Valeska Surratt
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Valeska Surratt (1882 - 1962) was an actress on stage and in silent films, she was also a Bahá'í.
Surratt was born on June 28, 1882 in Owensville, Indiana, the daughter of Ralph M Strickland and Anna Matthews. When she was seven, the family moved to Terre Haute, Indiana.
She married William 'Billy' Gould, a vaudeville comic. In 1905 she moved in New York City hoping to become an actress. In 1906, Edward Edelston cast her as a Gibson Girl in The Belle of Mayfield, on Broadway. She began cultivating her 'vampire lady' role, and in 1908 it was reported that, "Valeska Surratt employs live snakes in a new dance."
In 1915, Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn cast her in the title role in The Immigrant (not the Chaplin movie of the same name), her first silent movie. She appeared in several movies between 1915 and 1918, and then returned to Broadway where she appeared until 1929.
After Billy Gould died, she married actor Fletcher Norton (1877-1941), but they were divorced sometime before 1912, when Fletcher then married again.
While he was living in Los Angeles, she had asked Mirza Ahmad Sohrab to write a scenario about Mary Magdalene, that Valeska could star in, in order to display her talents. Sohrab tells the story, that after she had shown it to Cecil B. Demille he made his movie The King of Kings. In 1928 she sued Cecil over the screenplay, believing he had copied her idea. (The New York Times, Feb 25, 1928, pg 2) The case was heard in Federal Court by Judge Coleman in February, 1930.
She died on July 2, 1962 in Washington, DC.
