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In the 1910s, waifs and child-women like Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish and Mary Miles Minter were dominant forces at America's box offices. Audiences welcomed Marguerite Clark into this group, especially those who preferred her dark brown hair and large brown eyes to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed looks of Pickford, Gish and Minter. She was tiny (about 4'10", weighing about 90 pounds) with a very pretty, Kewpie-doll face that never seemed to age. Even at the end of her career, at the age of 38, make-up artists had little trouble making her look 12 years old. Marguerite began life on a farm southeast of Lima, Ohio. As a child sh
In the 1910s, waifs and child-women like Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish and Mary Miles Minter were dominant forces at America's box offices. Audiences welcomed Marguerite Clark into this group, especially those who preferred her dark brown hair and large brown eyes to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed looks of Pickford, Gish and Minter. She was tiny (about 4'10", weighing about 90 pounds) with a very pretty, Kewpie-doll face that never seemed to age. Even at the end of her career, at the age of 38, make-up artists had little trouble making her look 12 years old. Marguerite began life on a farm southeast of Lima, Ohio. As a child she was sent to a convent southeast of Cincinnati for her education, remaining there until the age of 16, when she made her stage debut with a stock company in Baltimore. DeWolf Hopper Sr. saw her and brought her to New York as his co-star in the play "Happyland". For over a decade she appeared in some of the most popular plays and musicals on Broadway, including "Anatol" with John Barrymore. In 1914 she signed with Famous Players, which, along with its sister companies Paramount and Artcraft, would produce all but her last movie. Her looks and acting talent quickly made her one of the top movie stars of the time. However, she was dissatisfied with the acting life. In 1918 she married a New Orleans plantation owner and took up residence there. She split her time between New York (where she made most of her movies) and New Orleans, all the time planning to quit acting and move permanently to the plantation. Her only wish was to go out on top. In 1921 she got her wish. The annual Quigley Publications poll of motion picture exhibitors ranked her as the nation's top movie actress of 1920, and the second-place movie star overall to Wallace Reid. She had just completed Scrambled Wives (1921), produced by her own newly formed production company, for First National. After the release of the Quigley poll, she disbanded her production company and retired to her husband's plantation, where she lived until his death in 1936. She moved back to New York City shortly thereafter. She was also the model for Snow White in Walt Disney's masterpiece Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). She died following a short bout with pneumonia in 1940.
Marguerite Clark was born in Avondale, Ohio on February 22, 1883. Growing up on an Ohio farm didn't afford a lot of opportunities for a young lady. When she was still a youngster of 12, Marguerite was sent to a Catholic school in Cincinnati, Ohio to complete her education. It also gave her the chance to get off the farm and try her artistic talents. She left the school when she was 16 to pursue her dream of life on the stage. She joined a thespian troupe in New England and was such a hit, she was brought to New York City where she appeared on the prestigious stages of Broadway. Again she was a hit, a natural some critics said. In 1914, movies were all the rage and it was only natural that Marguerite gravitated toward them. Her first film that year was WILDFLOWER made when she was 31 years old. Most actresses started out at a much younger age, but not Marguerite. Her successes on the stage precluded any "going through the ranks". She would start out on top. While still doing some stage acting, she made one other film in 1914, that being THE CRUCIBLE. The following years would prove very busy for Marguerite. She appeared in eight films in 1915, seven in 1917, seven in 1918, and eight in 1919. By the time the twenties rolled around, Marguerite was ready to slow down. She was unhappy with acting and yearned for a more sedate life. She had married Harry Williams from Louisiana and was spending time between their home in the South and New York. In 1921, at the age of 38, Marguerite made her last film entitled SCRAMBLED WIVES whereupon she retired to the South. At the time of her retirement, she was the top actress on the silver screen. When her husband died in 1936, Marguerite packed up and moved back to New York. On September 25, 1940, Marguerite died of pneumonia at the age of 57. She had appeared in 40 films in the seven short years she was on screen, but what an impact she had!
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