Marie Prevost (November 8, 1898 - January 21, 1937) was a Canadian-born actress of the early days of cinema. During her twenty year career, she made 121 silent and talking pictures.

Biography

Early life

Born Mary Bickford Dunn in Sarnia, Ontario, when she was still a child her family moved first to Denver, Colorado and then later to Los Angeles, California. While working as a secretary, she applied for and obtained an acting job at the Hollywood studio owned by Mack Sennett. Sennett, who was from a small Canadian town outside of Montreal, dubbed her as the exotic "French girl", adding Dunn to his collection of bathing beauties under the stage name of Marie Prevost.

In 1919, Prevost secretly married socialite Sonny Gerke who left her after six months of marriage. Gerke, whose mother forbid him to associate with Pervost because she was an actress, was scared to tell his mother of the marriage and couldn't get a divorce without revealing that he was married. Prevost was fearful of the bad publicity a divorce would cause and would stay secretly married to Gerke until 1923.

Career rise

One of her first publicly successful film roles came in the 1920 romantic film Love, Honor, and Behave, opposite another newcomer and Sennett protegé, George O'Hara. Initially cast in numerous minor comedic roles as the sexy, innocent young girl, she worked in several films for Sennett's studio until 1921 when she signed with Universal. At Universal, Irving Thalberg took an interest in Provost decided to make her a star. Thalberg ensured that she received a great deal of publicity and staged numerous publicity events. After announcing that he had selected two films for Prevost to star in, The Moonlight Follies (1921) and Kissed (1922), Thalberg sent Prevost to Coney Island where she publicly burned her bathing suit to symbolize the end of her bathing beauty days.

While at Universal, Prevost was still relegated to light comedies. After her contract expired, Jack Warner signed her to a two year contract at $1500 a week at Warner Bros. in 1922. During this time, Prevost was dating actor Kenneth Harlan. Jack Warner had also signed Harlan to a contract and cast the couple in the lead roles in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned. To publicize the film, Warner announced that the couple would marry on the film's set. The publicity stunt worked and thousands of fans sent gifts and letters to the couple. The Los Angeles Mirror got wind that Prevost's was stilled married to Sonny Greke and ran a story with the headline Marie Prevost Will be a Bigamist if She Marries Kenneth Harlan. Warner was livid over the negative publicity and Prevost's failure to disclose her first marriage despite the fact that the publicity stunt was his idea. Warner quickly arranged an annullment and, when the publicity surrounding the scandal died down, Prevost and Harlan were quietly married.

In spite of the bad publicity, Prevost's performance in The Beautiful and Damned brought good reviews. Director Ernst Lubitsch chose her for a major role opposite Adolphe Menjou in 1924's The Marriage Circle. Of her performance as the beautiful seductress, Ernst Lubitsch said that she was one of the few actresses in Hollywood who knew how to underplay comedy to achieve the maximum effect.This performance, praised by The New York Times, resulted in Lubitsch casting her in Three Women in 1924 and in Kiss Me Again the following year.

Just as her career was blossoming, Prevost's mother was killed in an automobile accident while traveling in Florida with actress Vera Steadman, another Canadian friend, and Hollywood studio owner, Al Christie in 1926.

Decline

Devastated by the loss of her only remaining parent, Prevost began drinking heavily and developed an addiction to alcohol. Her marriage to Harlan ended in a 1927 divorce. Prevost tried to get past her personal torment by burying herself in her work, starring in numerous roles as the temptingly beautiful seductress who in the end was always the honorable heroine. After seeing Prevost in The Beautiful and Damned, Howard Hughes cast her as the lead in The Racket (1928). During filming, Hughes and Prevost had a brief affair. Hughes quickly broke off the affair leaving Prevost heartbroken and furthering her depression. After playing the lead in The Racket, Prevost's days as a leading lady were over.

Prevost's depression caused her to binge on food resulting in significant weight gain. By the 1930s, she was working less and being offered only secondary parts. A notable exception was Paid, in 1930, a role for which she got good reviews. As a result of all this, her financial income declined and her growing dependency on alcohol added to her weight problems. By 1934, she had no work at all and her financial situation deteriorated dramatically. The downward spiral became greatly aggravated when her weight problems forced her into repeated crash dieting in order to keep whatever bit part a movie studio offered.

Death

On January 21, 1937, at the age of 38, Prevost died from acute alcoholism. Her body was not discovered until January 23, after neighbors complained about her dog's incessant barking. A bellboy, who ignored the note Prevost posted on the door asking that no one knock on the door more than once, finally forced the door open. Prevost was found lying face down on her bed, her legs marked with tiny bites. Prevost's pet dachshund, Maxie, had nipped at her legs in an attempt to wake her up.

Her funeral (which was paid for by Joan Crawford) at the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery was attended by Crawford, Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, and Barbara Stanwyck among others.

In February 1937, it was discovered that Prevost estate was valued at only $300prompting the Hollywood community to create the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital to provide medical care for employees of the television and motion picture industry.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Marie Prevost has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard.

References in pop culture

British musician Nick Lowe retold the story of Prevost's death in his satirical song "Marie Provost" (the misspelling is Lowe's) from his 1978 album Jesus of Cool. The song's refrain: "She was a winner/Who became the doggie's dinner."

Marie and her pet are also referenced in the play Legends, wherein Carol Channing's character warns Mary Martin's that it wouldn't be safe for her to die with the dog on the premises unless it knew how to operate a can opener.

In Chuck Palahniuk's 2008 novel Snuff, Prevost's death is referenced several times, although the cause of her depression and decline in popularity are attributed to a heavy Bronx accent being revealed at the inception of movies with sound.

Selected filmography

Silent films
Year	Film	Role	Other notes
	Those Bitter Sweets
	His Father's Footsteps
1916	Unto Those Who Sin	Celeste
	A Scoundrel's Toll
1917	Secrets of a Beauty Parlor
	Two Crooks
1918	Her Screen Idol	Billy McBride
	The Village Chestnut
1919	Uncle Tom Without a Cabin	Eliza
	The Speakeasy
1920	Fresh from the City
	Fickle Fancy
1921	Wedding Bells Out of Tune
	Moonlight Follies	Nan Rutledge
1922	The Dangerous Little Demon	Teddy Harmon
	The Married Flapper	Pamela Billings
1923	Red Lights	Ruth Carson
	The Wanters	Myra Hastings
1924	Being Respectable	Valerie Winship	Credited as Mary Prevost
	The Lover of Camille	Marie Duplessis
1925	Bobbed Hair	Connemara Moore
	Seven Sinners	Molly Brian
1926	His Jazz Bride	Gloria Gregory
	Up in Mabel's Room	Mabel Ainsworth
1927	Man Bait	Madge Dreyer
	The Girl in the Pullman	Hazel Burton	Alternative title: The Girl on the Train
1928	A Blonde for a Night	Marie
	The Rush Hour	Margie Dolan
1929	The Godless Girl	The Other Girl
	The Flying Fool	Pat Riley
Sound films
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1930	Ladies of Leisure	Dot Lamar
	Sweethearts on Parade	Nita
1931	The Good Bad Girl	Trixie
	The Sin of Madelon Claudet	Rosalie Lebeau	Alternative title: The Lullaby
1932	Slightly Married	Nellie Gordon
	Rock-a-Bye Cowboy	Marie
1933	The Eleventh Commandment	Tessie Florin
	Only Yesterday	Amy	Uncredited
1935	Keystone Hotel	Mrs. Clarabelle Sterling
	Hands Across the Table	Nona
1936	Thirteen Hours by Air	Waitress	Uncredited
	Cain and Mabel	Sherman's Receptionist	Uncredited

See also

• Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

References

External links

• 0696679 Marie Prevost at the Internet Movie Database