Colleen Moore

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Colleen Moore

Birth name Kathleen Morrison
Born August 19, 1900
Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Died January 25, 1988
Paso Robles, California, USA

Colleen Moore, born Kathleen Morrison (August 19, 1900 – January 25, 1988) was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.

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[edit] Early life

Born in Port Huron, Michigan, Moore made her first film appearance in 1918 and for the next few years appeared in small, supporting roles gradually attracting the attention of the public. She was named as a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1922 in recognition of her growing popularity.

[edit] Career

Her first major success was the 1923 film Flaming Youth opposite actor Milton Sills. Moore's vivacious flapper caused a sensation and made her one of the most talked about actresses of her day. Moore and Louise Brooks were seen as the people who epitomized the young adult society of their day, and Moore's career grew over the next few years. As she continued to play similar characters in successful films such as Flirting With Love and The Perfect Flapper, Moore's bobbed hairstyle was widely copied throughout the world. By the late 1920s she had progressed to more important roles in films such as So Big (1925) and was also well received in light comedies. Fortunately for Colleen, the cameras didn't pick up that she had one brown eye and one blue one.

[edit] Talkies

With the advent of talking pictures in 1929, Moore took a hiatus from acting. During this interim, Moore was briefly married to a prominent New York-based stockbroker, Albert Parker Scott, one of her four husbands. She and Scott lived at that time in a lavish home in Bel Air, where they hosted parties for and were supporters of the U.S. Olympic team, especially the yachting team, during the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. In 1933, Moore, by then divorced, returned to work in Hollywood. She appeared in three films. None of these were successful, and Moore retired. She later married Homer Hargrave and raised his children from a previous marriage.

[edit] Colleen Moore Dollhouse

In 1928, inspired by her father and with help from her former set designer, Horace Jackson, Moore constructed an 8-foot tall miniature "fairy castle" which toured the United States. The interior of "The Colleen Moore Dollhouse," designed by Harold Grieve, is a classic example of the Art Deco Style, complete with miniature bear skin rugs and streamlined furniture and art. Moore's dollhouse has been a featured exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois since the early 1950s, where, according to the museum it is seen by 1.5 million people each year. Moore continued working on it, and contributing artifacts to it, until her death.

[edit] Later life and career

In the 1960s she formed a television production company with King Vidor with whom she had worked in the 1920s. She also published two books in the late 1960s, her autobiography Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks About Her Hollywood (1968) and How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market (1969), a subject she had proved herself well-qualified to discuss.

At the height of her fame, Moore was earning $12,500 per week. She was an astute investor, and through her investments remained wealthy for the rest of her life. In her later years she would frequently attend film festivals, and was a popular interview subject always willing to discuss her Hollywood career. She was a participant in the 1980 documentary series Hollywood, providing her recollections of Hollywood's silent film era.

Moore died from cancer in Paso Robles, California, aged 87. Her contribution to the motion picture industry has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1551 Vine Street.

[edit] Quote

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of her: "I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore was the torch. What little things we are to have caused all that trouble."

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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