Colleen Moore — Biographical Sketch (1927) 🇺🇸
Had Colleen Moore followed her family’s wishes she might today be a widely famous concert pianist instead of the tremendously popular movie star that she is. Even a course at a musical conservatory failed to alter her decision to become an actress, dating from the age of ten, when she began organizing amateur theatricals among the children of the neighborhood in which she was everything from producer to property “man.”
She made her first assault on the film citadel at the old Essanay studio in Chicago, visiting the casting office daily for six months without results. Her uncle, a prominent newspaper editor, offered to use his influence to help her, but she refused, preferring to stand or fall by her own unaided efforts. Then came three days’ work at $3.50 a day — $10.50 for the six months — and she began to receive bits.
D. W. Griffith saw her at her uncle’s home, and persuaded the family that she had talent, and should be permitted to go to California where her opportunities would be greater.
True to his promise, D. W. Griffith gave her a part, and soon she was appearing in small and featured rôles for Vitagraph, Universal, Cosmopolitan, First National, Hodkinson, Goldwyn and other companies — much of it hard, thankless work, but splendid training for the stardom that was to come.
Her consistently, brilliant work brought a contract with First National and the chance to play in Flaming Youth, which literally “made” her overnight. In a short time she was one of America’s leading feminine stars, and established in a distinctive type of rôle in such outstanding pictures as The Perfect Flapper, “Flirting with Love,” “Sally,” the more serious “So Big,” We Moderns, “Irene,” and Ella Cinders. Her most recent productions are “It Must Be Love,” Twinkletoes, “Orchids and Ermine,” and Naughty But Nice. Her coming productions include: “Her Wild Oat,” Lilac Time, “Baby Face,” and Oh, Kay!.
Miss Moore was born in Port Huron, Mich., but was educated at the Convent of the Holy Name at Tampa, Fla. She has brown hair, and is unique among screen players in that one eye is brown and the other blue. She is five feet and three inches in height. Her husband, John McCormick, is the highly successful producer of her pictures.
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John McCormick presents
Colleen Moore
in
- Her Wild Oat
- Lilac Time
- Baby Face
- Oh, Kay!
Released by First National
Collection: Motion Picture News, October 1927 (Booking Guide and Studio Directory)