Marguerite Courtot
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Marguerite Gabrielle Courtot (August 20, 1897 - May 28, 1986) was an American silent film actress.
Courtot was born in Summit, New Jersey of French ancestry. She became a child model and in June of 1912, while not yet fifteen years old, joined the Kalem Company, appearing in 1913's "The Riddle of the Tin Soldier" alongside star Alice Joyce and Harry F. Millarde who was making his film debut. Between then and 1916 Courtot made thirty-seven films for Kalem including the starring role in the "The Ventures of Marguerite," a sixteen episode action/adventure serial.
Following the Kalem Company's merger with Vitagraph Studios, Courtot starred in the Gaumont Pictures production of "The Dead Alive," directed by Henri J. Vernot. After several films with Jesse L. Lasky's Famous Players Film Company and smaller independents, Marguerite Courtot took most of 1918 off to use her public persona to tour the country to promote America's World War I effort in Europe. When the war ended, she returned to film, joining Pathé. Although she had a starring roles, she also worked in prominent secondary parts such as in the 1921 serials The Sky Ranger, starring June Caprice and The Yellow Arm starring Juanita Hansen.
In 1922, while working on "Down to the Sea in Ships," the film that became her most important feature-length work, Marguerite Courtot began a relationship with co-star Raymond McKee. They married on April 23, 1923 and after she completed two more films, Courtot retired from the film business to raise a family. Their marriage lasted more than sixty years. Her husband died in 1984 and she died two years later in Long Beach, California. They are buried together in the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.
