Flora Finch

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Flora Finch

Flora Finch (June 17, 1867, London – January 4, 1940, Los Angeles) was an English-born film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company.

[edit] Early life and career

She was born into a music-hall and traveling theatrical family in London and was brought over to the states as a young child. She kept up the family tradition and worked in theater and vaudeville circuit right up until her 30s.

She had her first film roles at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company starting in 1908. There she worked with Fatty Arbuckle, Mack Sennett (with whom she was romantically involved for a short time), and Charlie Chaplin among others.

Starting in 1910 at Vitagraph, she was paired with John Bunny for the first of 160 very popular shorts made between 1910 and 1915. These shorts, known as "Bunnygraphs", "Bunnyfinches", and "Bunnyfinchgraphs", established them as the first popular comedy team in motion pictures.

After Bunny's death in 1915 she continued to make comedy shorts, but with less success. She started her own production company, "Flora Finch Productions", but was never able to regain her popularity. She found film work in the sound era, but only in small supporting parts; The Scarlet Letter (1934) gave her one of her more substantial roles in talking pictures. Her last film was The Women (1939).

Most of her films are now lost. She died of rheumatic fever resulting from a streptococcus infection.