Marie Prevost

Acting

Marie Prevost

Born 1896-11-07 · Sarnia, Ontario, Canada

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marie Prevost (born Marie Bickford Dunn; November 8, 1896 - January 21, 1937) was a Canadian-born film actress. During her twenty-year career, she made 121 silent and talking pictures. Prevost began her career during the silent film era. She was discovered by Mack Sennett who signed her to contract and made her one of his "Bathing Beauties" in the late 1910s. Prevost appeared in dozens of Sennett's short comedy films before moving on to feature length films for Universal. In 1922, she signed with Warner Bros. where her career flourished as a leading lady. She was a favorite of director Ernst Lubitsch who cast her in three of his comedy films; The Marriage Circle (1924), Three Women (1924) and Kiss Me Again (1925). After being let go by Warner Bros in early 1926, Prevost's career began to decline and she was relegated to secondary roles. She was also beset with personal problems, including the death of her mother in 1926 and the breakdown of her marriage to actor Kenneth Harlan in 1927, which fueled her depression. She began to abuse alcohol and binge eat, resulting in a weight gain that made it difficult for her to secure acting jobs. By 1935, Prevost was only able to secure bit parts in films. She made her last onscreen appearance in 1936. After years of drinking, Prevost died of acute alcoholism at the age of 38 in January 1937. Prevost's estate was valued at $300 since she had squandered most of her earnings. Her death prompted the Hollywood community to create the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.

Acting credits

Hands Across the Table poster
7.0

A manicurist and an engaged loafer, both planning to marry money, meet and fall in love.

Hands Across the Table

1935

The Beautiful and Damned poster
7.0

Gloria, the daughter in a wealthy family, has finally spent most of her father's money. She marries Tony, whose as much of a reckless spendthrift as she is, and they continue indulging themselves. Tony's wealthy grandfather Adam Patch dies, but to their surprise he leaves Tony nothing. The couple try their hands at actually working for a living, but they don't like it and return to their spendthrift ways. Something has to give, and it soon does.

The Beautiful and Damned

1922

Party Girl poster
3.8

Jay Rountree, a young, rising businessman and a son of a wealthy manufacturer gets caught up in a web involving an escort service or 'party girls' and trapped into an unhappy marriage.

Party Girl

1930

The Godless Girl poster
7.0

High school students led by the Girl and Boy turn from Christianity toward secret atheistic meetings. When a girl is accidentally killed by a stairway collapse, the Girl and Boy go to reform school where they are treated brutally.

The Godless Girl

1928

Three Women poster
4.2

A frivolous middle aged socialite is suddenly put upon to have her daughter live with her. Her conniving paramour dumps her for the daughter, leaving the young boyfriend crushed.

Three Women

1924

Ladies of Leisure poster
6.2

Kay Arnold is a gold digger who wanders from party to party with the intention of catching a rich suitor. Jerry Strong is a young man from a wealthy family who strives to succeed as an artist. What begins as a relationship of mutual convenience soon turns into something else.

Ladies of Leisure

1930

No artwork available
6.0

Believing his wife to be unfaithful, a husband deserts her and his child. Destitute, the woman is forced to take a job as a tango dancer.

Tango

1936

No artwork available
NR

Sardonic commentary over an abridged version of DOWN ON THE FARM (1920).

Wedding Yells

1942

Kissed poster
9.0

Constance Keener, who is betrothed to young millionaire Merton Torrey, confesses to him her desire for romance such as he does not give her. On the occasion of a masquerade ball, Torrey is unable to escort her; and while she is alone on the balcony, someone suddenly seizes and kisses her, then disappears. She attempts to discover her assailant's identity.

Kissed

1922

The Good Bad Girl poster
6.5

A woman's former association with a gangster threatens to destroy her marriage to an upstanding young man.

The Good Bad Girl

1931

Recompense poster
8.0

Clergyman Peter leaves the pulpit to enter World War I to be near Julie, the woman he loves. They are separated, but after the war she nurses him through a long illness. He will not marry her because it would hinder the humanitarian work that he plans. She keeps her faith in him, which prompts him to return to her and marry her. A lost film.

Recompense

1925

The Racket poster
6.5

A renegade police captain sets out to catch a sadistic mob boss. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.

The Racket

1928

No artwork available
NR

A 1916 short starring Jack Cooper, Hank Mann & Bobby Dunn.

Sunshine

1916

It's a Wise Child poster
6.2

In this comedy, a conservative family becomes alarmed when they begin believing their daughter is pregnant.

It's a Wise Child

1931

Being Respectable poster
9.0

Wealthy young Charles Carpenter is pressured by his family to marry Suzanne, even though he is really in love with young "flapper" Valerie. He gives in to his family's pressure, however, and marries Suzanne, after which Valerie leaves town. Years later, after Charles and Suzanne have had a child, Valerie comes back to town and Charles realizes he is still in love with her, and she with him. Complications ensue.

Being Respectable

1924

Only Yesterday poster
7.1

On the back of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, a young businessman is about to commit suicide. With a note to his wife scribbled down and a gun in his hand, he notices an envelope addressed to him on his desk. As he begins to read, we're taken back to World War One and his meeting with a young woman named Mary Lane.

Only Yesterday

1933

Love, Honor and Behave poster
8.0

A young married couple appears before a judge to get a divorce. The wife shows the judge some pictures of her husband with his arms around another woman, as "proof" that he was cheating on her. The husband, for his part, claims that he was just innocently helping the woman and that he was being blackmailed by the photographer who took the picture.

Love, Honor and Behave

1920

Her Night of Nights poster
7.0

Molly, a glamorous clothing model in New York, though yearning for a life of luxury, spurns the advances of her boss's son in favor of a shipping clerk, late of the backwoods.

Her Night of Nights

1922

The Runaround poster
8.0

Filmed in an early Technicolor process, The Runaround tells the story of Broadway dancer Evelyn who refuses to play the gold-digging games indulged in by her fellow chorines

The Runaround

1931

Parole Girl poster
6.2

A woman convicted of fraud aims to take her revenge on the man who put her inside after being released on parole.

Parole Girl

1933

The Flying Fool poster
6.0

A man protective of his brother checks out the girl his brother is in love with, in order to see if she's the real thing or just trying to take advantage of him. Unfortunately, he winds up falling in love with her himself.

The Flying Fool

1929

Unto Those Who Sin poster
9.0

Nadia, a stenographer, must give her meager earnings to her drunken father. When he shoots his wife's lover, Nadia decides to move in with her flashy girl friend Mabel, who soon introduces her to the fast life.

Unto Those Who Sin

1916

Three Wise Girls poster
5.7

Fed up with her tiny hometown, Cassie Barnes moves to New York City to find a job. She and her two friends, Dot and Gladys, soon have romantic troubles.

Three Wise Girls

1932

The Marriage Circle poster
6.3

An unhappily married couple moves to Vienna, where the wife’s married best friend lives, and soon, sparks fly between the wife and the best friend’s husband.

The Marriage Circle

1924