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
Panic!
Lux Video Theatre
Mrs. McLean
Hollywood
Lila Lee
Blood and Sand
Carmen
Male and Female
Tweeny, the scullery maid
The Show of Shows
Performer in 'What Became of the Floradora Boys' Number
The People's Enemy
Katherine Carr
Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers
Viola Zickafoose
The Intruder
Connie Wayne
Lone Cowboy
Eleanor Jones
Country Gentlemen
Louise Heath
Fascinating Youth
Lila Lee
Those Who Dance
Nora Brady
Queen of the Night Clubs
Bea Walters
The New Klondike
Evelyn Lane
Stand Up and Cheer!
Zelda
The Night of June 13
Trudie Morrow
The Soul of Youth
Vera Hamilton
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford
Miss Prentiss, Bradford's Receptionist
In Love with Life
Sharon
Hawthorne of the U.S.A.
Princess Irma
Officer Thirteen
Doris Dane
Two Wise Maids
Ethel Harriman
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
Self (archive footage)
The Unholy Three
Rosie O'Grady
False Faces
Georgia Rand
Ebb Tide
Ruth Attwater
Woman Hungry
Judith Temple
The Emperor's New Clothes
Wringmouth
Flight
Elinor
Just Married
Victoire
The Adorable Cheat
Marion Dorsey
The Gorilla
Alice Denby
Terror Island
Beverly West
Second Wife
Florence Wendell Fairchild
Love, Live & Laugh
Margharita
Wandering Husbands
Diana Moreland
The Dollar-a-Year Man
Peggy Bruce
The Dictator
Juanita
Double Cross Roads
Mary Carlyle
A Trip to Paramountown
Self
The Iron Master
Janet Stillman
Rent Free
Barbara Teller
After the Show
Eileen
War Correspondent
Julie March
Whirlpool
Helen Rankin Morrison
Midsummer Madness
Daisy Osborne
Gasoline Gus
Sal Jo Banty
Radio Patrol
Sue Kennedy
One Increasing Purpose
Elizabeth Glade
Love's Whirlpool
Molly
Woman-Proof
Louise Halliday
Top Sergeant Mulligan
The girl
The Ghost Breaker
Maria Theresa, a Spanish Heiress
One Glorious Day
Molly McIntyre
The Ne'er-Do-Well
Chiquita
Exposure
Doris Corbin
The Prince Chap
Claudia (age 18)
Crazy to Marry
Annabelle Landis
The Argyle Case
Mary Morgan
I Can't Escape
Mae Nichols
The Secret Garden
Mary Lennox
Honky Tonk
Beth
Unholy Love
Jane Bradford
The Charm School
Elsie
Misbehaving Ladies
Princess Ellen
Dark Streets
Katie Dean
The Black Pearl
Eugenie Bromley
Face in the Sky
Sharon Hadley
Drag
Dot
Coming Through
Alice Rand
The Little Wild Girl
Marie Cleste
The Midnight Girl
Anna
Million Dollar Mystery
Florence Grey
Nation Aflame
Mona Franklin Burtis
The Lottery Man
Polly
The Sacred Flame
Stella Taylor
Homeward Bound
Mary Brent
Another Man's Wife
Helen Brand
The Fast Freight
Elsie
The Wampas Baby Stars of 1922
Self
Broken Hearts
Ruth Esterin