Seena Owen
Also Known As: Signe Auen
Biography: From Wikipedia Seena Owen (November 14, 1894 – August 15, 1966) was a Danish-American silent film actress. Born Signe Auen at Spokane, Washington, the youngest of three children raised by Jens Christensen and Karen (née Sorensen) Auen. Her father and mother came from Denmark in the late 1880s and settled in Minnesota where they married in 1888. Within a short period of time they relocated to Portland and then Spokane, where her father became proprietor of the Columbia Pharmacy. Her first important film was A Yankee From the West (1915) under the name Signe Auen at the age of 21. She was later convinced to change her name and settled on Seena Owen, the phonetic spelling of her real name. In 1916 she performed in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance. The same year she married George Walsh whom she had met on the set of Intolerance. The marriage lasted until their divorce in 1924. A regular player for the rest of the silent era, Owen appeared in films such as Maurice Tourneur's Victory in 1919 where she was photographed to great effect by Tourneur's cameraman, Rene Guissart. In 1920, she appeared in "The Gift Supreme" with Lon Chaney, who appeared with her in Victory. She co-starred with Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron in the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928), as the mad Queen who whips Swanson in one scene. With the arrival of sound in movies, Owen's weak voice became a problem and forced her to retire from the silver screen in 1933. After her retirement, she worked on a number of films in the 1930s/40s as a screenwriter including two starring Dorothy Lamour: Aloma of the South Seas and Rainbow Island, both in 1941. The former was written in part with her sister, Lillie Hayward, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Seena Owen died on August 15, 1966 at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, aged 71, and was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Spokane, Washington, USA
Birthday: November 13, 1894
Deathday: August 15, 1966
Adult: No
Gender: Female
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Known For:
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Overview: The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-09-04
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For Woman's Favor
Overview: A modern love story is the framework for a costume love story, based on Boccaccio's "The Falcon."
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-08-01
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The Fox Woman
Overview: According to Japanese legend, the Fox Woman was not possessed of a soul. To exist, she was obliged to steal the soul of others.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1915-07-15
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Queen Kelly
Overview: A prince betrothed to a mad queen falls in love with an orphan girl from a convent.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-10-18
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The Flame of the Yukon
Overview: George Fowler, a young man from the states, arrives at the Mias saloon, and the proprietor, "Blak Jack" Hovey, orders a saloon girl, known only as "The Flame," to fleece him. When she learns he doesn't have any money she gets him a job at a café. News of a gold strike in the Ophir area comes, and George sets out, with a dog team supplied by Flame. Meanwhile a woman comes to town, says she is Mrs. Fowler and is looking for her husband.
Genres: Action Adventure Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-08-30
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The Hunted Woman
Overview: Joanne Gray goes North to find out whether her husband is dead or alive and to attempt to obtain the release of her innocent brother from jail. She becomes enamored of a youth who has staked out a gold claim but remains chaste until her husband is found and killed, meeting death in a fight with the youth's partner.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-03-22
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The Sheriff's Son
Overview: Sheriff's son Royal Beaudry is thought a coward, even by the young woman he has his heart set on. But he disproves cowardice when he rescues his father's friend from kidnappers.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-03-30
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Sooner or Later
Overview: When newlywed Robert Ellis suspects that his missing wife is having a clandestine affair, he appeals to his friend, Pat Murphy, to find her. Pat's search leads him to the Waldorf-Astoria where he finds a woman named Edna Ellis and, assuming that she is Ellis' errant wife, kidnaps her and returns her to Ellis. Complications arise when the real Mrs. Ellis arrives home and discovers another woman. After several comic incidents, Pat falls in love with Edna and Ellis learns that his wife's secret rendezvous was with her sister.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-02-01
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The Craven
Overview: Bud Walton, the village blacksmith, is big and strong physically, but he has not the courage to put his strength to good purpose. All the boys take a slap at him whenever they choose, and Bud makes no attempt to retaliate. This causes his sweetheart, June, to despise him.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1915-01-23
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A Yankee from the West
Overview: Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In Addertown he secures a position as stationmaster of the L. & R. Railroad, but is forced out because of his drinking habits. He accidentally meets Gunhild, an emigrant Norwegian girl, as she arrives in Addertown to take up her home with Jan Hagsberg, the town's saloonkeeper. Seeking revenge on the railroad, Milford joins Jim Dorsey in a scheme to hold up the road's paymaster on his way to pay the employees of the company's mine.
Genres: Drama Romance Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1915-08-19
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Lavender and Old Lace
Overview: Mary Ainslie has been waiting 30 years for her fiancé, a sea captain, to return. She has kept a light burning in her window to guide him home. His son Carl, by another woman, arrives on vacation in the New England village where Mary lives. Mary is overcome by the resemblance between the young man and his father. The young man falls in love with Ruth, Mary's young comrade. On her deathbed, Mary wishes Carl and Ruth the romantic life that she did not live.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-06-01
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One of the Finest
Overview: Traffic cop Larry Hayes takes care of four-year-old Mary Jane, the daughter of Gus Andrews, a criminal sent to prison because of Larry, and Nellie, a shop girl who visits often.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-06-01
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I Am the Man
Overview: A jealous politician tries to force a woman to marry him by framing her father for a crime.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-12-15
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Victory
Overview: Adaptation of Joseph Conrad novel about lust and violence on a South Seas Island.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-12-07
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The Rush Hour
Overview: Margie Dolan dreams of endless pleasure and adventures abroad, while her sweetheart, Dan Morley, is devoted to his drugstore business and his eventual marriage to Margie. When the horrors of commuting become unendurable Margie boards an ocean liner on a business errand and decides to stowaway. She is soon discovered and is put to work in the linen room. Dunrock and Yvonne, an unscrupulous pair plan to relieve a millionaire called Finch of his fortune. They hire Margie to be an unwitting romantic companion to Finch to make their job that much easier!
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1927-12-12
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The Better Way
Overview: Sunbeam's father is sent to prison, and on his release promises to remain honest. He secures a job as a night watchman, but his prison record being discovered, he is fired, and finds it impossible to secure work. Sunbeam gets a job in a a family as a "slavey" in order to support the father and herself, but her father chafes at the idea of his daughter working, although he does not know what her job is nor where. In desperation, he decides to turn crook again, and breaks into the house where his daughter is working.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-12-22
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An Old-Fashioned Girl
Overview: Abigail, the pretty daughter of a village school teacher, and Jared Guild are lovers. Bertha comes from the city to visit in the little town. Her charms prove too strong for Jared, who neglects Abigail to dance attendance upon the new belle. The country girl is broken-hearted, though she hides her sorrow from her erstwhile sweetheart. A wealthy young planter, however, soon cuts out Jared with Bertha.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1915-02-02
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The Lamb
Overview: Gerald, the somewhat frail son of a wealthy New York family, is bested at the beach by Bill, a strapping young cowboy from Arizona. His fiancée Mary, ashamed of Gerald's "yellow streak", leaves him and goes by train to visit some friends in Arizona, with Bill in tow. Gerald follows them, and before long he and Mary winds up captured by Yaqui Indians and Gerald must prove to Mary that he is not the "weakling" she thinks he is by coming up with a plan for them to escape their captors.
Genres: Western Adventure Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1915-11-06
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Unseeing Eyes
Overview: The sister of a silver mine owner hires a renegade pilot to fly her to her brother's rescue.
Genres: Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-11-18
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The Blue Danube
Overview: Marguerite, the beauty of an Austrian village, loves the poverty-stricken Baron Erich von Statzen, although her mother is opposed to the affair, having been made suspicious by the hunchback Ludwig, who is smitten by Marguerite's charms and insanely jealous of Statzen. Statzen's uncle would have him marry Helena Boursch, the local brewer's daughter, to save his dwindling estate. Ordered to the front when war is declared, Statzen is forced to leave without saying goodby to Marguerite.
Genres: Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-03-11
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The Fall of Babylon
Overview: After the relatively low box office takings of 'Intolerance', D. W. Griffith would revisit his epic film three years later by releasing two of the film's interlocking stories as standalone features, with some new additional footage. The first of the two was 'The Fall of Babylon', which depicts the conflict between Prince Belshazzar of Babylon and Cyrus the Great of Persia.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-07-21
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The Gift Supreme
Overview: Bradford Vinton falls in love with a girl singer from the slums, but his father makes plans to break the relationship; when the plans fail, he disinherits his son.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-03-30
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Shipwrecked
Overview: Larry O'Neil, a ship's cook, finds and befriends stowaway Lois Austin, who is a fugitive from a murder charge. The ship's captain, Klodel, also finds her and forces her to do his will as he has received a cablegram and knows she is hunted.
Genres: Adventure Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1926-05-09
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Back Pay
Overview: This 1922 Frank Borzage film is a masterwork waiting to be rediscovered. Hester Bevins is a simple country girl who yearns for adventure. Though she has a handsome young man, Jerry, who is devoted to her, she leaves her village and goes to New York in search of a grander life. There she becomes the lover of a wealthy and unscrupulous businessman. But when Jerry returns blinded and dying from the war, Hester must choose between her new life and the man whose loyalty to her has never failed.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-01-08
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The Cheater Reformed
Overview: Thomas Edinburgh is secretly in love with Carol, wife of the Reverend Luther McCall, and produces evidence that her husband was once an embezzler. Leaving for Cleveland, the minister meets his twin brother, Jordan, the real embezzler, who is evading the law. Luther is killed in a train wreck, and Jordan, assumes his brother's identity....
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-01-02
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The Face in the Fog
Overview: Boston Blackie Dawson gets some jewels that belonged to the imperial family of Russia. A gang of terrorists is after the jewels.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-10-07
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The Great Well
Overview: In India a major tries to cash in on a dry oil well but shoots himself when the oil returns.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-03-01
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Martha's Vindication
Overview: A 1916 film directed by Chester M. Franklin.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-02-20
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Madame Bo-Peep
Overview: A 1917 filmd riected by Chester Withey.
Genres: Western Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-05-26
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Madame Bo-Peep
Overview: A 1917 filmd riected by Chester Withey.
Genres: Western Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-05-26
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A Woman's Awakening
Overview: A 1917 film directed by Chester Withey.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-03-24
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Riders of Vengeance
Overview: Harry's bride is murdered at their wedding along with Harry's mother and father, and the good-hearted outlaw turns grimly malevolent.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-06-09
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Faint Perfume
Overview: After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, taking their young son Oliver with her. Barnaby follows her, to ask for custody of the boy, but meets and falls in love with Richmiel's pretty and sensitive cousin Ledda. Complications ensue.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1925-06-08
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The Marriage Playground
Overview: A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their intermarriages and blend thoroughly, and you have a mixture a too-young-to-believe Frederic March will try to straighten out.
Genres: Comedy Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-12-12
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Branding Broadway
Overview: Drunk and disorderly cowpoke Robert Sands is banished from an Arizona frontier town and hops on a freight train heading for New York. Arriving in Manhattan, the rough-and-tumble cowboy obtains a position as "physical guardian" to a spoiled member of the social register.
Genres: Romance Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-12-15
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Officer Thirteen
Overview: A motorcycle policeman's partner is deliberately run off the road and killed by a member of a syndicate that controls the gambling--and much of the justice system--in his town. When the killer is freed because of perjured testimony and the corrupt legal system, the dead officer's partner quits the force and vows to bring the killer to justice.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1932-11-26
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The Life Line
Overview: Jack Hearne, known as the Romany Rye, prefers living with the gypsies rather than claiming the right to his part of his half brother Phillip Royston's country estate, Cragsnest. When he saves Ruth Heckett, the daughter of his friend Joe, a London bird shop owner and burglar, from a theater fire, however, he changes his mind and marries her. As Ruth and Jack board a steamer for America to find witnesses to his parents' wedding for proof of his inheritance, Joe's partner Bos gives Ruth a Bible that he stole from Cragsnest, as a present.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-10-05
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A Man And His Money
Overview: Inheriting a fortune allows Harry Lathrop to indulge in extravagant spending and wild wine parties with chorus girls, decides to change his ways after his childhood sweetheart, Betty Dalrymple, gives back her engagement ring because he arrives drunk for dinner.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-03-16
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The Woman God Changed
Overview: In a jealous rage dancer Anna Janssen shoots her common-law husband Alastair De Vries in a cafe when she discovers him with a chorus girl. Fleeing to Tahiti she is tracked by detective Thomas McCarthy who arrests her. On their return journey they are marooned on a deserted island. After 2 years together, they realize their love and take marriage vows, but when a ship is sighted, she insists, against his wishes, that she return to face trial.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-07-03
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Breed of Men
Overview: Boss rider "Careless" Carmody is made sheriff of an Arizona frontier town by Chicago swindler Prentice. The naive Carmody actually believes Prentice to be on the up and up and vouches for him in a land deal with Ruth Fellowes. Taken to the cleaners, so to speak, Ruth blames Carmody, who, in love with the girl, follows Prentice back to Chicago.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-02-02
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Man-Made Women
Overview: The man who loved her showed her how to hold the man she loved. A novel picture story packed with drama, thrills and laughs.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1928-09-09
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The Leavenworth Case
Overview: Eleanor Leavenworth (Seena Owen) is about to be arrested for the murder of her rich bachelor uncle, and suspicion is cast on each member of the Leavenworth household until Raymond (Bradley Barker), an attorney in love with Eleanor, solves the mystery and produces the culprit, who confesses and falls to his death while trying to escape.
Genres: Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-11-04
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The Go-Getter
Overview: Bill Peck is discharged from an army hospital and goes in search of a job. Cappy Ricks hires Bill, but gives him an seemingly impossible test of finding and buying a particular blue vase to prove he can handle a challenging job in China.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1923-04-08
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