Florence lawrence biography

Canadian-American actress (1886–1938)

Florence Lawrence (born Florence Annie Bridgwood; January 2, 1886 – December 28, 1938) was a Canadian-American stage performer and film actress. She is often referred to as the "first movie star", and was long thought to be the first film actor to be named publicly until evidence published in 2019 indicated that the first named film star was French actor Max Linder. At the height of her fame in the 1910s, she was known as the "Biograph Girl" for work as one of the leading ladies in silent films from the Biograph Company. She appeared in almost 300 films for various motion picture companies throughout her career.

Early life

Born Florence Annie Bridgwood in Hamilton, Ontario, she was youngest of three children of George Bridgwood, an English-born carriage builder and Charlotte "Lotta" Bridgwood (née Dunn), a vaudeville actress. Charlotte Bridgwood had emigrated to Canada from Ireland after the Great Famine with her family as a child. She was known professionally as Lotta Lawrence and was the leading lady and director of the Lawrence Dramatic Company. At the age of three, Lawrence made her debut onstage with her mother in a song and dance routine. When she was old enough to memorize lines of dialogue, she performed with her mother and other members of the Lawrence Dramatic Company in dramatic plays. After performing tear-jerking dramas like Dora Thorne and East Lynne began to depress Lawrence, her mother dropped them from the company's repertoire. While Lawrence performed on stage at the behest of her mother, she recalled that she enjoyed the work but did not like the traveling that all vaudeville performers were required to do. By the age of six, Lawrence had earned the nickname "Baby Flo, the Child Wonder".

On February 18, 1898, George Bridgwood died from accidental coal gas poisoning at his home in Hamilton (Lawrence's parents had been separated since

The forgotten woman buried at Section 2W, Space 300 in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery—62 acres in the shadow of Paramount’s studio lot, offering eternal rest for celebrities from Jayne Mansfield to Johnny Ramone—has 302 acting credits on IMDb, and was once known prosaically as “the Girl of a Thousand Faces.” Yet somehow, her grave went unmarked from 1938 to 1991. Fifty-three years passed before actor and film-history buff Roddy McDowall sprang for a headstone that marked the departed’s singular place in cinematic history: “The First Movie Star.” Her name was Florence Lawrence.

A fair-haired, bow-lipped vaudevillian with a cleft chin, Lawrence began her acting career without fanfare in 1906. She remained anonymous while working for Thomas Edison’s studio and then D.W. Griffith’s Biograph Company. Even by 1909, after she had appeared in 50-plus one-reelers, Lawrence was known to her adoring public not by name, but as “the Biograph Girl.”

This was typical of the time; as Norma Desmond snarled in Sunset Boulevard, silent stars “didn’t need dialogue. We had faces.” But why weren’t the first screen actors credited by name? The answer lies squarely with early studio owners—namely the Edison Trust cartel—who feared that notoriety would embolden actors to demand more money. (Griffith paid Lawrence just $25 a week, about $660 in 2018.) But by 1909, the film business was changing. A post-industrial public with leisure time was crowding the “flickers,” once derided as vulgar—and businessmen were starting to notice.

Carl Laemmle, one of the original cigar-chewing moguls who went on to found Universal Pictures, called Lawrence “the greatest moving-picture actress in the world today” in February 1910. He had recently hired the performer after Griffith dismissed her for seeking parts with other film companies. Not content to simply claim Biograph’s ingenue for his Independent Motion Picture Co. (or “IMP”), producer Laemmle concocted a fantastical three-part publicity stun

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Outside of cinema historians and movie aficionados, the name Florence Lawrence is not likely to ring a bell, although she was in over 300 films, was considered Hollywood’s first movie star, and was known as “the Girl of a Thousand Faces.”

Florence Annie Bridgwood was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on January 2, 1886. Her mother, whose stage name was Lotta Lawrence, toured the vaudeville circuit taking little Florence along with her. Her mother’s profession would soon influence and shape her destiny. At the age of three, she was billed as “Baby Flo-The Child Wonder Whistler,” and as she grew older she performed in musicals and plays, whistling and playing the violin all under the guidance and management of her mother.

But in 1907, the company was disbanded. With the name and reputation, she had built for herself, at the age of 20 she was cast in the Edison production of Daniel Boone which then led to work at Vitagraph studios where she did one-reel Shakespeare films, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and many more all for a salary of $15 a week. She also painted the background scenery. Biograph hired her and upped her salary to $25 a week. It was there that she worked with D.W. Griffith and honed her craft, and it was there that she worked in comedies. But she left Biograph in search of more challenging work. That move backfired and she was blacklisted by all non-independent production houses. It was in 1909 that Carl Laemmle formed his production company and signed Florence to a $1,000 a week exclusive contract as a featured player.

Although she had appeared in numerous films, her name was not known to her many fans. All her fan mail would go directly to the production houses and she was simply known as “The Biograph Girl.” The production companies kept her name a secret as they did all other actors who worked for them. They received no screen credit. The reason behind this was that fame would embolden the actors to demand more money.