Jewel Carmen

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Jewel Carmen
Born 13 July 1897
Danville, Kentucky Flag of the United States United States
Died March 4, 1984
San Diego, California Flag of the United States United States
Occupation Actor
Years active 1912 - 1926

Jewel Carmen (13 July 1897 - March 4, 1984) was an American actress. Her film career was relatively short but her private life kept her name in the news long after her film career ended, and yet she was long forgotten by the film world when death came.

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[edit] Biography

Born Florence Lavina Quick, the daughter of Minerva Grey and William Quick. Barely out of school when she began her screen career, Carmen made her film debut as an extra in 1913 with the Keystone Company as Evelyn Quick. Her blonde beauty and vivacious personality soon brought her to the attention of Mack Sennett who promoted her from the extra rank to one of his stock company of players. Under Sennett's direction she appeared with Edgar Kennedy in A Life In Balance. Before abruptly leaving Keystone, due to unsavory gossip, she appeared in The Professor's Daughter with Eddie Lyons and Their Husbands under the direction of Henry Lehrman.

In the late 1910's Carmen was Douglas Fairbanks' leading lady and star for the Fox Film Corporation. Later she left Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios under a cloud of rumors, she changed her name from Evelyn Quick to Jewel Carmen and became one of Fox's popular stars.

In 1918, upon her marriage to producer, director, and writer Roland West the actress terminated her Fox contract. As West's wife, she abandoned her film career for a long vacation and did not make another film until 1920 when she was starred by West in his production of the mystery melodrama Nobody with Kenneth Harlan and The Silver Lining with the long forgotten leading man Coit Albertson. In 1923 she returned to Fox in You Can't Get Away With It. Three years elapsed before she returned to the screen in her husband's mystery melodrama The Bat. In 1926, with the silent era about to end, Carmen retired from films.

In 1935, she was directly involved in one of the biggest Hollywood scandals of the 1930's when her husband became one of the chief suspects in the suicide or murder of film star Thelma Todd.

[edit] Scandals

As the years went by, only occasionally did her name appear in print until December 1935, when the popular actress Thelma Todd was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in her garage. The death was ruled accidental but rumors of foul play, most of them with no foundation whatsoever, persist to this very day. Todd's death rocked Hollywood with Carmen's husband one of the central players in the story. The press had a field day, linking Carmen's name and her husband's to the tragedy. The death of Thelma Todd ended Carmen's marriage to Roland West. After the divorce Carmen sold her Hollywood real estate and left Hollywood where she was never heard of again. When Andy Edmonds wrote the Thelma Todd story in her book Hot Toddy, Carmen's marriage and relationship to West was thoroughly discussed, but Edmonds apparently had not been able to find her and interview her for the book.

[edit] Later years

In her later years, Carmen made her home in La Jolla, California, until illness forced her into the Helix View Nursing Home in El Cajon, California. It was there she died of lymphoma . Her passing went unnoticed by the film world with no obituary for her in the trade papers.

[edit] Filmography

  • The Bat (1926)
  • You Can't Get Away with It (1923)
  • Nobody (1921)
  • The Silver Lining (1921)
  • Lawless Love (1918)
  • Fallen Angel (1918)
  • Confession (1918)
  • The Bride of Fear (1918)
  • The Girl with the Champagne Eyes (1918)
  • Les Misérables (1917)
  • When a Man Sees Red (1917)
  • The Conqueror (1917)
  • To Honor and Obey (1917)
  • American Methods (1917)
  • A Tale of Two Cities (1917)
  • The Kingdom of Love (1917)
  • American Aristocracy (1916)
  • Manhattan Madness (1916)
  • Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
  • The Half-Breed (1916)
  • Flirting with Fate (1916)
  • The Children in the House (1916)
  • Sunshine Dad (1916)
  • Daphne and the Pirate (1916)
  • Their Husbands (1913)
  • Four Queens and a Jack (1913)
  • He and Himself (1913)
  • Professional Jealousy (1913)
  • A Life in the Balance (1913)
  • The Professor's Daughter (1913)
  • The Will of Destiny (1912)

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Carmen, Jewel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actor
DATE OF BIRTH 13 July 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Danville, Kentucky Flag of the United States United States
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1984
PLACE OF DEATH San Diego, California Flag of the United States United States
Languages