Pearl White
Also Known As: Pearl Fay White
Biography: From Wikipedia Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889 – August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. White began her career on the stage at the age of six, and later moved on to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials. Dubbed the "Queen of the serials", White was noted for doing the majority of her own stunts in several film serials, most notably in The Perils of Pauline. In 1910, White was offered a role by Pathé Frères in The Girl From Arizona, the French company's first American film produced at their new studio in Bound Brook, New Jersey. She then worked at Lubin Studios in 1911 and several other of the independents, until the Crystal Film Company in Manhattan gave her top billing in a number of slapstick comedy shorts from 1912 to 1914. White then took a vacation in Europe. Upon her return, she signed with Eclectic Film Company, a subsidiary of Pathé in 1914. Pathé director Louis J. Gasnier offered her the starring role in film serial The Perils of Pauline. By 1919, White had grown tired of film serials and signed with Fox Film Corporation with the ambition to appear in dramatic roles. Over the next two years, White appeared in ten drama films for Fox but her popularity had begun to wane. Pearl White's place in film history is important in both the evolution of cinema genres and the role of women. Like many silent film actors, many of White's films are now considered lost. The Perils of Pauline is only known to exist in a reduced nine-reel version released in Europe in 1916, but The Exploits of Elaine survives and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. All of her films were made at East Coast studios as White reportedly never visited Hollywood. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Pearl White has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Blvd. The 1947 Paramount Pictures film The Perils of Pauline, starring Betty Hutton, is a fictionalized biography of Pearl White.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Green Ridge, Missouri, USA
Birthday: March 04, 1889
Deathday: August 04, 1938
Adult: No
Gender: Female
Popularity:
Known For:
The Romance of Elaine
Overview: The heroine had little time for romancing newspaper reporter Walter Jameson, what with Doctor X, alias Marcus Del Mar, threatening American democracy in general and master detective Craig Kennedy's designs for a new torpedo in particular. Whenever Doctor X has Elaine or Jameson in his grasp, they are inevitably saved in the nick of time by a mystery figure garbed in black.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1915-06-14
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The Perils of Pauline
Overview: The Perils of Pauline is a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring the actress Pearl White playing the title character. Pauline has often been cited as a famous example of a damsel-in-distress, although viewers will find her character more resourceful and less helpless than the classic 'damsel' stereotype. Nine episodes (from a condensed 1916 re-release) survive to this day.
Genres: Action Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-03-31
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The Woman Hater
Overview: A man is captured by Indians after swearing off all women.
Genres: Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1910-11-26
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Pearl's Dilemma
Overview: Pearl mistakes a janitor for a member of the Black Hand.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-07-13
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The Exploits of Elaine
Overview: Elaine Dodge is the beautiful young daughter of Taylor Dodge, president of the Consolidated Insurance Company. When Mr Dodge is murdered by a mysterious cloaked figure known only as the Clutching Hand, Elaine enlists the aid of Craig Kennedy to unmask the killer
Genres: Action Crime Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-12-29
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The White Moll
Overview: Desperate because a wealthy man has reduced her father to thievery, Rhoda agrees to rob the poor box of the church, although she finds the act abhorrent.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-07-24
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Lost in the Night
Overview: Pearl White as a sleepwalking jewel thief.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-09-06
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The Ring
Overview: Though Mr. and Mrs. Gray are supposed to be in comfortable circumstances, the husband has met business reverses and has been declared a bankrupt. It is after the wife has just completed a lavish social that he tells her. Disgruntled, she goes with him to live at a cheap apartment house. Pearl White starred in the Crystal FILMS short THE RING in 1914, just months before starting work at the Pathe studio on her break-out hit serial THE PERILS OF PAULINE.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-01-11
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The Hall-Room Girls
Overview: Pearl White & Chester Barnett want to go on a date and have nothing to wear, so they borrow some clothes....
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-07-19
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The Daughter of Niagara
Overview: Esoomgit tries to stop Red Doe from sacrificing herself for their tribe.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1910-04-29
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The Iron Claw
Overview: Only Episode 7, "The Hooded Helper," of this 20-Episode Serial is known to survive. All other episodes are believed to be lost.
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-02-28
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For Massa's Sake
Overview: Short directed by Joseph A. Golden.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-01-02
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The King's Game
Overview: The story tells of the adventures of an unusual young duke, whose father, the old Grand Duke of Kiev, coveted the wife of Count Dardinilis, his colonel of Huzzars; of the old Grand Duke's plot to get her for himself; of her accidental death at the hands of his Cossacks, and of the colonel's escape with his little daughter to America. The young Grand Duke, now an orphan, comes to America to complete his education.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-01-07
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The Fatal Ring
Overview: A silent movie serial directed by George B. Seitz.
Genres: Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-07-07
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Pearl of the Army
Overview: A 1916 movie serial.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-01-02
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The House of Hate
Overview: A young heiress of an American gun factory is threatened by a masked man after her father was murdered. This criminal might be a member of her family or a German agent, who wants to get information about the factory's products, perhaps his mystery has a combined solution - we will probably never know...
Genres: Action Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-01-02
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The Black Secret
Overview: Adventures of an American Secret Service-girl in search of an important German secret during the war. Chapters: [1] “The Great Secret,”; [2] “Marked for Death,”; [3] “The Gas Chamber,”; [4] “Below the Waterline,”; [5] “The Acid Bath,”; [6] “The Unknown,”; [7] “The Betrayal,”; [8] “A Crippled Hand,”; [9] “Woes of Deceit,”; [10] “The Inn of Dread,”; [11] “The Death Studio,”; [12] “The Chance Trail,"; [13] “Wings of Mystery,”; [14] “The Hidden Way,”; [15] “The Secret Host"
Genres: Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-01-02
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The Lightning Raider
Overview: A beautiful young woman is a daring master thief. She meets the young millionaire Thomas Babbington Norton, while fleeing from the scene of her latest theft.
Genres: Action Adventure Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-01-02
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A Night at the Cinema in 1914
Overview: Cinema a century ago was a new, exciting and highly democratic form of entertainment. Picture houses nationwide offered a sociable, lively environment in which to relax and escape from the daily grind. With feature films still rare, the programme was an entertaining, ever-changing roster of short items with live musical accompaniment. 100 years on, this special compilation from the BFI National Archive recreates the glorious miscellany of comedies, dramas, travelogues and newsreels which would have constituted a typical night out in 1914. Our selection includes a comic short about a face-pulling competition, a sensational episode of The Perils of Pauline, scenes of Allied troops celebrating Christmas at the Front, and an early sighting of one of cinema’s greatest icons.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2014-08-01
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Any Wife
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-01-22
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Without Fear
Overview: Ruth Hamilton, from a wealthy aristocratic family, cares little for society or its conventions and refuses the proposal of William Barton, a socialite of her parents' choice. While giving some poor children an outing on a beach, Ruth meets John Martin (Miles?), a young nouveau riche with no social standing who is snubbed by the aristocratic circles, and begins to visit him secretly. When Ruth visits John to show off a new costume, her father arrives to seek his financial aid. Ruth escapes, but she is observed by Barton, who informs her father. Hamilton insists that Martin marry his daughter, but Ruth refuses to be compromised by her father. Later, however, she consents to marry John, discovering that he really loves her.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-04-16
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A Night in Town
Overview: A maid and butler take advantage of their employers' absence and have a party.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-03-02
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The Thief
Overview: When jealousy and envy lead Mary Vantyne to make a foolish decision and commit an impulsive act she sets off a series of events that nearly bring heartbreak to all those in her circle.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-12-11
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Days of Thrills and Laughter
Overview: An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-03-21
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Plunder
Overview: Various groups of people, both well-intentioned and otherwise, search for a buried treasure that is buried underneath a skyscraper.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-01-28
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Terreur
Overview: Terreur (Terror) is historically significant as Pearl White's last film.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-05-01
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Will Power
Overview: Chester is Pearl's sweetheart. Her father dislikes Chester. He reads in a book of the great superiority of mind over matter, by the proper exercise of the will and determines to try it on Chester. This he does and wills that Chester leave his house. In the middle of a conversation with Pearl, Chester suddenly rushes from the room. This state of affairs continues on and off, until Pearl by accident came across the book and understands her beau's strange actions. The next time Chester calls, Pa again wills that he go, but Pearl wills that he remain and Chester is kept running in and out of the house until Pearl's superior and stronger will wins and he remains. Pa sinks exhausted and consents to allowing Chester's attentions to Pearl
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-06-22
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Pearl As A Clairvoyant
Overview: Released as a split reel along with the comedy Almost a Winner (1913)
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1913-04-06
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Cupid’s Monkey Wrench
Overview: A young woman calls in a plumber to fix her radiator, igniting a string of romantic complications.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-04-01
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Mayblossom
Overview: In this tale of the South in the mid-1800s, Annabel Lee and Warner Richmond get married, but they keep the wedding a secret so that Warner can inherit the fortune of his misogynist grandfather. But after the grandfather's death, Warner dumps Annabel for an opera singer. Warner destroys the evidence of his first marriage so he can wed the singer, who then takes his money and leaves him.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-04-08
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The New Exploits of Elaine
Overview: One of many Pearl White silent action movie serials. CHAPTER TITLES: 1. The Serpent Sign; 2. The Cryptic Ring; 3. The Watching Eye; 4. The Vengeance Of Wu Fang; 5. The Saving Circles; 6. Spontaneous Combustion; 7. The Ear in the Wall; 8. The Opium Smugglers; 9. The Tell-Tale Heart; 10. Shadows Of War.
Genres: Adventure Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1915-04-05
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The Broadway Peacock
Overview: A cabaret hostess falls for a young aristocrat, ignoring her friend's warning that the affair will end in heartache.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-02-19
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The Lost Necklace
Overview: A young girl is presented, on her birthday, with a beautiful pearl necklace, the oldest heirloom in the family. Her maid carefully locks it up in the bureau drawer; but the next morning the necklace is missing. Naturally, the maid is accused, but she denies all knowledge of the whereabouts of the necklace, and puts the blame on the washerwoman, who had called at the time she was locking the jewels up; in consequence, the washerwoman is arrested, and her little son, thrown on his own resources, finds employment with the milkman. Two or three days later, while delivering milk at a fashionable residence, he sees a young lady walking in her sleep, out across the lawn, and follows her to a hollow tree, where he sees her dig up the jewels, which she has hidden on a previous somnambulistic promenade. Of course, this soon leads to the straightening out of all the difficulty. This short is presumably lost.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1911-01-01
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The Tiger's Cub
Overview: Queen of the serials Pearl White gets herself into plenty of trouble up Klondike way as a young maiden named Tiger's Cub.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date:
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Know Your Men
Overview: Warren Schuyler, a wealthy widower in a small Eastern town, is highly-respected until the citizens are financially ruined by devaluation of the oil stock he sold them. His daughter Ellen's New York socialite fiance' Roy Phelps deserts her after her father dies, but fellow townsman John Barrett comes to her aid, and she marries him out of gratitude. After three years of irritation from her mother-in-law, she again meets Roy and is persuaded to leave her husband and child, but on perceiving Roy's fraudulence, and following a serious illness, she reunites with John.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-03-13
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The Great Chase
Overview: A rollicking compendium of the greatest hits of silent-cinema chase sequences
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-12-20
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