| Alice Terry | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alice Frances Taaffe July 29, 1899 Vincennes, Indiana |
| Died | December 22, 1987 (aged 88) Burbank, California |
| Other names | Alice Taafe Alice Taaffee Alice Taffe |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1916–1933 |
| Spouse | Rex Ingram (1921–1950) |
Alice Terry (July 29, 1899 – December 22, 1987) was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era, appearing in thirty-nine films between 1916 and 1933.
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Born Alice Frances Taaffe in Vincennes, Indiana, she made her film debut in 1916 in Not My Sister, opposite Bessie Barriscale and William Desmond Taylor.
That same year, she played several different characters in the 1916 anti-war film Civilization, co-directed by Thomas H. Ince and Reginald Barker. One of her most acclaimed performances came as "Marguerite" in 1921's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino.
In 1925 her husband co-directed Ben-Hur, filming parts of it in Italy. The two decided to move to the French Riviera, where they set up a small studio in Nice and made several films on location in North Africa, Spain, and Italy for MGM and others. In 1933, Terry made her last film appearance in Baroud, which she also co-directed with husband Rex Ingram.
In 1921 she married director Rex Ingram during production of The Prisoner of Zenda (released 1922), which he directed and in which she appeared as Princess Flavia. The couple sneaked away over one weekend, were married in Pasadena, and returned to work promptly the following Monday.[1]
During the making of The Arab (1924) in Tunisia, they met a street child named Kada-Abd-el-Kader, who they adopted upon learning that he was an orphan. Allegedly, el-Kader misrepresented his age to make himself seem younger to his adoptive parents, and after he "began associating with fast women and fast cars throughout the San Fernando Valley," Terry and Ingram sent him back to Morocco "to finish school."[2]
Terry was known to have several gay male friends in the film industry, including Ramón Novarro (a former leading man of hers) and Barry Norton.[3] During the 1930s, she accompanied Novarro to speakeasies with predominantly gay clientele, allegedly in part to throw off any suspicion about Novarro's homosexuality.[4]
Terry and Ingram retired together in the 1930s. By all accounts, theirs was a happy marriage, though they often had separate bedrooms during their marriage and occupied separate retirement community bungalows at the end of their marriage.[5] Nonetheless, they remained together until his passing in 1950. After his death, Terry became romantically involved with actor Gerald Fielding, who bore a strong physical resemblance to her late husband.[6] They were lovers until his death, at the age of forty-six, in 1956.[7]
Terry had a sister, Edna, who died in 1984.[8]
Terry died on December 22, 1987 of natural causes, and was interred in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Alice Terry has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6628 Hollywood Blvd.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1916 | Not My Sister | Ruth Tyler | Credited as Alice Taafe |
| Civilization | Extra (Various, from a peasant to a German Soldier) | Uncredited | |
| A Corner in Colleens | Daisy | Credited as Alice Taafe | |
| 1917 | Wild Winship's Widow | Marjory Howe | Credited as Alice Taafe |
| Strictly Business | |||
| The Bottom of the Well | Anita Thomas | ||
| Alimony | Extra | Uncredited | |
| 1918 | The Clarion Call | ||
| A Bachelor's Children | Penelope Winthrop | ||
| Old Wives for New | Saleslady | Credited as Alice Taafe | |
| The Song and the Sergeant | |||
| Sisters of the Golden Circle | Mrs. Pinkey McGuire | ||
| The Brief Debut of Tildy | Tildy | ||
| Love Watches | Charlotte Bernier | ||
| The Trimmed Lamp | |||
| 1919 | Thin Ice | Jocelyn Miller | |
| The Love Burglar | Elsie Strong | Credited as Alice Taafe | |
| The Valley of the Giants | Mrs. Cardigan | Credited as Alice Taafe Alternative title: In the Valley of the Giants |
|
| The Day She Paid | Credited as Alice Taafe Alternative title: Oats and the Woman |
||
| 1920 | Shore Acres | Extra | Uncredited |
| The Devil's Pass Key | Extra | Uncredited | |
| Hearts Are Trumps | Dora Woodberry | ||
| 1921 | The Four Horsemet of the Apocalypse | Marguerite Laurier | |
| The Conquering Power | Eugenie Grandet | Alternative title: Eugenie Grandet | |
| 1922 | Turn to the Right | Elsie Tillinger | |
| The Prisoner of Zenda | Princess Flavia | ||
| 1923 | Where the Pavement Ends | Matilda Spener | |
| Scaramouche | Aline de Kercadiou, Quintin's Niece | ||
| 1924 | The Arab | Mary Hilbert | |
| 1925 | The Great Divide | Ruth Jordan | |
| Sackcloth and Scarlet | Joan Freeman | ||
| Confessions of a Queen | Frederika/The Queen | ||
| Any Woman | Ellen Linden | ||
| 1926 | Mare Nostrum | Freya Talberg | Alternative title: Our Sea |
| The Magician | Margaret Dauncey | ||
| 1927 | Lovers? | Felicia | |
| The Garden of Allah | Domini Enfilden | ||
| 1928 | The Three Passions | Lady Victoria Burlington | |
| 1933 | Baroud | Co-director Alternative title: Love in Morocco |