Elsie Ferguson

Elsie Ferguson

Born: August 19, 1883
Died: November 5, 1961
in New York City, New York, USA
From Wikipedia

Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress.

At the peak of her popularity, several film studios offered her a contract but she declined them all until widely respected New York-based French director, Maurice Tourneur, proposed she appear in the lead role as a sophisticated patrician in his 1917 silent film, Barbary Sheep. She also may have consented to films because she no longer had the protection of her beloved Broadway employers Henry B. Harris, who died on the Titanic in 1912, and Charles Frohman, who perished on the Lusitania in 1915. Producer and director Adolph Zukor then signed her to an 18-film, three-year contract.

In 1921, she accepted another contract offer from Paramount Pictures to star in four films to be spread over a two-year period. One of these was the 1921 film entitled Forever in which she starred opposite the leading heartthrob of the day, Wallace Reid.

In 1925, she made only one film before returning to the Broadway stage. In 1930 she made her first talkie that would also be her final film, titled Scarlet Pages, which is now preserved in the Library of Congress. Although her voice came across well enough, at age 47, she was well past her prime for fans who wanted to see her as the great youthful beauty she had once been.

Elsie Ferguson died in Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut in 1961.

Movies for Elsie Ferguson...

Scarlet Pages
Title: Scarlet Pages
Character: Mary Bancroft
Released: September 27, 1930
Type: Movie
Nora Mason becomes entangled in a family mix-up of murder and scandal that threatens to ruin her career and entire future; Unless the mother she does not know can find a way to save her.
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The Unknown Lover
Title: The Unknown Lover
Character: Elaine Kent
Released: October 30, 1925
Type: Movie
Elaine Kent weds Kenneth Billings, a young man who has a taste for wild living. She attempts to reform him and his exasperated father disinherits him. Now that he is without money, Kenneth starts a dye business and he proceeds to throw himself into it with the same amount of effort he once spent on the high life. As a result, he overworks until he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
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Outcast
Title: Outcast
Character: Miriam
Released: December 7, 1922
Type: Movie
A down-on-her luck streetwalker is ultimately redeemed by the love of a decent man.
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A Trip to Paramountown
Title: A Trip to Paramountown
Character: Self
Released: July 10, 1922
Type: Movie
Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at work.
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Forever
Title: Forever
Character: Mimsi
Released: October 16, 1921
Type: Movie
Architect Peter Ibbetson is hired by the Duke of Towers to design a building for him. Ibbetson discovers that the Duchess of Towers, Mary, is his now-grown childhood sweetheart. Their love revives, but Peter is sentenced to life in prison for an accidental killing. Mary comes to him in dreams and they are able to live out their romance in a dream world.
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Footlights
Title: Footlights
Character: Lisa Parsinova / Lizzie Parsons
Released: October 2, 1921
Type: Movie
Exotic Russian actress Lisa Parsinova tires of her glamorous life on the New York stage and returns, under her actual identity as Lizzie Parsons, to her small New England hometown. But she is pursued by a young man who is in love with the famed Russian alter ego.
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Sacred and Profane Love
Title: Sacred and Profane Love
Character: Carlotta Peel
Released: May 22, 1921
Type: Movie
Carlotta Peel, who though sheltered from the facts of life by her Victorian aunt has acquired some knowledge from indiscriminate reading, meets Diaz, a celebrated pianist, at a concert and spends the evening with him. Later, in London, she acquires fame as a novelist and is followed to France by married publisher Frank Ispenlove, who commits suicide when she spurns him. In Paris, Carlotta finds Diaz a physical wreck from drinking absinthe and devotes herself to his regeneration.
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Lady Rose's Daughter
Title: Lady Rose's Daughter
Character: Julie le Breton / Lady Rose / Lady Maude
Released: August 29, 1920
Type: Movie
Julie le Breton is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Rose, whose own background resembles that of her daughter. Julie is buffeted by the ill treatment of her mother's family and nearly ruined by a fortune hunter, but her own resources and goodness stand her in good stead.
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His House in Order
Title: His House in Order
Character: Nina Graham
Released: March 7, 1920
Type: Movie
A woman attempts to regain the love of her husband, who constantly compares her unfavorably to his first wife.
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Counterfeit
Title: Counterfeit
Character: Virginia Griswold
Released: November 30, 1919
Type: Movie
In order to secretly replenish the family's failing fortunes, Virginia Griswold secures a position in the Secret Service to apprehend a group of counterfeiters and gain the reward money.
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A Society Exile
Title: A Society Exile
Character: Nora Shard, aka Christine
Released: October 7, 1919
Type: Movie
Nora Shard, a young American girl living in England, is ostracized from society for her presumed part in a scandal which culminated in a murder-suicide by a nobleman and his wife. Nora disguises her identity and goes to Italy, where she finds happiness - until the spectre of the past is raised.
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The Witness for the Defense
Title: The Witness for the Defense
Character: Stella Derrick
Released: September 14, 1919
Type: Movie
Stella Derrick and Dick Hazelwood love each other, but their families want them to make better financial matches.
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The Avalanche
Title: The Avalanche
Character: Chichita / Madame Delano / Helene
Released: June 29, 1919
Type: Movie
A woman with a gambling addiction finds that her daughter is threatened by the same tendencies.
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Eyes of the Soul
Title: Eyes of the Soul
Character: Gloria Swann
Released: April 20, 1919
Type: Movie
Gloria Swann becomes a dancer at the Palm Garden cabaret, trying to secure a better future and accepts Judge Malvin's offer of marriage despite the disparity of their ages and social stations. One day while Gloria and the judge are driving in the park, their car nearly runs over Larry Gibson, a soldier blinded in World War I. A remark by Gloria's friend, Teddy Safford, has aroused her maternal feelings, and the sight of the lonely soldier makes her even more sympathetic. Gloria takes Larry home and visits him daily. Larry plays banjo and writes songs about soldier life to cheer suffering servicemen.
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The Marriage Price
Title: The Marriage Price
Character: Helen Tremaine
Released: March 9, 1919
Type: Movie
A tough fellow from out West falls for young woman who is being pursued by a smarmy high-society type.
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His Parisian Wife
Title: His Parisian Wife
Character: Fauvette
Released: January 19, 1919
Type: Movie
A beautiful young French girl falls in love with a handsome New Englander, but when they marry and return to his family home, she finds that she does not fit in at all.
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Under the Greenwood Tree
Title: Under the Greenwood Tree
Character: Mary Hamilton
Released: December 8, 1918
Type: Movie
Acting on her love of nature and loathing of titled fortune hunters, heiress Mary Hamilton leaves home with her secretary, Peggy Ingledew, to join a band of roving gypsies. One of Mary's suitors, Sir Kenneth Graham, follows the two young women into the woods, dressed in gypsy garb, but when Jack Hutton decides to rid his forested land of gypsies, Sir Kenneth is thrown into jail.
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The Spirit That Wins
Title: The Spirit That Wins
Character: Elsie
Released: October 1, 1918
Type: Movie
Elsie gets a letter from her soldier boyfriend that convinces her to sign up as a Red Cross nurse.
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Heart of the Wilds
Title: Heart of the Wilds
Character: Jen Galbraith
Released: September 1, 1918
Type: Movie
In the Canadian Northwest, Jen Galbraith lives in a tavern with her brother Val and her father Peter, a bootlegger who sells whiskey to the Indians. Val's friend Pierre resolves to win Jen, even though she is in love with Sergeant Tom Gellatly of the Mounted Police. When Val tries to retrieve some liquor sold illegally by the elder Galbraith to an Indian named Grey Cloud, the Indian insults Jen and Val shoots him. Tom is assigned to track down the murderer, but after he arrives at the tavern, Galbraith and Pierre drug him. Jen delivers the papers he is carrying to police headquarters, but when she discovers that they contain orders to arrest her brother, she shoots Tom to prevent him from going after Val.
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The Danger Mark
Title: The Danger Mark
Character: Geraldine Seagrave
Released: July 7, 1918
Type: Movie
Scott Seagrave and his sister Geraldine are left the family estate when their wealthy alcoholic father dies. Unfortunately, they've also inherited his problems with alcohol, so they stay at the estate in seclusion. When Geraldine reaches "coming-out" age, Scott throws her a coming-out party. However, one of the men after her hand in marriage, Jack Dysart, tricks her into taking a drink, and she winds up embarrassing and humiliating herself in front of an old family friend, Duane Mallett, whose daughter Sylvia is in love with Jack, even though he's treated her shabbily.
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A Doll's House
Title: A Doll's House
Character: Nora Helmer
Released: June 9, 1918
Type: Movie
Differing considerably from Henrik Ibsen's classic play, the basic story of a woman who forges her father's name and comes to grief therefore is retained.
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The Lie
Title: The Lie
Character: Elinor Shale
Released: April 8, 1918
Type: Movie
Elinor Shale's happiness at being engaged to Gerald Forster is interrupted by the arrival of her sister Lucy, who confesses that she will soon give birth to an illegitimate child. Elinor goes into seclusion with her sister until the baby is born and then tries to find a foster mother. Seeking to estrange Gerald from Elinor so that she may marry him herself, Lucy convinces him that Elinor is the child's mother. After Lucy and Gerald's marriage, Elinor learns of her sister's perfidy and resolves to tell Gerald the truth, but at the sight of their happiness, she relents and returns home.
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The Song of Songs
Title: The Song of Songs
Character: Lily Kardos
Released: February 18, 1918
Type: Movie
When composer Anselm Kardos leaves his alcoholic wife, he gives his daughter Lily an unfinished love ode entitled "The Song of Songs" and warns her to keep her artistic temperament in check.
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The Rise of Jenny Cushing
Title: The Rise of Jenny Cushing
Character: Jenny Cushing
Released: November 11, 1917
Type: Movie
A resourceful young girl struggles to free herself from slum life.
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Barbary Sheep
Title: Barbary Sheep
Character: Lady Katherine 'Kitty' Wyverne
Released: September 9, 1917
Type: Movie
Arriving with her husband in Arabia, Katherine Wyvrne is ready for romantic times in the exotic Middle East, but her aristocratic husband prefers to be out hunting "Barbara sheep" than fulfilling his wife's desires. She soon meets up with the dashing Arab chief Benchaalai and falls for his charms, but he has a much more sinister goal in mind for her than romance.