo coach Larry Rivers, while Eddie applies for a demanding job and performs admirably. Only Sweetie seems to desert Henry.
A Successful Calamity
1932
3.8This is a remake of Columbia's 1932 "Cornered" that starred Tim McCoy. Bob Pearson saves the life of his friend, Sheriff Dick Houston, who has captured two stagecoach bandits and is about to be shot from ambush by a third. Bob is found a few days later near the murdered body of cattleman Herrick with a gun in his hand.
Two-Fisted Sheriff
1937
6.0Kay is a girl living in a small rural town whose life is just too dull and repetitious to bear. One night, she meets young, handsome, and rich Bob Dakin, who asks her for directions while drunk and then proceeds to take her out on a night on the town. Kay likes the stranger, and when the drunken Bob decides that they should get married, Kay hesitates little before consenting. The morning after the affair, Bob, once sober, regrets his mistake. His strict and upright parents, however, insist that the young couple pretend marriage for 6 months before divorcing, in order to avoid bad publicity. Bob resents Kay for standing in the way of him and his fiancée, Priscilla, but Kay still hopes that he'd have a change of heart.
Small Town Girl
1936
7.5Shortly after Moody Pierson saves Sheriff Tim's life, Moody is arrested for murder. Tim doesn't believe he did it and lets him get away. Kicked out as Sheriff, Tim goes after the real kiler and this leads him to the town controlled by Red Slavins.
Cornered
1932
7.0The son of a wealthy politician falls in with a notorious gangster planning to rob a night club.
Wild Company
1930
8.0In this mystery, a man and woman have been corresponding through a "personal" column under the names Lord Strawberries and Lady Grapefruit. When the man's neighbor is found dead upstairs, he and the lady are the prime suspects of a police inspector, who has his own very good reason for blaming them.
The Second Floor Mystery
1930
5.7Having raised four children alone, widow Mary Williams still manages to love her eldest son, vicious and sadistic Danny Williams, who has led a life of crime and now returns to inflict his insane behavior on the family household.
Mothers Cry
1930
1920s · 10 titles
7.3Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1925
7.6The story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.
The Big Parade
1925
7.2Don Diego Vega pretends to be an indolent fop as a cover for his true identity, the masked avenger Zorro. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
The Mark of Zorro
1920
6.8Wealthy cripple Markley finances the education of blacksmith's daughter Ruth. When she returns to their small town he asks to marry her, but she runs off with city worker Jim Dirk who is then killed in a subway accident. Markley offers to marry her in name only to protect her new son.
Something to Think About
1920
7.0Maurie Monnier, a poor young American sculptor in Paris, marries Clarice, a gold-digging model who later abandons him. When Maurie's wealthy father dies, Maurie returns to the U.S., but his mother and brother will have nothing to do with him because of his poverty. At the end of his rope, he's about to kill himself when he meets Hope, a beautiful young girl who inspires him. Just when things are looking up for Maurie and his new love Hope, who should show up but his gold-digging wife Clarice.
Blind Youth
1920
10.0Young rapscallion Penrod Schofield causes a good deal of trouble in his community, all in the name of protecting kids from too-strict parents and nasty neighbors. He heads the ABPA (American Boys' Protective Association) and through it disrupts a number of local social events. The townspeople are pretty fed up with Penrod and his gang, but when a couple of outlaws come to town, Penrod shows his mettle.
Penrod
1922
6.5A dying mother left his child with an old man, but the village people want to take the child away from him because he is too old.
The Jack-Knife Man
1920
10.0Alick Wylie agrees to give railroad porter John Shand $300 to help him secure his education and political ambitions on condition that his daughter Maggie has the option of marrying him within five years. Though not in love they marry, and John becomes successful, thanks to Maggie’s input on his speeches, in time being elected to Parliament. Eventually John strays with Lady Sybil and Maggie diplomatically arranges for them to be together. However his next speech without her assistance is a failure and Sybil leaves him out of boredom, it’s then he sees Maggie’s true worth.
What Every Woman Knows
1921
6.0Diamond thieves have infiltrated the staff of O'Day Jewelry. The Los Angeles Police Dept. employs their newest weapon, an airplane, to help smash the diamond theft ring.
The Shield of Honor
1927
9.0North-West Mounted Police Sgt. David Carrigan takes a breather from fighting as he brings a convict to trial and woos the lovely Jeanne-Marie.
The Flaming Forest
1926
1910s · 7 titles
4.7In the Kingdom of Never-Never Land there live a great Lord and Lady, each presiding over their own domain. This great Lord goes for a stroll through his estate and coming to the border of his own land he is struck by the entrancing beauty of the contiguous estate, so like his own, that the inclination to intrude is irresistible. His peregrination is halted by the appearance of the great Lady, who is indeed as fair as the flowers that clothe her land. He introduces himself and invites her to stroll with him in his gardens. She is in like manner entranced by the beauty of his possessions. How alike in beauty are they; a veritable fairyland. If they were only one, for it seems they should be. This thought is mutual, and the Lord proposes a way, a marriage, and so a betrothal of convenience ensues. They know nothing of love and so are content in the anticipation of being Lord and Lady of all Never-Never Land.
Love Among the Roses
1910
NRPatricia Reynolds, the belle of the summer resort she is visiting with her friend, Amy Powellson, attracts the attention of Arthur Kirby, whom Amy loves. On an evening drive, Arthur tries to kiss Patricia , whereupon she leaps from the car and walks home. While Amy, disguised in Patricia 's clothing, accompanies Arthur to a roadhouse, Patricia , walking near the beach, sees her invalid friend, Jim Wheeler, jump into the ocean intending to kill himself. After rescuing him, Patricia persuades Jim to visit a specialist, but when she later is accused of spending the night with Arthur, she refuses to defend herself in order to conceal Jim's attempted suicide.
You Can't Believe Everything
1918
The old inventors daughter is a mission worker. She makes a convert of a young crook and eventually becomes engaged to marry him. But her father does not approve of him, and shows him the door when he learns from a detective the record of his daughter's suitor. The inventor's plans are stolen by an unscrupulous manufacturer, and the crook volunteers to recover them.
Her Convert
1915
4.8Nora, the waif, is forced to attend school. She warms to her teacher for the way that he defends her against the taunts of some of the students, but when she's made to wear a dunce cap, she flees the schoolhouse in shame. Unsupervised by her alcoholic father, Nora becomes a determined truant, wandering the town during school hours. There she catches the attention of a huckster, who convinces her that they will run away and be married. The schoolmaster, meanwhile, preoccupied by Nora's absence, leaves his other students to go find her. He encounters her at a crossroads, being spirited away by the huckster, and calls the man's bluff by saying that he'll find them a minister.
The School Teacher and the Waif
1912
NRMary, the three-year-old daughter of John Denby, a railroad president, is kidnapped, and all trace of her is lost. Fourteen years elapse. There has been a terrible wreck on Denby's road and Graham, the engineer, is made the scapegoat. In spite of the fact that he merely obeyed orders, he is sent of to prison. Mary is returned to Denby, the kidnapper explaining that he stole her when his own little daughter was killed, but that now he feels he must return her to her parents.
The Return of Mary
1918
5.6To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a stylish hat, and gossip spreads through the town.
The New York Hat
1912
5.9It's love at first sight for the Boy, but obstacles— namely shyness, and the temerity of other suitors— place themselves in the way of his love. Unknowingly, the Boy and the young woman of his fancy both stay at the home of mutual friends— But all is not well, as robbers lurk outside the house.
So Near, Yet So Far
1912
