Norma Talmadge

At 63 years old, Norma Talmadge physical status not available right now. We will update Norma Talmadge's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era.

A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.A specialist in melodrama, her most famous film was Smilin’ Through (1922), but she also scored artistic triumphs teamed with director Frank Borzage in Secrets (1924) and The Lady (1925).

Her younger sister Constance Talmadge was also a movie star.

Talmadge married millionaire film producer Joseph M. Schenck and they successfully created their own production company.

After reaching fame in the film studios on the East Coast, she moved to Hollywood in 1922. Talmadge was one of the most elegant and glamorous film stars of the Roaring '20s.

However, by the end of the silent film era, her popularity with audiences had waned.

After her two talkies proved disappointing at the box office, she retired a very wealthy woman.

Early life

According to her birth certificate, Talmadge was born on May 2, 1894, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Although it has been widely reported she was born in Niagara Falls, New York, after achieving stardom, she admitted that she and her mother provided the more scenic setting of Niagara Falls to fan magazines to be more romantic. Talmadge was the eldest daughter of Frederick O. Talmadge, an unemployed chronic alcoholic, and Margaret "Peg" Talmadge. She had two younger sisters, Natalie and Constance, both of whom also became actresses.

The girls' childhoods were marked by poverty. One Christmas morning, Fred Talmadge left the house to buy food, and never came back, leaving his wife to raise their three daughters. Peg took in laundry, sold cosmetics, taught painting classes, and rented out rooms, raising her daughters in Brooklyn, New York.

After telling her mother about a classmate from Erasmus Hall High School who modeled for popular illustrated song slides (which were often shown before the one-reeler in movie theaters so the audience could sing along), Mrs. Talmadge decided to locate the photographer. She arranged an interview for her daughter, who after an initial rejection, was soon hired. When they went to the theater to see her debut, Peg resolved to get her into motion pictures.

Source

Career

Norma Talmadge was the oldest of the three daughters and the first pushed by their mother to pursue a career as a film actress. Mother and daughter rode Vitagraph Studios in Flatbush, New York, just a streetcar ride away from her house. They were able to get past the studio gates to the casting director, who promptly kicked them out. However, scenario editor Beta Breuil, who was attracted by Talmadge's beauty, arranged a small part for her as a young girl kissed under a photographer's cloth in The Household Pest (1909).

Breuil's continued support, from 1911 to 1912, Talmadge appeared in over 100 films. She finally earned a job at $25 a week and gained a steady stream of work. With comedian John Bunny, 1911's Neighborhood Kingdom was her first appearance as a contract actress. In Vitagraph's three-reel version of A Tale of Two Cities (1911), she played the minor role of the anonymous seamstress who accompanies Sidney Carton to the guillotine. Talmadge's performance was enhanced with the help of the studio's main actor, Maurice Costello, the star of A Tale of Two Cities. She continued to act in roles from leads to extras, gaining experience and public exposure in a variety of roles, ranging from a colored mammy to a clumsy waitress to a clumsy waitress to a young modern. She began attracting both public and critical attention. She was Vitagraph's most promising young actress by 1913. She was drafted to Van Dyke Brooke's acting unit in 1913 and 1914, appearing more films, often with Antonio Moreno as her leading man.

Talmadge got her big break in 1915 by appearing in Vitagraph's prestigious film The Battle Cry of Peace, an anti-German propagandist drama, but Peg saw that her daughter's potential would take them further, and she earned a two-year contract with National Pictures Company for eight features worth $400 per week. The Crown Prince's Double was Talmadge's last film for Vitagraph. She left Vitagraph in the summer of 1915. She had made over 250 films in the five years she had been with Vitagraph.

The Talmadges left California in August, where Norma's first appearance was in Captivating Mary Carstairs. The whole operation was a fiasco; the sets and costumes were cheap, but the studio itself was lacking adequate funding. The film was a huge success, and after the film's release, the little new studio closed down. After seeing just one photograph, National Pictures Company's demise left the family stranded in California. They went to Triangle Film Corporation, where D. W. Griffith was supervising productions, dedeciding that it was better to aim high. Talmadge obtained a job with Griffith's Fine Arts Company as a result of his success with The Battle Cry. She appeared in seven films for Triangle, including the comedy The Social Secretary (1916), written by Anita Loos and directed by John Emerson, which gave her the opportunity to mask her beauty as a teenager struggling to escape her male employers' unwelcome attention.

The Talmadges returned to New York when the term came to an end. Talmadge met Broadway and film director Joseph M. Schenck, a wealthy exhibitor who wanted to produce his own films, at a party. Schenck's proposal for marriage and a production studio were immediately taken by Talmadge, both physically and professionally. They were married two months later, on October 20, 1916, two months after. Talmadge said, "Daddy" was the name of her much older husband. He supervised, directed, and nurtured her career in the company of her mother.

The couple formed the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation in 1917, which became a profitable company. Schenck promised to make his wife the best actress of all, a role that will be recalled forever. Hers will be the best stories, most opulent costumes, grandest sets, tenacious actors, and distinguished designers, as well as spectacular publicity. Women around the world wanted to be the romantic Norma Talmadge and flocked to her lavish movies shot on the East Coast long before long.

Schenck's studio in New York soon had a crew of actors, with the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation making sophisticated comedies on the second floor, and the comedy unit with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle on the top floor, with Natalie Talmadge playing as secretary and occasional small roles in her sisters' films. Buster Keaton, a Valiantville actor, and Al St. John accompanied him. Keaton took over the comedy unit and was soon welcomed into the Talmadge family fold, at least for a time, as Schenck decided it was financially beneficial to rent Arbuckle to Paramount Pictures for feature films.

Allan Dwan, assisted by Erich von Stroheim and Arthur Rosson, directed Talmadge's first film for her studio, the now-defunct Panthea (1917). In a tale about a woman who sacrifices herself to assist her husband in Russia, the film was a dramatic tour de force for her. The film was a success, transforming Talmadge into a hit and establishing her as a first-rate dramatic actress.

During this time, Talmadge's acting skills soared rapidly. Between 1917 and 1921, she appeared in four to six films a year in New York. Other films followed, including Poppy (1917), in which she was paired with Eugene O'Brien under Schenck's personal supervision. The team was such a hit, they produced ten more films together, including The Moth and The Secret of the Storm Country, a sequel to Tess of the Storm Country (1914), starring Mary Pickford.

She reteamed with Sidney Franklin, who wrote The Safety Curtain, Her Only Way, Forbidden City, Forbidden City, The Heart of Wetona, and 1919's The Probation Wife. These films have small-scale settings and famous actors who appear from one film to the next. An advantage of the East Coast location was access to the country's top fashion designers, such as Madame Francis and Lucile. Talmadge's name appeared on a monthly fashion advisory column for Photoplay magazine from 1919 to 1920; her publicist was Beulah Livingstone.

Talmadge continued to triumph in films including 1920's Yes or No, The Branded Woman, Passion Flower (1921), and The Sign on the Door (1921). Smilin' Through (1922) directed by Sidney Franklin, she had the most successful film of her entire career. It was remade twice, with Norma Shearer in 1932 and Jeanette MacDonald in 1941, one of the best screen romances of the silent film period, and again in 1941 with Jeanette MacDonald.

After Smilin' Through, Schenck closed the New York studios and Constance's closure, Keaton and Constance met in Hollywood to join Keaton and Natalie. Talmadge's Hollywood films were different from her New York films. They were smaller and glossier, but they were still more varied, often in retro or exotic settings. For a more glamorous appearance, she worked with cinematographer Tony Gaudio and some of Hollywood's top costume designers. Frank Lloyd, Clarence Brown, and Frank Borzage all worked with top-flight directors. She became one of the twentieth century's top-paid actresses, with support from films directed by her first husband Joseph M. Schenck.

A survey of picture dealers revealed Norma Talmadge as the number one box office celebrity in 1923. She was earning $10,000 a week and getting up to 3,000 letters a week from her followers. Her film Secrets (1924), directed by Frank Borzage, marked the pinnacle of her career, with her best appearance and receiving the most coveted accolades. Schenck had been promoted to lead United Artists in 1924, but Talmadge had a First National Distribution deal. She continued to produce films such as The Lady (1925), directed by Frank Borzage, and the romantic comedy Kiki (1926) directed by Clarence Brown, which was remade later by Mary Pickford as a sound film in 1931.

Talmadge is one of at least nine theories about the origins of Hollywood's trend for celebrities to stamp a hand. She mistakenly stepped into muddy concrete in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1927, according to the tale.

Camille (1926), Talmadge's last film for First National was Camille (1926), an adaptation of a book by Alexandre Dumas that was later remade by Greta Garbo. Talmadge fell in love with leading man Gilbert Roland during filming.

She begged Schenck for a divorce, but he was not able to provide it. Despite his personal feelings, Roland was not going to break up a moneymaking crew and continue casting in Talmadge's next three films, which were not released by United Artists. Talmadge and Schenck were divorced, but her films continued to be produced. He was now president of the highly coveted yet performance-poor United Artists Corporation, and the remainder of Talmadge's films had been released. However, the University of Americus' distribution difficulties began to degrade her fame. The Dove (1927) and The Woman Dissuaded (1928), the studio's first films, were box-office disappointments, and she's last silent films were her last silent films.

By the time Woman disputed (1928) was published, the talking film revolution had begun, and Talmadge began teaching voice lessons in preparation. She worked with voice coaches for more than a year so she could make her first appearance. Her first talkie, New York Nights (1929), demonstrated that she could talk and act acceptably in talks. Although her appearance was thought to be excellent, the film was not. In the 1930 film Du Barry, Woman of Passion, Talmadge took on the role of Madame du Barry. Despite William Cameron Menzies' intricate set, the film was a disaster, due to incompetent direction and Talmadge's inexperience in a role that necessitated high vocal acting.

Talmadge, Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, Dolores del Ro, and D.W. Griffith all met together on March 29, 1928, at the bungalow of Mary Pickford, United Artists, to demonstrate that Griffith would face the challenge of talking movies.

"Quit pressing your luck, baby," Talmadge's sister Constance sent her a telegram. Mama set up those trust funds for us, and the pessimists aren't about to knock them." As time went on, it became abundantly apparent that the public was no longer interested in its old favorites, and Talmadge was seen as a past figure. Before the talkie challenge, Talmadge had been increasingly bored with filmmaking, and this setback has likely discouraged her from further attempts.

On her United Artists deal, she had two more films remaining. Samuel Goldwyn revealed in late 1930 that he had bought the film rights to Zo Akins' comedy film "The Greeks Had a Word for It" for her. She appeared at some stage rehearsals for it in New York, but she asked to be released from her employment within a few months. She never appeared on screen again. (Goldwyn later produced the film version of The Greeks Had a Word for It under the heading The Greeks Had a Word for It (Today's Greeks Had a Word for It) In 1932, the Greeks had a Word for It.) The Greeks had a Word for It under the heading The Greeks Had a Word for It. (Italian wrote a term for It.) The Greeks Had a Word for It. (The Greeks

Source