Mae Clarke
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Mae Clarke (August 16, 1910 – April 29, 1992) was an American film actress.
Mae Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She started her career as a dancer and subsequently starred in many films for Universal Studios, including the original The Front Page (1931) and the first sound version of Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff. Clarke played the role of Dr. Frankenstein's fiancee in Frankenstein, who was attacked by the Monster (Boris Karloff) on her wedding day. The Public Enemy, released that same year, contained one of cinema's most famous (and frequently parodied) scenes, in which James Cagney pushed a grapefruit half into Mae's face, then went out and picked up Jean Harlow. The film was so stunningly popular that it ran 24 hours a day at a theatre in Times Square upon its initial release, and Clarke's ex-husband had the grapefruit scene timed and would frequently buy a ticket, enter the theatre to enjoy that sequence, and leave (reference citation: a story told in James Cagney's autobiography).
She may be best known for her leading role in the 1931 James Whale pre-Code production of Waterloo Bridge (1931) as "Myra Deauville". In it, she played an American woman forced to become a prostitute in WW1 London, who meets a man of a higher class who is initially unaware of her profession. All ends tragically, however. The movie also featured a very young Bette Davis in a small role, and British actress Ethel Griffies as Myra's heartless landlady. The movie was sanitized in the Vivien Leigh (1940) remake, and again in the 1956 film Gaby starring Leslie Caron.
[edit] Personal life
She has married three times and did not have children:
- 1) Lewis Brice 1928 - 19?? (divorced)
- 2) Stevens Bancroft 19?? - 19?? (divorced)
- 3) Herbert Langdon 19?? - 19?? (divorced)
Clarke died on April 29, 1992, aged 81 from cancer in Woodland Hills, California.
- See also "Halliwell's Filmgoers Companion"
