Pearl White

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Pearl Fay White (March 4, 1889-August 4, 1938) was an American stage and film actress.

White began her acting career at the age of six and later moved to silent films appearing in a number of popular serials. White, dubbed "Queen of the Serials," was known for doing the majority of her own stunts in several film serials, most notably in The Perpetrils of Pauline.

White's roles closely compared those of the popular archetypal ingenue.

Early life

White was born in Green Ridge, Missouri, to Edgar White, a fisherman, and Lizzie G. House. She had four brothers and sisters. The family later moved to Springfield, Missouri. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, she made her stage debut as "Little Eva" at the age of 6. White was 13 years old when she first started riding the circus as a bareback rider.

Personal life

White was married twice and had no children. Victor Sutherland, a 1907 actress, married her. In 1914, they divorced. Wallace McCutcheon Jr., the son of pioneering cinematographer and director Wallace McCutcheon Sr., married her in 1919.

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Career

In her second year of high school, she began performing with the Diemer Theater Company. White dropped out of school, and 1907, she went to work with Trousedale Stock Company, showing how she continued working day jobs to help her family. She was soon able to join the company full-time, touring through the American Midwest.

When she was first noticed by the Powers Film Company in New York, White appeared in minor roles for many years. Miss Mazee, she said, had appeared in Cuba for a time, performing American songs in a dance hall. Her travels as a singer also took her to South America.

White had trouble with her throat in 1910, and her voice began to suffer from the nightly theatrical performances. Pat Powers' debut in films this year was in a series of one-reel dramas and comedies. White honed her physical comedy and stunt work at Powers Films. Pathé Frères discovered her as a well-known actress with the company and piqued the attention of the company.

Pathé Frères played White in The Girl From Arizona, the French company's first American film shot at their new studio in Bound Brook, New Jersey, in 1910. She began working in Lubin Studios in 1911 and many others as an outsider until the Crystal Film Company in Manhattan gave her top billing in a number of slapstick comedy shorts from 1912 to 1914. White then went on holiday in Europe. On her return home, she signed with Eclectic Film Company, a Pathé affiliate company.

Louis J. Gasnier, a Pathé producer, was given the opportunity to appear in the film serial The Perils of Pauline, based on a story by playwright Charles W. Goddard. Pauline, the central character in a tale about a lot of violence, is an athletic Pearl White who is well-suited for it. The Perils of Pauline consisted of 20 two-reel episodes that were released every week. The serial made White a big celebrity and made her $1,750 a week. The Exploits of Elaine (1914–1915), Elaine's second-largest box office hit, followed this.

White appeared in the popular serials over the next five years. The New Exploits of Elaine (1915) The Real History of Elaine (1916), The Lightning Raider (191920) and The Black Secret (191920). White flew airplanes, raced cars, swam across rivers, and other similar feats were included in these serials. She did a lot of stunt work before Pathé decided that they did not want to risk damaging one of their most popular actors. (She had already injured her spine during the filming of The Perils of Pauline, which culminated in her pain for the remainder of her life.)

The bulk of the more difficult stunts in White's later films were performed by a male stunt double wearing a wig. The public was largely unaware that White and other actors used stunt doubles, but the truth was revealed in August 1922. On 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue, an actor doubled for White, John Stevenson, an actor who was doubling for White, was supposed to leap from the top of a bus to an elevated girder during the filming of White's final serial, Plunder. He missed the girder and cracked his head. Stevenson died of a fractured skull. After the completion of Plunder's filming, White headed to Europe for another holiday.

By 1919, White had grown out of film serials and signed with Fox Film Corporation with the intention of appearing in dramatic roles. White appeared in ten drama films for Fox over the next two years, but her fame had dwindled over the last two years.

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