Mary Miles Minter
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| Mary Miles Minter | |
 Mary Miles Minter at the height of her fame in the 1920s. |
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| Birth name | Juliet Reilly |
| Born | April 1, 1902 Shreveport, Louisiana USA |
| Died | August 4, 1984 Santa Monica, California, California, USA |
Mary Miles Minter (April 1, 1902 - August 4, 1984) was a U.S. film actress in silent films.
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[edit] Early life and rise to stardom
Born Juliet Reilly in Shreveport, Louisiana, Minter was the daughter of Charlotte Shelby, a moderately successful and ambitious actress. Shelby pushed her two daughters towards a stage career and by the age of 5 Mary had appeared in her first play. After this she was rarely unemployed, widely noted for both her talent and visual appeal. To avoid child labour laws, her mother obtained the birth certificate of a cousin and changed Juliet's name to Mary Miles Minter. She made her first film in 1915 and her career grew steadily.
Minter specialised in playing demure and innocent young girls. With her photogenic "registration", even features, "periwinkle blue eyes" and curly hair she emulated and later rivalled Mary Pickford.
Her first film for director William Desmond Taylor was Anne of Green Gables in 1919. The picture was well-received and Taylor actively promoted Minter as a star of great potential. A romantic relationship developed between them and Minter began to distance herself from her possessive mother.
[edit] Scandal
In 1922 Taylor was murdered in his home and Minter apparently lied to police about when she had seen him last. The ensuing scandal, coming in the wake of the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial, was the subject of widespread media speculation and embellishment. Allegations about Taylor's questionable past began to circulate and newspapers reported that several intimate letters allegedly written by Minter (along with other items apparently belonging to her) had been found in his bungalow after his death. In a 1970 interview, during which she described Taylor as her "mate," Minter recalled how she broke down and sobbed when she was allowed to view (and touch) the director's body in a morgue.
Minter was at the height of her success, having starred in more than 50 films and sensationalistic newspaper revelations of the twenty year old film star's association with a forty-nine year old murdered director caused rolling scandals. She made two more films but was rejected by her public. The studio terminated her contract when it became clear Minter's reputation had been destroyed and was beyond repair.
There were several suspects in the murder case, which remained wholly unsolved. In 1937 she publicly announced to the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper, "Now I demand that I either be prosecuted for the murder committed fifteen years ago, or exonerated completely. If the District Attorney has any evidence, he should prosecute. If not, then I should be exonerated... Shadows have been cast upon my reputation". [1]
That same year, with her career long finished, Minter and her older sister Margaret Shelby sued their mother for mismanaging their finances and won a substantial financial settlement. Her sister died of chronic alcoholism in 1939 and Minter essentially disappeared from public view.
The murder case remains officially open, although actress Ella Margaret Gibson reportedly confessed to the murder in 1964 while on her deathbed (and may have confessed to an acquaintance at least once before).
[edit] Later life
Minter had invested in Los Angeles real estate and seems to have lived in relative comfort and prosperity, although she was later the victim of several robberies during the 1970s and early 80s. Police described her as a frail little old lady, and people were often shocked to learn she had once been a famous movie star.
Minter commented she had never been happy with her Hollywood career and was content to live without it. She proclaimed her love for Taylor throughout her life. She died in 1984 from heart failure in Santa Monica, California. Mary Miles Minter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 1724 Vine St.
[edit] Film legacy
By 1999, all prints of her film Anne of Green Gables were believed to have been lost. A print of her 1919 film, The Ghost of Rosy Taylor surfaced in New Zealand in the 1990s. This film depicted her as an orphaned French girl buffeted from job to job and escaping from a workhouse prison. Other known surviving films include The Eyes of Julia Deep (1918) and Nurse Marjorie (1920- directed by William Desmond Taylor).
