Gladys Leslie Moore (March 5, 1899 – October 2, 1976) was an American actress in silent film, active in the 1910s and 1920s. She had a number of starring roles from 1917 to the early 1920s and was one of the young female stars of her day.
Film career
Leslie began her movie career around 1915, acting in short films produced by the Edison Company. By 1917, she was making films with the Thanhouser Company in New Rochelle, New York, including The Vicar of Wakefield (1917). The New York Herald'''s review of that film dubbed her the "Girl With A Million Dollar Smile," and caused studio head Edwin Thanhouser to decide she was ready for leading roles. Soon she was starring in the lead role in 1917's An Amateur Orphan, but was quickly wooed over to Vitagraph Studios and starred in a number of Vitagraph releases in 1918 and 1919. Leslie and another young female Vitagraph star, Bessie Love, starred in numerous films in young girl-type roles that were popular at the time.Bennett, Whitman (June 1920). The Artistic Influence of the Motion Picture, Munsey's Magazine (photo of Leslie) Leslie's similar appearance to Mary Pickford was also often noted.
Leslie's association with Vitagraph ended by 1920 and she continued to make films with a number of different studios. Her first non-Vitagraph picture in 1920 was A Child for Sale, directed by Ivan Abramson, where she played a starring role.(18 January 1920). Picture Plays and People, The New York Times ("Gladys Leslie, who recently finished the term of her contract with Vitagraph, has signed up to star in a picture to be directed by Ivan Abramson.") (film was "A Child for Sale")Questions and Answers, Photoplay (June 1920), p. 113 (reporting in response to a fan question that Leslie was no longer with Vitagraph, and had recently made a picture with Ivan Abramson, which would have been 1920's A Child for Sale) And in 1923, she had the lead female role in Haldane of the Secret Service featuring Harry Houdini. Nevertheless, her share of starring roles started to decline, and her last appearance was in 1925. She had always claimed, however, that she would stop making films when her bank account "has mounted high enough."Wollstein, Hans J. Gladys Leslie - Biography , AllRovi, Retrieved September 19, 2011
Personal life Leslie was born in New York City on March 5, 1899, and she died in Boynton Beach, Florida, on October 2, 1976, at age 77.
Along with the new trend of actors doing product endorsements in the early 1920s, Leslie appeared in ads for Tokio Beauty Cream, which was claimed to have given her "magnetic personality." She also wore blouses by Edith Varian Cockcroft in clothing ads.
Selected filmography
Ranson's Folly (1915) The Vicar of Wakefield as Sophia Primrose (Thanhouser, 1917) (starring Frederick Warde)The Vicar of Wakefield , Thanhouser.org (full movie available online), Retrieved September 16, 2011 An Amateur Orphan as Marcia Schuyler (Thanhouser, 1917) When Love Was Blind (1917) Her Beloved Enemy (1917) It Happened to Adele as Adele (Thanhouser, 1917) His Own People as Molly Conway (Vitagraph, 1917) (co-starring Harry T. Morey)Langman, Larry. American film cycles: the silent era, p.152 (1998) (summary of plot of His Own People) The Wooing of Princess Pat as Princess Pat (Vitagraph, 1918) Little Miss No-Account as Patty Baring (Vitagraph, 1918) The Little Runaway as Ann Acushla (Vitagraph, 1918) The Soap Girl as Marjorie Sanford (Vitagraph, 1918) Wild Primrose as Primrose Standish (Vitagraph, 1918) A Nymph of the Foothills as Emma Chaney (Vitagraph, 1918) The Mating as Nancy Fanne (Vitagraph, 1918) The Beloved Impostor as Betty (Vitagraph, 1918) Fortune's Child (Vitagraph, 1919) Miss Dulcie from Dixie as Dulcie Culpepper (Vitagraph, 1919) A Stitch in Time as Phoebe Ann (Vitagraph, 1919, directed by Ralph Ince) The Adventure Shop (1919) Too Many Crooks as Boston Fanny (Vitagraph, 1919, directed by Ralph Ince) The Girl-Woman as Belinda (Vitagraph, 1919) The Gray Towers Mystery as June Wheeler (Vitagraph, 1919)(14 October 1919). Girl Fights For Fortune Left Her , Hartford Courant ("Miss Gladys Leslie is a very attractive young heiress in "Gray Towers Mystery," the Vitagraph picture at the Princess Theater the first half of the week. The story is that of a young girl who inherits a fortune from her uncle but is forced to fight for it ...") A Child for Sale (Graphic Films, 1920) The Midnight Bride (Vitagraph, 1920) Straight is the Way (Cosmopolitan, 1921) (starring Matt Moore) Jim the Penman (1921) (starring Lionel Barrymore)(10 April 1921) Gladys Leslie, New York Tribune (brief) God's Country and the Law (1921) Timothy's Quest (1922)(28 June 1923). "Timothy's Quest" To Open At Grand Today, Dubuque Telegraph-HeraldThe Darling of the Rich (1922) Sisters (1922) The Snitching Hour (1922) If Winter Comes (1923) Broadway Broke (1923) Man and Wife (1923) (with Maurice Costello) Haldane of the Secret Service (1923) (with Harry Houdini) Enemies of Youth (1925) (with Mahlon Hamilton) Pearl of Love'' (1925) (with Betty Balfour)
References
External links
The Vicar of Wakefield (1917), full movie online at Thanhouser.org