Mary Fuller
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Mary Fuller (Mary Claire Fuller) (October 5, 1888 – December 9, 1973) was an American stage and silent film actress.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Washington, D. C., to Nora Swing and attorney Miles Fuller, she spent her childhood on a farm. As a child, she was interested in music, writing and art. Her father died in 1902, and by 1906, she was working in the theater under the name Claire Fuller. She worked briefly with the Lyceum Stock Company in Toledo, Ohio.
[edit] Career
Fuller began her acting career as a stage actress. At age 18 she was working in live theatre and in 1907 she signed with Vitagraph Studios in New York City, then joined the Edison Film Company in 1910. That year, she appeared in the first film version of Frankenstein based on the Mary Shelley novel.
Fuller became a major early movie star who, by 1914, rivaled Mary Pickford in popularity. She appeared in a wide variety of roles, and starred in such melodramas as The Witch Girl, A Daughter of the Nile, and Under Southern Skies, her first feature-length production. Also, Fuller authored a number of screenplays, eight of which were made into films between 1913 and 1915. After the 1917's The Long Trail, the leading lady of the pioneering Edison Company disappeared from film and became a recluse. Her whereabouts remained a mystery for decades.
[edit] Later life
Fuller apparently suffered a nervous breakdown following a failed affair with a married opera singer. She retired from the film business, and went to live in her mother's home. In her early years, Fuller had talked about a constant feeling of loneliness that film stardom never filled; however, in 1926, she returned to Hollywood and unsuccessfully attempted to resume her screen career. The death of her mother in 1946 brought a second nervous breakdown; on July 1, 1947, Fuller was admitted to Washington's St. Elizabeths Hospital, where she remained for 25 years. When she died, the hospital was unable to locate any relatives.
