Martha Sleeper

Acting

Martha Sleeper

Born 1910-06-24 · Lake Bluff, Illinois, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Martha Sleeper (June 24, 1910 – March 25, 1983) was a film actress of the 1920s–1930s and, later, a Broadway stage actress. She studied dancing for five years with Russian ballet master, Louis H. Chalif, at his New York dancing studio. Her first public exhibitions were at Carnegie Hall at his class exhibitions. Sleeper's film career began in 1923 and continued until 1945. Her first screen appearance, at the age of 13, was in The Mailman (1923), an independent production. After appearing in several kiddie comedies at the Christie studio she was signed by the Hal Roach studio for the Our Gang" series but she quickly outgrew that role. From 1925-27 she appeared in comedies playing opposite the studio's most popular male stars. She left the Roach studio in late 1927 and moved to the FBO studio where she starred in six silent features during 1928–29. With the coming of sound she was signed by MGM and placed in their training program. From 1930 to 1936 she played supporting roles in many melodramas her role typically that of a well-bred somewhat snobbish society woman who ends up losing her man to the film's leading lady. Frustrated by the types of roles she was being offered, Martha began playing onstage in and about Los Angeles, at one point drawing raves as Eliza Doolittle in a performance of Pygmalion in 1932. After appearing in some low budget melodramas for the poverty row Monogram studio Martha and her husband, actor Hardie Albright, left Hollywood for New York in 1936 where Martha began a long run in both on- and off-Broadway plays. In 1945, as a favor to director Leo McCarey, Martha played the role of Patsy's mother in The Bells of St. Mary's. It was her last screen role.

Acting credits

Midnight Mary poster
6.8

While on trial for her life, a young woman recalls her tough upbringing and her involvement with the men who brought her to this current state of affairs.

Midnight Mary

1933

Rasputin and the Empress poster
5.5

The story of corrupt, power-hungry, manipulative Grigori Rasputin's influence on members of the Russian Imperial family and others, and what resulted.

Rasputin and the Empress

1932

Penthouse poster
6.9

Gertie Waxted knows how notorious gangster Jim Crelliman runs his rackets, because she's long been under the hoodlum's thumb. She's secretly helping lawyer Jackson Durant in a snoop job aimed at pinning a murder on the thug. Her life will be in peril when that secret gets out.

Penthouse

1933

Madam Satan poster
5.9

A socialite masquerades as a notorious femme fatale to win back her straying husband during a costume party aboard a doomed dirigible.

Madam Satan

1930

The Bells of St. Mary's poster
6.8

Father O'Malley is sent to St. Mary's, a run-down parochial school on the verge of condemnation. He and Sister Benedict work together in an attempt to save the school, though their differing methods often lead to good-natured disagreements.

The Bells of St. Mary's

1945

Sweet Daddy poster
9.0

Jimmy Jump's boss asks him to meet his small niece and her dog and entertain them between trains. Jimmy buys a balloon or two and looks over the station for a little girl. He takes one by mistake, narrowly escapes being arrested as a kidnapper and finally meets the niece, who is an over-dressed, ultra-modern young woman. The time between trains is spent in trying to hide the dog from the policeman, and when Jimmy puts his charge on the train, he feels that he has done a week's work in a day.

Sweet Daddy

1924

The Mailman poster
9.0

Veteran postman Bob Morley and his son Johnnie are honored for their service to the U. S. Mail Service. When Johnnie takes a position on the Enterprise, he is falsely convicted of theft and murder when the cargo is stolen and the ship's officer is shot.

The Mailman

1923

Hollywood Party poster
5.6

Jimmy Durante is jungle movie star Schnarzan the Conqueror, but the public is tiring of his fake lions. When Baron Munchausen comes to town with real man-eating lions, Durante throws him a big Hollywood star-studded party so that he might use the lions in his next movie. But, his film rival sneaks into the party to buy the lions before Durante.

Hollywood Party

1934

Outdoor Pajamas poster
6.0

This funny Hal Roach comedy has Jimmy Jump (Charley Chase) waking up late for his wedding so in the mad rush he ends up leaving his house only dressed in his pajamas. As he makes his way to the church he finds one disaster after another.

Outdoor Pajamas

1924

Ten Cents a Dance poster
6.7

A taxi dancer with a jealous husband finds herself falling for a wealthy client.

Ten Cents a Dance

1931

Sure-Mike! poster
7.0

Vermuda, a saleswoman in a department store, is very late for work. She relies on a ruse to fool the floorwalker, and when that doesn't work, she relies on her friendship with the store manager. But she is soon disillusioned as to where she really stands with the manager.

Sure-Mike!

1925

Fluttering Hearts poster
5.6

Defying her father's wishes, a young woman runs off to a sale at store. She's pursued by a policeman, but wins him over with the help of a friendly millionaire. In the mean time, her father tries to retrieve a compromising letter.

Fluttering Hearts

1927

All Wet poster
5.8

Charley Chase has car trouble.

All Wet

1924

Huddle poster
7.0

Tony, the son of Italian immigrants, works in a smoky steel mill in Gary, Indiana. He wins a company scholarship which will enable him to attend Yale college. Over the four years of his college career he learns about football, love, and class prejudice.

Huddle

1932

The Air Legion poster
9.0

The Air Legion is a 1929 American aviation silent film about airmail directed by Bert Glennon.

The Air Legion

1929

There Goes the Bride poster
10.0

What bridegroom could be romantic with a swollen jaw and a yelling tooth? His young bride thinks that's no excuse!

There Goes the Bride

1925

Long Fliv the King poster
6.3

This offbeat comedy from future Hollywood screwball director McCarey is about a princess who must find a husband in 24 hours or forfeit her throne. She quickly marries a condemned man--but the man is pardoned.

Long Fliv the King

1926

Bombshell poster
6.5

A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.

Bombshell

1933

Our Blushing Brides poster
5.6

Gerry, Connie, and Franky are small-town girls seeking wealthy husbands in New York City. But, while Connie and Franky are reckless with their affections — one bedding a married man and the other marrying a scoundrel — Gerry is determined to remain practical. As she mothers her wounded, heartbroken friends, she stalwartly but foolishly resists the advances of the good-hearted and affluent Tony Jardine.

Our Blushing Brides

1930

Danger Street poster
9.0

Rolly Sigsby, a society clubman bitterly weary of life, wanders into the middle of a gunfight between the organized gangs on the lower East side in the hope that he will be killed by a stray bullet.

Danger Street

1928

Spitfire poster
5.3

Dirt-poor mountain girl Trigger Hicks is a loner. Her faith-healing is mistaken for witchcraft by the community. She falls for an engineer building a dam, who protects her.

Spitfire

1934

The Scoundrel poster
6.3

A ruthless, cynical, hated publisher is killed in a plane crash, doomed to be a "restless" spirit for being unloved. A heavenly power gives him a month on Earth to find one person to shed a tear for him before his fate is sealed.

The Scoundrel

1935

Rhythm on the Range poster
5.5

Cowboy Jeff Larabee returns from the east and meets Doris Halloway, a young girl, that he regards as a vagabond, till he learns that she's the owner of the farm where he works. He tries to win her heart, but without success, until she is endangered by gangsters

Rhythm on the Range

1936

War Nurse poster
5.2

Women from various backgrounds volunteer as nurses in France at the outbreak of World War I.

War Nurse

1930