Helen Gardner

Acting

Helen Gardner

Born 1884-09-02 · Binghamton, New York, USA

Not only was Helen Gardner the first American film actress to form her own production company, she was also the among the first filmmakers to embrace making features, and was the first vamp on screen.

Acting credits

Sandra poster
7.0

BY DAY a beautiful wife-accepting a husband's humble love, his humble home, his humble pleasures. BY NIGHT a glittering butterfly yearning for the wine of life and tossing all to the winds when the glamour of romance calls.

Sandra

1924

No artwork available
7.0

A story of that famous adventurer, Haroun al Rashid, the Caliph of Bagdad.

The Miracle

1912

No artwork available
10.0

Carleton Holt locates at one of the mountain inns. On one of his daily trips he hears a mountain maid singing in the woods. Jumping from his horse, he makes his way to where she is sitting to find her holding a bunch of arbutus in her hands. He is fascinated. It is mutual.

Arbutus

1911

Cleopatra poster
3.4

The fabled queen of Egypt's affair with Roman general Marc Antony is ultimately disastrous for both of them.

Cleopatra

1912

No artwork available
NR

A father tries to keep his son from marrying a poor actress. She eventually becomes a famous and wealthy leading lady, and is reunited with the son.

The Butterfly

1914

No artwork available
7.0

Hunter Ross deserts his wife and child and she is driven to the extremes of poverty, being obliged in sell pencils to keep the spark of life in herself and little one. Fearing the worst, she writes a note, saying, "I am the wife of Hunter Ross, and this is our child," pinning the note on the child's dress in the hope that someone will find and care for the little girl, in case anything should happen to herself.

Regeneration

1911

No artwork available
8.0

Becky, Becky is a 1913 film short.

Becky, Becky

1913

No artwork available
7.0

Mary Collins dies leaving two children; Mildred ('Lucie') and Frank. On her deathbed, she gives Frank a silver watch that belonged to his father. The children are separated from each other and grow up with foster parents. Lucie and Frank meet again when he rescues her from a thief. They fall in love, unaware they are brother and sister. On their wedding day Frank is shot by the vengeful thief. The bullet however is stopped by the silver watch. On seeing the watch, Lucie realizes that they are brother and sister; the marriage is cancelled.

The Old Silver Watch

1912

No artwork available
9.0

Fred Hart, a young businessman, unknown to his wife, draws their savings from the bank with the purpose of buying a home as a birthday surprise for his wife. He finds a real estate agent who has just the kind of a home he is looking for. He has to visit the agent's home during the course of his business transactions, he becomes well acquainted with the agent's family. The real estate man, a camera fiend, suggests to Fred his taking a picture of him and his family. Fred is agreeable and the agent gives him a copy of the picture. Fred puts it in his pocket and returns home to his wife.

Where the Money Went

1912

The Show Girl poster
7.0

Audrey, a charming actress, but classed among the show girls, is invited with some of her stage companions, to have lunch with an old friend, by the name of Dr. Renfrew. The doctor and Audrey, eating together, talk over old times and renew their friendship; she takes his attentions seriously and becomes very much impressed with his pleasant companionship. Night after night the doctor attends the performance in which she appears as the "headliner," and never fails to greet her with generous applause and a bouquet of flowers as marks of admiration. To emphasize his friendship or infatuation he sends her a string of pearls, begging her to accept it as a souvenir of happy days gone by. Through a member of the company in which she is playing, she learns that Dr. Renfrew is married, and at her friend's suggestion redirects his note back to his wife.

The Show Girl

1911

No artwork available
7.0

The employees of Harrison's mine have been out on strike for a long time. The men wait for him until he is leaving his office in the evening. They try to state their case but he entirely ignores them. They attack him. In terror, he flees before them, escaping by entering the home of a poor widow with two children.

A Reformed Santa Claus

1911

The Lure of Vanity poster
10.0

Miss Edna White is very much grieved when she has not a suitable gown to wear at a party. Mrs. Donald, a wealthy customer, calls and asks Edna to try the dress on she has bought for her inspection. It answers her purposes, and Edna is instructed to deliver the dress that night, on her way home.

The Lure of Vanity

1911

No artwork available
10.0

Rose Leigh is a young schoolteacher. She sees a paragraph in the paper, saying that in a certain small village they have had in six months, three teachers (men), and all have left because the boys are so unruly and impossible. She resolves to try the experiment of giving them a woman teacher, and applies for the situation. The trustees of the school, who are at their wits' end, gladly accept the offer.

She Came, She Saw, She Conquered

1911

No artwork available
8.0

Unless Marion Norman's intended husband can support her in the same style in which her father has, Mr. Norman will not agree to her marriage with Billy Wallace, and threatens to disinherit her if she disobeys him.

Ups and Downs

1911

No artwork available
NR

The influence of Musa, a wildly beautiful dumb girl, upon every citizen of Gallows Gulch, a rough western mining town, is almost uncanny. They fear, yet hate her, and claim she has "the evil eye."

The Still, Small Voice

1915

No artwork available
NR

Madeline Jekyll meets Baron Stana, a distinguished looking man, and finds her father has promised her in marriage to Daggerts, a politician, who, in reward, has agreed to see that Jekyll is elected governor. Madeline is already in love with Robert Mayhew, and rebels at the prearranged marriage.

Miss Jekyll and Madame Hyde

1915

No artwork available
7.0

Out of desperation, poor Joe, who lives with his sick mother, steals money from the church’s collection. His mother finds out, and wants him to bring the money back.

An Innocent Theft

1912

No artwork available
9.0

A mountaineer, who has been shot by a pursuing sheriff, is concealed by a mountain girl in her cabin. When the sheriff arrives, she gives him whiskey, while secretly removing the bullets from his gun.

The Girl and the Sheriff

1911

No artwork available
8.0

Far up in the mountains Mrs. Bailor's two sons, Tom and Harry, are engaged at their distilling, constantly in fear of being pursued by the revenue officers, and arrested as moonshiners.

Her Boy

1912

A Princess of Bagdad poster
NR

A caliph imprisons the cobbler's son his daughter has fallen in love with, but the cobbler's discovery of a treasure cave may be the key to freeing his son.

A Princess of Bagdad

1913

No artwork available
10.0

John and Edwin Martin, two brothers, occupy, each with his own family, a double house; they are all very much united. Each one of the brothers has a child. John has a little boy, named Frank, and Edwin, a little daughter named Tillie. The two children are playmates and the wives are the closest of friends. Everything is harmonious, when like a flash of lightning from a clear sky, a quarrel, through some trifling difference of opinion, arises between the two wives, which leads to the severance of the happy relations of the two families, excepting the two children, who fortunately cannot grasp the meaning of it all and consequently remain in blissful ignorance of its purpose and are happy only when in each other's company.

Barriers Burned Away

1911

The Sleep of Cyma Roget poster
10.0

Cyma Roget, a beautiful young woman, has fallen under the influence of the evil Hindu scientist Chandra Dak, who can cast her at will into a hypnotic state resembling death. Chandra Dak's power over Cyma wanes as his love for her grows, however, and one night she escapes and takes refuge in the atelier of three young and struggling Bohemian artists. During her stay at the atelier, she becomes an artist's model and forms an attachment to one of the artists, Paul Bridere, but soon Chandra Dak falls out of love with Cyma and sends her into a hypnotic coma.

The Sleep of Cyma Roget

1920

No artwork available
1.0

A woman attempts to attract a man by using a thousand-year-old love potion.

The Breath of Araby

1915

No artwork available
8.0

The black sheep of the family is protected by his sister.

For Her Brother's Sake

1911

Behind the camera