Belle Bennett
Born: 1891-04-22 in Coon Rapids, Iowa, USA
Died: 1932-11-04
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia Belle Bennett (April 22, 1891 – November 4, 1932) was a stage and screen actress who started her professional career in vaudeville. She was born in Milaca, Minnesota. Bennett was working as a film actress by 1913, and was cast in numerous one-reel shorts by small East Coast film companies. She appeared in minor motion pictures like the western film A Ticket to Red Horse Gulch (Mutual, 1914). She starred in several full-length films by the Triangle Film Corporation, including The Lonely Woman (1918). She also appeared in the Moving Picture Corporation's film Flesh and Spirit (1922). She made the move to Hollywood before Samuel Goldwyn selected her from among seventy-three actresses for the leading role in Stella Dallas (1925). While filming the movie, her son, sixteen-year-old William Howard Macy, died. Macy had posed as Bennett's brother for some time because of her fear that her employers might find out her true age. She was actually thirty-four rather than twenty-four, which she had claimed to be. After playing the mother role in Stella Dallas, Bennett was typecast for the remainder of her film career. She later appeared in Mother Machree (1928), The Battle of the Sexes (1928), The Iron Mask (1929), Courage (1930), Recaptured Love (1930), and The Big Shot (1931). Bennett was married three times. Jack Oaker, a sailor at the San Pedro, California submarine base, was married to her when she worked with the Triangle Film Corporation, in 1918. Her second husband was William Macy of La Crosse, Wisconsin. She later married film director Fred Windermere. In September 1932 she experienced a relapse of cancer, which she had been suffering from for two and a half years. She died that November at the age of 41. Late in her life Bennett came to believe in the power of prayer. A practitioner of Christian Science influenced her. She is interred in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood. Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Filmography
1931
- The Big Shot as Mrs. Isabel Thompson
1930
- Courage as Mary Colbrook
- Recaptured Love as Helen Parr
1929
- My Lady's Past as Mamie Reynolds
- Their Own Desire as Harriet Marlett
- The Iron Mask as The Queen Mother, Anne of Austria
- Molly and Me
1928
- The Battle of the Sexes as Mrs. Judson
- The Devil's Skipper as The Devil Skipper
- The Sporting Age as Miriam Driscoll
- The Power of Silence as Mamie Stone
1927
- Mother as Mrs. Mary Ellis
- Mother Machree as Mother Machree
- The Way of All Flesh as Mrs. Schilling
- The Fourth Commandment
- Wild Geese as Amelia Gare
1926
- The Lily as Odette
- The Reckless Lady as Mrs. Fleming
1925
- Stella Dallas as Stella Dallas
- Playing with Souls as Amy Dale
- His Supreme Moment as Carla Light
- East Lynne as Afy Hallijohn
1924
- Hello, 'Frisco as Belle Bennett
- In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter as Mrs. Perlmutter
1919
- The Mayor of Filbert as Mollie Vaughn
1918
- The Atom as Belle Hathaway
- The Reckoning Day as Jane Whiting
1917
- The Charmer as Charlotte Whitney
- Bond of Fear as Mary Jackson
- Ashes of Hope as Gonda
- The Devil Dodger as Bowie
- Fires of Rebellion as Helen Mallory
1916
- The Deserter
- A Capable Lady Cook as The Wife
- A Lucky Leap as bess
- Sweedie, the Janitor as Sweedie's Wife
1915
- Mignon as Musette
1914
- The Unexpected as Dorothy Madison