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Pauline Frederick

Personal Profile

Pauline Frederick
  • Birth Name:
    Pauline Beatrice Libby
  • Nickname:
    Polly
  • Date of Birth:
    August 12, 1883
  • Zodiac Sign:
    Leo
  • Place of Birth:
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  • Place of Death:
    Beverly Hills, California
  • Date of Death:
    September 19, 1938
  • Height:
    5' 4"
  • Sex:
    Female
  • Nationality:
    American

Family

Pauline Frederick
  • Spouse:
    Frank Mills Andrews, Willard Mack, Dr. C.A. Rutherford, Hugh C. Leighton, Co. Joseph A. Marmon

Career

Pauline Frederick

Trivia

Pauline Frederick
  • Few of Frederick's silent films survive such as Madame X(1920). One example that survives is Smouldering Fires(1925) that showcase her talents as a dramatic actress.
  • Frederick has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.
  • Frederick never shyed away from parts that often other actresses of the time feared, often due to the role being controversial or out of character.
  • Frederick generally played an angry matriarch.
  • She was able to make a successful transition to 'talkies' in 1929, and in 1931 was cast as Joan Crawford's mother in This Modern Age.
  • Her stunning beauty stayed with her as she aged into her best remembered roles—sacrificing mothers and 40-something women having a last fling at youth and romance.
  • She specialized in playing commanding and authoritative women throughout her film career.
  • A well-known stage star, Frederick was already in her 30s when she began making films.
  • In 1908 Pauline was in a serious automobile wreck. It was discovered that this wreck impaired her ability to have children.
  • She reminisced in an interview in Motion Picture Magazine, “As a child there were several things besides some well-known young medicines that I disliked to take, and one of these was a dare.

Biography

Pauline Frederick
Last Updated: Thursday, August 20, 2009

paulineBoston-born Pauline Frederick was the daughter of a railroad employee. She first appeared onstage as a chorus girl in the 1902 musical The Rogers Brothers in Harvard. After a long tenure as a musical-comedy soubrette, she established herself as one of Broadway's most versatile dramatic actresses.

She was brought to films in 1915 as part of Jesse Lasky and Adolph Zukor's "Famous Players in Famous Plays" movie series. Unlike many of her contemporaries in this venture, Frederick adapted to film acting with ease, and remained a popular motion-picture performer throughout the 1920s.

Her subtle, understated acting style was seen to best advantage in the 1924 romantic drama Smouldering Fires, in which she plays a female business executive who marries a much younger man. In the talkie era, Frederick was seen in a handful of choice character roles, often playing such unsympathetic types as domineering mothers and murderesses.

Shortly before her death from cancer, Pauline Frederick appeared in her last film, Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937), effectively playing a stoic Chinese matriarch who allows herself to be tortured to death rather than betray a sacred family secret.

Filmography

Pauline Frederick

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