Olive Thomas
Born: 1894-10-20 in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, USA
Died: 1920-09-10
Known For: Acting
Biography
Olive Thomas (born Oliva R. Duffy;[1] October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model. Thomas began her career as an illustrator's model in 1914, and moved on to the Ziegfeld Follies the following year. During her time as a Ziegfeld girl, she also appeared in the more risqué show The Midnight Frolic. In 1916, she began a successful career in silent films and would appear in more than 20 features over the course of her four-year film career. That year she also married actor Jack Pickford, the younger brother of fellow silent-film star Mary Pickford. On September 10, 1920, Thomas died in Paris five days after ingesting her husband's syphilis medication, mercury dichloride, that brought on acute nephritis. Although her death was ruled accidental, news of her hospitalization and subsequent death were the subject of speculation in the press. Thomas' death has been cited as one of the early scandals in Hollywood that was heavily publicized.
Filmography
2010
- Sigrid Holmquist as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage)
2003
- Olive Thomas: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World as Self (archive footage)
1920
- Everybody's Sweetheart as Mary
- The Flapper as Genevieve 'Ginger' King
- Youthful Folly as Nancy Sherwin
- Darling Mine as Kitty McCarthy
- Footlights and Shadows as Gloria Dawn
1919
- The Glorious Lady as Ivis Benson
- Toton as Toton/ Yvonne
- Out Yonder as Flotsam
- Love's Prisoner as Nancy, later Lady Clevela
- The Follies Girl as Doll
- Upstairs and Down as Alice Chesterton
- Prudence on Broadway as Prudence
- The Spite Bride as Tessa Doyle
1918
- Betty Takes a Hand as Betty Marshall
- Limousine Life as Minnie Wells
- Heiress For a Day as Helen Thurston
1917
- Broadway Arizona as Fritzi Carlyle
- Tom Sawyer as Choir Member (Uncredited)
- An Even Break as Claire Curtis
- Indiscreet Corinne as Corinne Chilvers
- A Girl Like That as Fannie Brooks
- Madcap Madge as Madge Flower
1916
- Beatrice Fairfax as Rita Malone (#10 Playball)