Virginia Pearson
Born: 1886-03-07 in Anchorage, Kentucky, USA
Died: 1958-06-06
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia Virginia Belle Pearson (March 7, 1886 - June 6, 1958) was an American stage and film actress. She made fifty-one films in a career which extended from 1910 until 1932. Born in Anchorage, Kentucky, Pearson worked for a brief time as an assistant in the public library in Louisville, Kentucky after completing school. Pearson trained in the tradition of the stars of the American stage, and played in stock productions in Washington, D.C. and New York City. In New York she played the heroine in Hypocrisy, a story which laid bare "the shame of society." She was promoted by William Fox of Fox Film Corporation for the same kind of strong vamp parts as those played by Theda Bara. Among her movies is Blazing Love (1916), Wildness of Youth (1922), The Vital Question (1916), Sister Against Sister (1917), The Red Kimona (1925), Wizard of Oz (1925), and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). In 1916 Pearson and her husband, movie actor Sheldon Lewis, severed their ties with the Virginia Pearson Producing Company. The couple affiliated themselves with the Independent Productions Company, capitalized at $1,000,000. In 1924 the couple were forced to declare bankruptcy. In 1928, Pearson was legally divorced from Lewis. At the time, it was considered bad box office for screen actresses to be married. However the two remained constant companions., and resided for many years at the old Hollywood Hotel. Later they lived at the Motion Picture Country Hom. Virginia Pearson died of uremic poisoning in Hollywood on June 6, 1958 nearly a month to the day after Sheldon Lewis. She was 72. Funeral services were held at the Pierce Brothers Hollywood Chapel. She was buried with an unmarked grave in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.
Filmography
1932
- Back Street as Minor Role (uncredited)
1931
- The Primrose Path as Marie Randeau
1929
- Smilin' Guns as Mrs. van Smythe
1928
- The Actress as Mrs. Telfer
- What Price Beauty? as Mary
- The Power of Silence as Mrs. Wright
1926
- Silence as Millie Burke
- Atta Boy as Madame Carlton
- Mum's the Word as The Wife
- Lightning Hutch as Janet Thornwall
1925
- The Wizard of Oz as Lady Vishuss
- The Phantom of the Opera as Carlotta
- The Red Kimona as Mrs. Beverly Fontaine
1922
- Wildness of Youth as Louise Wesley
1919
- Impossible Catherine as Catherine Kimberly
1918
- Stolen Honor as Virginia Lake
- Her Price as Marcia Calhoun
- A Daughter of France as Louise de Ciron
- Buchanan's Wife as Beatrix Buchanan
- The Queen of Hearts as Pauline Cheraud
1917
- A Royal Romance as The Princess Sylvia
- Sister Against Sister as Anne / Katherine
1916
- Daredevil Kate as Kate
- The Kiss of a Vampire
- Writing on the Wall as Barbara Lawrence
1914
- The Stain as Stevens' Daughter