Madge Bellamy

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Madge Bellamy (born Margaret Derden Philpott; June 30, 1899 – January 24, 1990) was an American stage and film actress.

She was a popular leading lady in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Her career declined in the sound era, and ended following a romantic scandal in the 1940s.

Early life

Margaret Derden Philpott was born in Hillsboro, Texas on June 30, 1899 to William Bledsoe and Annie Margaret Derden Philpott. Bellamy was raised in San Antonio, Texas until she was 6 years old, and the family later moved to Brownwood, Texas, where her father worked as an English professor at Texas A&M University.

As a child, she took dancing lessons and soon began to aspire to become a stage performer. She made her stage debut dancing in a local production of Aida, at the age of 9.

The Philpotts later moved to Denver, Colorado. Madge met and married Carlos Bellamy in Colorado, but they divorced when she decided to leave Colorado to pursue her acting career. In her autobiography, she later claimed that her agent suggested the name, possibly to avoid the scandal of divorce.

Personal life

Bellamy was briefly married to bond broker Logan F. Metcalf. They married in Tijuana on January 24, 1928. They separated four days later. Metcalf filed for divorce claiming that while the two were on honeymoon, Bellamy had refused to speak to him because of his fondness for eating ham and eggs, which she considered "plebeian". Metcalf was granted a divorce on April 25, 1928.

By the time Bellamy retired from acting, she had squandered much of her fortune and lost the remaining money during the Depression. In her posthumously published autobiography, A Darling of the Twenties, Bellamy claimed that she lived in "abject poverty" after her retirement. She did, however, have some holdings in real estate and owned a retail shop in which she worked to support herself. In her spare time, she wrote screenplays and novels which were never purchased. In the early 1980s, she sold the retail shop for double the amount she had paid for it and lived in relative financial comfort for the rest of her life.

Bellamy remained out of public view until the 1980s when film historians and silent film fans who had rediscovered her work began requesting interviews. She also began attending screenings of the low budget horror film White Zombie, which was a moderate success upon its initial release and has since become a cult classic.

In her final years, Bellamy lived alone in Ontario, California.

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Career

Bellamy left home for New York City just shy of graduating from high school. She started acting on Broadway and soon became a dancer. She decided to try acting after appearing on The Love Mill (1917). She appeared in a touring performance of Pollyanna in 1918, for which she received accolades. In 1919, she took over Helen Hayes in the Broadway version of Dear Brutus, opposite William Gillette. Bellamy appeared in Dear Brutus' touring production. Bellamy appeared in Dear Brutus in her first film The Riddle: Women (1920), starring Geraldine Farrar.

She joined a Washington D.C. stock firm where she appeared in Peg o' My Heart after the tour of Dear Brutus ended. Bellamy took a screen test for director Thomas H. Ince while a member of the company. She began a three-year deal with Ince's newly formed Triangle Film Corporation in November 1920. Hobart Bosworth appeared in 1921's The Cup of Life, her first film for Triangle.

In Lorna Doone's 1922 film version, Bellamy's breakout role was as the title character. She was later dubbed "the Most Beautiful Girl in America" by artist Penrhyn Stan, and was later cast in several melodramas by Ince. Bellamy's contract with Ince came to an end in 1924, and she has joined Fox Film Corporation, where she will remain for the next five years. She appeared in two films for John Ford, The Iron Horse (1924), and Lightnin' while at Fox. Bellamy was having difficulties as a result of several "artistic differences" she had with studio executives by 1925. She refused to participate in the immensely popular silent epic Ben-Hur that year. She later attributed her career failure to her own choice of wanting to appear in light comedy and flapper roles that showcased her appearances rather than demanding roles.

Winfield Sheehan, a Fox executive with whom Bellamy was having an affair, attempted to portray her in the lead role of "Diane" in the romantic drama 7th Heaven in 1927. Bellamy later told author Anthony Slide that she was in fact cast as "Diane," but that Janet Gaynor (who received the first Academy Award for her film work) was able to replace her when she was outside France shooting exterior shots. Bellamy appeared in The Romantic Comedy Very Confidential, in which she appeared as a model impersonating a well-known female sports figure. Bellamy appeared in Fox's first part-talking film, Mother Knows Best (Louise Dresser), in 1928. Bellamy's film Sally Quail, Edna Ferber's book of the same name, stars Bellamy as Sally Quail, a stage performer whose life is dominated by her overbearing stage mother "Ma Quail") is based on her overbearing stage mother "Ma Quail Bellamy impersonated several well-known performers of the day, including Anna Held, Sir Harry Lauder, and Al Jolson, who performed "My Mammy" in blackface. Bellamy's voice was generally positive, with critics noting that the film was weak.

Fugitives, Bellamy's last silent film, was released in 1929. Tonight at Twelve, her first full length, was announced later this year. Bellamy's career had slowed dramatically as a result of several poorly-advised decisions she made in the midst of her indignation (fan magazines of the day, she was "Miss Firecracker" due to her temperament). Despite her poor off-set appearance, she was also a well-known actress and was named as a "American Beauty" by the Hollywood Association of Foreign Correspondents. After refusing to appear in the upcoming film version of The Trial of Mary Dugan, a 1927 hit Broadway play starring Norma Shearer, she walked out on her Fox contract in 1929. "I got too big for my britches," Bellamy later told her of her career. I needed too much money, but when it was not forthcoming, I resigned."

Bellamy tried to find jobs as a freelance actress, but she didn't work again until 1932, when she first appeared in Poverty Row films. In the 1932 film White Zombie, opposite Bela Lugosi and directed by brothers Edward and Victor Hugo Halperin, one of her best known roles from this period. The film was a moderate success but received mixed reviews, but critics generally dismissed Bellamy's results (and was dubbed by another actress in a 1970 letter to Classic Film Collector). (This has since been shown to be incorrect). Carole Lombard had been slated to appear in the Halperin brothers' next film, Supernatural, but she was turned down.

Bellamy's career had practically ended by the 1940s by the 1940s. When she was arrested in San Francisco on January 20, 1943, she was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after firing a.32 caliber revolver at her former lover, wealthy lumber executive Albert Stanwood Murphy three times. Bellamy had been having an affair with Murphy for five years before he ended his friendship in October 1942. Bellamy returned to San Francisco to confront Murphy after finding out that he had married former model June Almy shortly after their breakup. "... make him suffer somehow."

She later admitted that she waited around Murphy's apartment in the Nob Hill neighborhood for four days. Murphy was eventually seen leaving the Pacific Union Club on January 20. Bellamy fired three shots at Murphy as he was getting into his car. "I wasn't within speaking distance [of Murphy], she later explained, but he saw me and yelled something I didn't comprehend. It's likely that it wasn't 'don't't.' I'd guess I shot him. He ducked and ran." She shot three times, assaulting Murphy's car twice but missing on the third time. Witnesses fought the gun out of her hand.

Bellamy said she did not intend to hurt Murphy but that she "just wanted to see him." I wasn't around to see me, so I carried the little pistol with me. [...] I had the little gun so long that I thought it was just a toy." "I only wonged him," she was quoted as saying, as I was supposed to do. I'm a crack shot, believe me. Bellamy pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of breaking a gun bylaw on February 11, 1943, and was given a suspended six-month term. She was also sentenced to one year of probation.

Bellamy and Murphy were married by "mutual consent" in April 1941 and had lived as husband and wife up until Murphy ended the marriage in July 1943. Murphy was charged with "extreme mental cruelty" and demanded alimony both temporary and permanent. Albert Stanwood Murphy, 43, requested that the court dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that he and Bellamy "are not now and have never been husband and wife." Bellamy's divorce case was dismissed by a Nevada court on January 4, 1944, on the grounds that she and Murphy were never legally married. Bellamy's divorce case was dismissed one day after, she was given a six-figure out-of-court settlement from Murphy.

Bellamy's shooting and divorce reception generated media coverage, but it ended her already fading career. In 1945, she appeared in the Northwestern film Northwest Trail for the last time. In 1946, she appeared in the Los Angeles production of Holiday Lady, after which she had been out of work.

Bellamy was named on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for her contribution to filmmaking. The actor is located on Hollywood Boulevard, 617.

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