Hollywood Memorial

Legendary silent screen actress, her film career began when she joined the Biograph company in New York under the direction of D.W. Griffith. Over the next 2 years she starred in over 79 films at Biograph, moving out to Hollywood in what became Paramount Pictures. Her fame and fortune grew and Mary was nicknamed “America’s Sweetheart”, a mantle later picked up by Meg Ryan and then Jennifer Anniston. By 1917, she was so famous that she set off on a war bonds tour with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.. She began her affair with Fairbanks during the tour and after divorcing Owen Moore, they were married in 1920 and became even more popular as a couple. They were treated like Hollywood royalty and drew famous names to their home named “Pickfair”. Throughout the 20’s Mary slowed down her film production to one quality picture per year, but by the end of the decade her screen persona was looking dated and Mary decided to change it. With a new shorter haircut and in her first talking picture, Coquette, in 1929, she won the Oscar for Best Actress. Her career suffered greatly with talking pictures and by 1936 her marriage to Fairbanks was over, remaining more or less a recluse at her Hollywood mansion. She was the co-founder of United Artists Pictures with then husband Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith, a studio now owned by Tom Cruise. The first lady of the silent screen is buried beneath a huge monument in a gated section of Forest Lawn Cemetery near Humphrey Bogart and Sammy Davis Jr.