Enid Bennett

Acting

Enid Bennett

Born 1893-07-14 · York, Western Australia, Australia

From Wikipedia Born in York, Western Australia, Enid Bennett started her film acting career in 1916, first starring in Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, with two other films that same year. She married American director Sidney Franklin early in her career, but they were divorced shortly thereafter. In 1917, she starred in five films, the most important of which was The Little Brother opposite William Garwood. That film brought her to the attention of studios and led to an increasing number of acting roles. From 1918 to 1921, she starred in twenty-three films, becoming well known and recognizable as an actress. In 1918 she married director Fred Niblo, who later directed the second film version of Ben Hur. In 1922, she starred in only three films, but one of those became her most famous role, the female lead of "Maid Marian" in Robin Hood with Douglas Fairbanks. From 1923 to 1928, she starred in only ten films, as her career had slowed to a crawl. She was a mother by that time, as she and Niblo eventually had three children together. In 1929, her brother Alexander Bennett married actress Frances Lee. The wedding was attended by some of Hollywood's biggest names, including Gloria Swanson and Greta Garbo. That year Bennett starred in only one film, Good Medicine, opposite Edward Everett Horton. Bennett's sisters Marjorie (1896-1982) and Catherine (1901–1978) were also Hollywood film actresses. She made a semi-successful transition to sound films, but saw fewer roles come her way. From 1931 to 1941 she had roles in only seven films, the last of which was uncredited. She retired after 1941, eventually residing with her family in Malibu, California, where she died in 1969 from a heart attack, aged 75.

Acting credits

Skippy poster
6.1

Skippy, the mischievous son of a wealthy doctor, meets Sooky in poverty-ridden Shantytown, and together they try to save Sooky's pet from a cruel dogcatcher.

Skippy

1931

Robin Hood poster
6.4

Amid big-budget medieval pageantry, King Richard goes on the Crusades leaving his brother Prince John as regent, who promptly emerges as a cruel, grasping, treacherous tyrant. Apprised of England's peril by message from his lady-love Marian, the dashing Earl of Huntingdon endangers his life and honor by returning to oppose John, but finds himself and his friends outlawed, with Marian apparently dead. Enter Robin Hood, acrobatic champion of the oppressed, laboring to set things right through swashbuckling feats and cliffhanging perils!

Robin Hood

1922

The Big Store poster
6.3

A detective is hired to protect the life of a singer, who has recently inherited a department store, from the store's crooked manager.

The Big Store

1941

Silk Hosiery poster
5.0

In a prologue, as a woman pages through a book, male figures, including a musketeer, a cowboy, a swordsman and a military officer, appear and bow. In the main story, the visit of Prince Ferdinandi sends New York society ladies scurrying to purchase gowns for the upcoming ball. The woman seen earlier looking longingly at the book, model Marjorie Bowen, fights off the advances of Cadwallader Smith, who accompanies a patron. When handsome Sir Derwain Leeds, the prince's aide-de-camp, arrives to see his fiancée Yvette Fernau outfitted, Marjorie exchanges a shy smile with him.

Silk Hosiery

1920

Waterloo Bridge poster
6.9

In World War I London, Myra is an American out-of-work chorus girl making ends meet by picking up men on Waterloo Bridge. During a Zeppelin air raid she meets Roy, a naive young American who enlisted in the Canadian army. After they fall for each other, Roy tricks Myra into visiting his family, who live in a country estate outside London, his mother having remarried to a retired British Major. Myra is reluctant to continue the relationship with Roy, he not aware of her past.

Waterloo Bridge

1931

Intermezzo: A Love Story poster
6.7

A concert violinist becomes charmed with his daughter's talented piano teacher. When he invites her to go on tour with him, they make beautiful music away from the concert hall as well. He soon leaves his wife so the two can go off together.

Intermezzo: A Love Story

1939

Happiness poster
5.0

Doris Wingate is featured in a Sunday magazine supplement as the most snobbish girl in America. In reality, Doris is lovable and eager for friends, and it is her Aunt Priscilla who deliberately cultivates the false impression. Realizing this, her uncle ships Doris off to a co-educational college, but unfortunately, her reputation preceded her and she is snubbed by the other students.

Happiness

1917

Stepping Out poster
8.0

A young wife slaves for her cad of a husband. When she learns that he has been "stepping out" with his secretary, she gets revenge by going after the attentions of her husband's employer.

Stepping Out

1919

Strike Up the Band poster
6.6

Jimmy and Mary get a group of kids together to play in a school orchestra. A huge contest between schools is coming up and they have a hard time raising money to go to Chicago for the contest.

Strike Up the Band

1940

A Trip Through the World's Greatest Motion Picture Studios poster
6.0

A Trip Through the World's Greatest Motion Picture Studios (1920) presents a fascinating glimpse into the Thomas H. Ince studios at Culver City.

A Trip Through the World's Greatest Motion Picture Studios

1920

The Bad Man poster
7.0

Infamous Mexican bandit Pancho López recognizes Gilbert Jones as the man who once saved his life; therefore, when Jones is in danger of losing his ranch for default of mortgage payment, López determines to help him. At the same time, Morgan Pell, intending to cheat Jones out of his potentially oil-rich property, offers him a sum of money, which Jones conditionally accepts.

The Bad Man

1923

No artwork available
4.0

Princeton Hadley feels obligated to pay alimony to Judith, the widow of his deceased friend Billy Westover, due to favors Billy had done for him in the past, even though the law doesn't require it. Billy had lost his fortune and was recently divorced from Judith before his untimely death in an accident. Princeton later meets Judith, unaware of her identity, and falls in love with her.

Her Husband's Friend

1920

Meet Dr. Christian poster
7.0

The first of six films in the "Dr. Christian" series, starring Jean Hersholt as a small town doctor trying to convince local officials to approve funds for a new hospital.

Meet Dr. Christian

1939

Your Friend and Mine poster
9.0

Oil man Hugh Stanton embarks on one of his frequent business trips and leaves his wife, Patricia, in the care of Ted and Beatrice Mason. She also spends considerable time with Victor Raymier, the artist who is painting her portrait, unaware that he is a fraud who merely signs his name to the work of a real artist in his employ. One day, Victor persuades Patricia to accompany him to his country home. A storm forces them indoors and the fake artist proceeds to make unwanted advances on Patricia. The Masons come to her rescue, and following their return to the city, Patricia telephones her husband, asking him to come home. He informs her that the proceeds from his new oil well will enable him to be a full-time husband.

Your Friend and Mine

1923

The Vamp poster
NR

Nancy, a naive young girl who works backstage at a musical-comedy theatre, learns from the chorus girls the notion of winning a man by the seductive method of "vamping" him. She tries the method on the shy minister she loves, and it works.

The Vamp

1918

The Sea Hawk poster
6.8

The adventures of Oliver Tressilian, who goes from English gentry to galley slave to captain of a Moorish fighting ship.

The Sea Hawk

1924

The Keys of the Righteous poster
7.0

Mary Manning lives in the Wisconsin woods with her stern old grandfather, an uncle, and her mother who, for eighteen years has daily looked for the return of her husband. Into the drab life comes Tom Gale, who gives the girl her first taste of pleasure.

The Keys of the Righteous

1918

The Biggest Show on Earth poster
NR

Raised in a circus company, a young girl finds herself unhappily out of place at an upper class finishing school. She struggles to fit in with the young ladies of society, but it is her handiness with dangerous animals that finally breaks her through.

The Biggest Show on Earth

1918

What Every Woman Learns poster
7.0

Because Amy Fortesque's dying grandfather advises her to get all the joys out of life, she marries Dick Gaylord because he is funny, rather than Walter Melrose, a staid young lawyer who loves her.

What Every Woman Learns

1919

The Virtuous Thief poster
8.0

A girl tries to save her brother from prosecution after he steals some money from his employer. She goes to work for the employer, who tries to take advantage of her. He is murdered, and the girl is suspected of the crime.

The Virtuous Thief

1919

The Aryan poster
5.5

Steve Denton, rich from years of prospecting, is fleeced by the citizens of Yellow Ridge. In his rage, he kidnaps the woman most responsible and makes her his slave in a desert hideaway.

The Aryan

1916

No artwork available
NR

When her baby daughter Eleanor is traumatized after her father perishes in a storm at sea, Mother Coutierre sends the girl to live with her aunt in Paris. Years later, Eleanor, now a successful model in Paris, is surprised by a visit from her elder sister Marie, who has come to hide the birth of her illegitimate child. When Mother Coutierre arrives and believes Eleanor to be the infant's mother, Eleanor continues the deception so that her sister can marry Pierre Bondel, a fisherman.

The Mother Instinct

1917

The Law of Men poster
10.0

A sculptress is taken under the wing of an art patron, who is murdered.

The Law of Men

1919

Sooky poster
5.0

Skippy, son of Dr. Herbert and Mrs. Skinner, adamantly stands by his poor friend, Sooky Wayne, who lives in Shantytown with his sickly mother. The Boone Boys, a boys' club that costs thirty dollars to join and has uniforms that Sooky admires, refuses to admit him because he is poor. Sooky and Skippy form their own club called the Beagle Boys.

Sooky

1931