Lila Lee
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Lila Lee (born Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel, July 25, 1905 – November 13, 1973) was a prominent screen actress, primarily a leading lady, of the silent film and early sound film eras.
In 1918, she was chosen for a film contract by Hollywood film mogul Jesse Lasky for Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, which later became Paramount Pictures. Her first feature, The Cruise of the Make-Believes, garnered the teenaged starlet much public acclaim and Lasky quickly sent Lee on an arduous publicity campaign. Critics lauded Lila for her wholesome persona and sympathetic character parts. Lee quickly rose to the ranks of leading lady and often starred opposite such matinee heavies as Conrad Nagel, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Reid, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, and Rudolph Valentino. Lee bore more than a slight resemblance to Ann Little, a former Paramount star and frequent Reid co-star who was leaving the film business and at this stage in her career an even stronger resemblance to Marguerite Clark.
In 1922 Lee was cast as Carmen in the enormously popular film Blood and Sand, opposite matinee idol Rudolph Valentino and silent screen vamp Nita Naldi; Lee subsequently won the first WAMPAS Baby Stars award that year. Lee continued to be a highly popular leading lady throughout the 1920s and made scores of critically praised and widely watched films.
As the Roaring Twenties drew to a close, Lee's popularity began to wane and Lee positioned herself for the transition to talkies. She is one of the few leading ladies of the silent screen whose popularity did not nosedive with the coming of sound. She went back to working with the major studios and appeared, most notably, in The Unholy Three, in 1930, opposite Lon Chaney Sr. in his only talkie. However, a series of bad career choices and bouts of recurring tuberculosis and alcoholism hindered further projects and Lee was relegated to taking parts in mostly grade B movies.
Known for
Lux Video Theatre
Mrs. McLean
Panic!
Hollywood
Lila Lee
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
Self (archive footage)
The Intruder
Connie Wayne
Coming Through
Alice Rand
Blood and Sand
Carmen
Show of Shows
Performer in 'What Became of the Floradora Boys' Number
Stand Up and Cheer!
Zelda
Radio Patrol
Sue Kennedy
Flight
Elinor
Exposure
Doris Corbin
Nation Aflame
Mona Franklin Burtis
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
Miss Prentiss, Bradford's Receptionist
Unholy Love
Jane Bradford
The Night of June 13
Trudie Morrow
Drag
Dot
Dark Streets
Katie Dean
Officer Thirteen
Doris Dane
Rent Free
Barbara Teller
Whirlpool
Helen Rankin Morrison
The Dictator
Juanita
Lone Cowboy
Eleanor Jones
Gasoline Gus
Sal Jo Banty
Ebb Tide
Ruth Attwater
The Unholy Three
Rosie O'Grady
Face in the Sky
Sharon Hadley
Fascinating Youth
Lila Lee
Male and Female
Tweeny, the scullery maid
The Sacred Flame
Stella Taylor
The Midnight Girl
Anna
The Adorable Cheat
Marion Dorsey
Those Who Dance
Nora Brady
The Soul of Youth
Vera Hamilton
Country Gentlemen
Louise Heath
Wandering Husbands
Diana Moreland
Misbehaving Ladies
Princess Ellen
False Faces
Georgia Rand
Second Wife
Florence Wendell Fairchild
The Emperor's New Clothes
Wringmouth
The Ne'er-Do-Well
Chiquita
Hawthorne of the U.S.A.
Princess Irma
Homeward Bound
Mary Brent
The Secret Garden
Mary Lennox
Just Married
Victoire
Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers
Viola Zickafoose
Queen of the Night Clubs
Bea Walters
The Gorilla
Alice Denby
Terror Island
Beverly West
The Little Wild Girl
Marie Cleste
Crazy to Marry
Annabelle Landis
A Trip to Paramountown
Self
The People's Enemy
Katherine Carr
Woman-Proof
Louise Halliday
Midsummer Madness
Daisy Osborne
Woman Hungry
Judith Temple
The Lottery Man
Polly
Honky Tonk
Beth
The Wampas Baby Stars of 1922
Self
Two Wise Maids
Ethel Harriman
In Love with Life
Sharon
The Black Pearl
Eugenie Bromley
One Glorious Day
Molly McIntyre
After the Show
Eileen
The Fast Freight
Elsie
I Can't Escape
Mae Nichols
War Correspondent
Julie March
The Dollar-a-Year Man
Peggy Bruce
The New Klondike
Evelyn Lane
Double Cross Roads
Mary Carlyle
Love, Live & Laugh
Margharita
Love's Whirlpool
Molly
The Ghost Breaker
Maria Theresa, a Spanish Heiress
One Increasing Purpose
Elizabeth Glade
The Argyle Case
Mary Morgan
The Charm School
Elsie
The Prince Chap
Claudia (age 18)
Top Sergeant Mulligan
The girl
Another Man's Wife
Helen Brand
Broken Hearts
Ruth Esterin
The Iron Master
Janet Stillman
Million Dollar Mystery
Florence Grey