Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford, known as "America's Sweetheart", was born Gladys Louise Smith on April 8, 1892 in Toronto, Ontario,Canada.
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She was a child actress in Canada, touring in the U.S. as well until, as a young lady, she landed a leading role in a Broadway Play. She would go on to become Hollywood's biggest female star, the first female actor to receive more than a million dollars a year (the first male actor who made a million dollar deal was Charlie Chaplin), and one of the few stars who were successful in both the silent film era and the sound film era. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929.
Prior to 1909: studied theatre actress in New York
1909: discovered by David Wark Griffith at Biograph, worked for $5 a week
1910: I.M.P., $175 a week
1911: Majestic Film Corp.
1912: back to Biograph
1913: Belasco as theatre actress
1913: Famous Players, $20,000 a year
1915: worked for various companies, $1000 to $2000 a week
1916: founded The Mary Pickford Corporation as a part of Paramount, she gets about $10,000 a week. She became the first actress who was the producer of her own films
1918: First National. She gets $675,000 for three films plus 50% of all profits, plus a signing bonus of $50,000 and complete control over her films, ranging from script to the final cut.
1919: A very astute business person, she founded United Artists together with Charlie Chaplin, David Wark Griffith and her husband Douglas Fairbanks
Mary Pickford died on May 29, 1979 and is buried in the Garden of Memory of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California, USA.