Billie West (Majestic) (1914) 🇺🇸
One of the younger stars, who has recently risen rapidly in pictures, is Billie West of the Majestic. She is a slender, dark-haired girl, of a distinguished type of beauty — erect of carriage, and quick as an arrow. In her face, a spirit of daring, rare, good humor and boyish frankness, blend most charmingly. She has exceptional personal magnetism.
Miss West made her debut on the screen with the Pathé Frères. She went next to the Vitagraph Company, and thence to the American. In “Flying A” subjects she did excellent work. But it is during the last six months, under the directorship of John O’Brien [John B. O’Brien] of the Majestic studios, that her brilliancy and versatility have really been brought into full play.
The first Majestic drama in which she starred was “The Love of Conchita.” Her portrayal of the beautiful, petulant Spanish girl — whose love proved fatal for one man, and drove two others to life-and-death risks for her sake — was a magical piece of acting. Miss West has natural dash and fascination of the Carmen type. Even this most fantastic and highly-colored of romances was vividly credible with her in the title-role.
After Conchita, audiences began to demand “little Billie West” — for Miss West is very slight, weighing only about a hundred and fifteen pounds. The Majestic proceeded to try her out in a great variety of character parts. She proved just the type for a new series which the company was ambitious to produce. These were plays of boarding-school life, involving always some strong, emotional interest. Miss West played the daredevil ring-leader — the girl who is adored by her school friends — the big-hearted, unprejudiced girl, who befriends the unfortunates in the school and helps them through very real troubles.
Her impersonations were wonderfully successful. Blending sympathy with youthful roguishness — passing quickly from shadow to sunshine, a typical, moody, young creature in her teens — Miss West fulfilled the promise of the boarding-school playlets. “The Ward of the Senior Class” and “The Sorority Initiation” are records of some of her best work.
Then — as though they could not experiment with her enough — the Majestic cast the young star for leads in dramatic “crook” plays. Nothing could have been more in contrast with what she had just been doing. But she turned from the lightsome ingénue parts to such intense acting as was demanded by “At the Psychological Moment” and “The Thief and the Book.” Photoplaygoers all over the country gasped at the transformation of the simple, girlish actress into a woman of passionate feeling and nature grasps upon pure drama.
If serious acting is so admirably in her line, Miss West is no less a success in comedy. “The Orange Bandit” and “An Intercepted Getaway” show what she can do in humorous vein. In both these comedy sketches she is bewitching.
The first secret of success in the movies is adaptability. Miss West is barely twenty-one, but she has proved already that she can do anything — whatever role she appears in, she never fails to captivate. And the secret of this lies in the fact that she is completely unspoiled and natural.
In the most intense situations, she is utterly removed from the melodramatic. In “At the Psychological Moment,” she played the girl-wife of a criminal, who was arrested and sent to prison. The district attorney takes her to his own home to place her in the care of his mother. While he goes indoors to prepare his mother, Miss West stays on the porch. She stands there alone — so quietly and simply — but with such a world of sorrow, suspense, questioning, in her sweet, dark eyes. The audience seems to hear her heart beat. Everyone is intensely conscious that she faces a crisis in her life.
Not only is Miss West an accomplished actress — she especially revels in daring feats. She likes to call herself “The Stunt Girl of the Majestic.” Recently, Director O’Brien staged a scene in which the principals were knife-throwers. The film opened with an exhibition of the knife-throwing — and when the second scene flashed upon the screen, one saw the gleaming blades quivering about the slender figure of a handsome dark girl. Billie West wished to have the scene taken with the knives actually being aimed straight at her. But the director had too much consideration for his leading woman to permit her to take such a risk.
In the same play, she dropped twenty feet from a bridge. Very few men would dare attempt such a thing. But Miss West is fearless. It would be difficult to find her match for daring among the studios of the West.
The Biographer.
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Collection: Reel Life Magazine, April 1914