Clara Bow
Born: 1905-07-29 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Died: 1965-09-27
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Clara Gordon Bow (July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom in silent films during the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" after 1927. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol. Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including hits such as Mantrap (1926), It (1927), and Wings (1927). She was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost two-to-one, a "safe return". At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929). Two years after marrying actor Rex Bell in 1931, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada. Her final film, Hoop-La, was released in 1933. In September 1965, Bow died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
Filmography
2025
- Hodgepodge as Self (archive footage, as Mary Preston)
2011
- Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films as Herself (archive footage)
2010
- Sigrid Holmquist as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage)
- Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
2007
- Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema as Self (archive footage)
2002
- Edith Head: The Paramount Years as (archive footage)
1999
- Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl as Self / Various Roles (archive footage)
1995
- Betty Boop: Queen of the Cartoons as Self (archive footage)
1953
- Yesterday and Today as (archive footage)
1949
- Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner as Clara Bow
1933
- Hoopla as Lou
- The Film Parade as (archive footage) (uncredited)
1932
- Call Her Savage as Nasa Springer
1931
- Kick In as Molly Hewes
- The House That Shadows Built as (archive footage)
- No Limit as Helen 'Bunny' O'Day
1930
- Her Wedding Night as Norma Martin
- True to the Navy as Ruby Nolan
- Paramount on Parade as Herself
- Love Among the Millionaires as Pepper Whipple
1929
- Dangerous Curves as Pat Delaney
- The Saturday Night Kid as Mayme Barry
- The Wild Party as Stella Ames
1928
- Red Hair as Bubbles McCoy
- Three Week Ends as Gladys O'Brien
- Ladies of the Mob as Yvonne
- The Fleet's In as Trixie Deane
1927
- It as Betty Lou Spence
- Wings as Mary Preston
- Hula as Hula Calhoun
- Get Your Man as Nancy Worthington
- Children of Divorce as Kitty Flanders
- Rough House Rosie as Rosie O'Reilly
1926
- Mantrap as Alverna
- Kid Boots as Clara McCoy
- Dancing Mothers as Kittens Westcourt
- Two Can Play as Dorothy Hammis
- Fascinating Youth as Clara Bow
- Shadow of the Law as Mary Brophy
- The Runaway as Cynthia Meade
1925
- Capital Punishment as Delia Tate
- Parisian Love as Marie
- The Plastic Age as Cynthia Day
- Free to Love as Marie Anthony
- My Lady of Whims as Prudence Severn
- The Lawful Cheater as Molly Burns
- Kiss Me Again as Grizette
- The Primrose Path as Marilyn Merrill
- The Best Bad Man as Peggy Swain
- My Lady's Lips as Lola Lombard
- The Scarlet West as Miriam
- Eve's Lover as Rena D'Arcy
- The Adventurous Sex as The Girl
- The Keeper of the Bees as Lolly Cameron
- The Ancient Mariner as Doris
1924
- Grit as Orchid McGonigle
- Black Lightning as Martha Larned
- Wine as Angela Warriner
- Empty Hearts as Rosalie
- Daughters of Pleasure as Lila Millas
- This Woman as Aline Sturdevant
- Helen's Babies as Alice Mayton
- Poisoned Paradise as Margot LeBlanc
1923
- Black Oxen as Janet Ogelthorpe
- Maytime as Alice Tremaine
- The Daring Years as Mary
- Enemies of Women as Dancing Girl (uncredited)
- The Pill Pounder
1922
- Beyond the Rainbow as Virginia Gardener
- Down to the Sea in Ships as 'Dot' Morgan