Seena Owen

Seena Owen

Born: November 13, 1894
Died: August 15, 1966
in Spokane, Washington, USA
From Wikipedia

Seena Owen (November 14, 1894 – August 15, 1966) was a Danish-American silent film actress. Born Signe Auen at Spokane, Washington, the youngest of three children raised by Jens Christensen and Karen (née Sorensen) Auen. Her father and mother came from Denmark in the late 1880s and settled in Minnesota where they married in 1888. Within a short period of time they relocated to Portland and then Spokane, where her father became proprietor of the Columbia Pharmacy. Her first important film was A Yankee From the West (1915) under the name Signe Auen at the age of 21. She was later convinced to change her name and settled on Seena Owen, the phonetic spelling of her real name. In 1916 she performed in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance. The same year she married George Walsh whom she had met on the set of Intolerance. The marriage lasted until their divorce in 1924. A regular player for the rest of the silent era, Owen appeared in films such as Maurice Tourneur's Victory in 1919 where she was photographed to great effect by Tourneur's cameraman, Rene Guissart. In 1920, she appeared in "The Gift Supreme" with Lon Chaney, who appeared with her in Victory. She co-starred with Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron in the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928), as the mad Queen who whips Swanson in one scene. With the arrival of sound in movies, Owen's weak voice became a problem and forced her to retire from the silver screen in 1933. After her retirement, she worked on a number of films in the 1930s/40s as a screenwriter including two starring Dorothy Lamour: Aloma of the South Seas and Rainbow Island, both in 1941. The former was written in part with her sister, Lillie Hayward, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Seena Owen died on August 15, 1966 at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, aged 71, and was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Movies for Seena Owen...

Officer Thirteen
Title: Officer Thirteen
Character: Trixi Du Bray
Released: November 26, 1932
Type: Movie
A motorcycle policeman's partner is deliberately run off the road and killed by a member of a syndicate that controls the gambling--and much of the justice system--in his town. When the killer is freed because of perjured testimony and the corrupt legal system, the dead officer's partner quits the force and vows to bring the killer to justice.
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Queen Kelly
Title: Queen Kelly
Character: Queen Regina V
Released: October 18, 1932
Type: Movie
A prince betrothed to a mad queen falls in love with an orphan girl from a convent.
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The Marriage Playground
Title: The Marriage Playground
Character: Rose Sellers
Released: December 12, 1929
Type: Movie
A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their intermarriages and blend thoroughly, and you have a mixture a too-young-to-believe Frederic March will try to straighten out.
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Man-Made Women
Title: Man-Made Women
Character: Georgette
Released: September 9, 1928
Type: Movie
The man who loved her showed her how to hold the man she loved. A novel picture story packed with drama, thrills and laughs.
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The Blue Danube
Title: The Blue Danube
Character: Helena Boursch
Released: March 11, 1928
Type: Movie
Marguerite, the beauty of an Austrian village, loves the poverty-stricken Baron Erich von Statzen, although her mother is opposed to the affair, having been made suspicious by the hunchback Ludwig, who is smitten by Marguerite's charms and insanely jealous of Statzen. Statzen's uncle would have him marry Helena Boursch, the local brewer's daughter, to save his dwindling estate. Ordered to the front when war is declared, Statzen is forced to leave without saying goodby to Marguerite.
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The Rush Hour
Title: The Rush Hour
Character: Yvonne Dorée
Released: December 12, 1927
Type: Movie
Margie Dolan dreams of endless pleasure and adventures abroad, while her sweetheart, Dan Morley, is devoted to his drugstore business and his eventual marriage to Margie. When the horrors of commuting become unendurable Margie boards an ocean liner on a business errand and decides to stowaway. She is soon discovered and is put to work in the linen room. Dunrock and Yvonne, an unscrupulous pair plan to relieve a millionaire called Finch of his fortune. They hire Margie to be an unwitting romantic companion to Finch to make their job that much easier!
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The Flame of the Yukon
Title: The Flame of the Yukon
Character: The Flame
Released: August 30, 1926
Type: Movie
George Fowler, a young man from the states, arrives at the Mias saloon, and the proprietor, "Blak Jack" Hovey, orders a saloon girl, known only as "The Flame," to fleece him. When she learns he doesn't have any money she gets him a job at a café. News of a gold strike in the Ophir area comes, and George sets out, with a dog team supplied by Flame. Meanwhile a woman comes to town, says she is Mrs. Fowler and is looking for her husband.
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Shipwrecked
Title: Shipwrecked
Character: Lois Austin
Released: May 9, 1926
Type: Movie
Larry O'Neil, a ship's cook, finds and befriends stowaway Lois Austin, who is a fugitive from a murder charge. The ship's captain, Klodel, also finds her and forces her to do his will as he has received a cablegram and knows she is hunted.
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Faint Perfume
Title: Faint Perfume
Character: Richmiel Crumb
Released: June 8, 1925
Type: Movie
After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, taking their young son Oliver with her. Barnaby follows her, to ask for custody of the boy, but meets and falls in love with Richmiel's pretty and sensitive cousin Ledda. Complications ensue.
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The Hunted Woman
Title: The Hunted Woman
Character: Joanne Gray
Released: March 22, 1925
Type: Movie
The Hunted Woman
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I Am the Man
Title: I Am the Man
Character: Julia Calvert
Released: December 15, 1924
Type: Movie
A jealous politician tries to force a woman to marry him by framing her father for a crime.
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For Woman's Favor
Title: For Woman's Favor
Character: June Paige
Released: August 1, 1924
Type: Movie
A modern love story is the framework for a costume love story, based on Boccaccio's "The Falcon."
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The Great Well
Title: The Great Well
Character: Camilla Challenor
Released: March 1, 1924
Type: Movie
In India a major tries to cash in on a dry oil well but shoots himself when the oil returns.
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Unseeing Eyes
Title: Unseeing Eyes
Character: Miriam Helston
Released: November 18, 1923
Type: Movie
The sister of a silver mine owner hires a renegade pilot to fly her to her brother's rescue.
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The Face in the Fog
Title: The Face in the Fog
Character: Grand Duchess Tatiana
Released: October 7, 1922
Type: Movie
Boston Blackie Dawson gets some jewels that belonged to the imperial family of Russia. A gang of terrorists is after the jewels.
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Back Pay
Title: Back Pay
Character: Hester Bevins
Released: January 8, 1922
Type: Movie
This 1922 Frank Borzage film is a masterwork waiting to be rediscovered. Hester Bevins is a simple country girl who yearns for adventure. Though she has a handsome young man, Jerry, who is devoted to her, she leaves her village and goes to New York in search of a grander life. There she becomes the lover of a wealthy and unscrupulous businessman. But when Jerry returns blinded and dying from the war, Hester must choose between her new life and the man whose loyalty to her has never failed.
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The Woman God Changed
Title: The Woman God Changed
Character: Anna Janssen
Released: July 3, 1921
Type: Movie
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Lavender and Old Lace
Title: Lavender and Old Lace
Character: Ruth Thorne
Released: June 1, 1921
Type: Movie
Mary Ainslie has been waiting 30 years for her fiancé, a sea captain, to return. She has kept a light burning in her window to guide him home. His son Carl, by another woman, arrives on vacation in the New England village where Mary lives. Mary is overcome by the resemblance between the young man and his father. The young man falls in love with Ruth, Mary's young comrade. On her deathbed, Mary wishes Carl and Ruth the romantic life that she did not live.
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The Cheater Reformed
Title: The Cheater Reformed
Character: Carol McCall
Released: January 2, 1921
Type: Movie
Thomas Edinburgh is secretly in love with Carol, wife of the Reverend Luther McCall, and produces evidence that her husband was once an embezzler. Leaving for Cleveland, the minister meets his twin brother, Jordan, the real embezzler, who is evading the law. Luther is killed in a train wreck, and Jordan, assumes his brother's identity....
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The Gift Supreme
Title: The Gift Supreme
Character: Sylvia Alden
Released: March 30, 1920
Type: Movie
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Sooner or Later
Title: Sooner or Later
Character: Edna Ellis
Released: February 1, 1920
Type: Movie
When newlywed Robert Ellis suspects that his missing wife is having a clandestine affair, he appeals to his friend, Pat Murphy, to find her. Pat's search leads him to the Waldorf-Astoria where he finds a woman named Edna Ellis and, assuming that she is Ellis' errant wife, kidnaps her and returns her to Ellis. Complications arise when the real Mrs. Ellis arrives home and discovers another woman. After several comic incidents, Pat falls in love with Edna and Ellis learns that his wife's secret rendezvous was with her sister.
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Victory
Title: Victory
Character: Alma
Released: December 7, 1919
Type: Movie
Adaptation of Joseph Conrad novel about lust and violence on a South Seas Island.
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The Life Line
Title: The Life Line
Character: Laura
Released: October 5, 1919
Type: Movie
Jack Hearne, known as the Romany Rye, prefers living with the gypsies rather than claiming the right to his part of his half brother Phillip Royston's country estate, Cragsnest. When he saves Ruth Heckett, the daughter of his friend Joe, a London bird shop owner and burglar, from a theater fire, however, he changes his mind and marries her. As Ruth and Jack board a steamer for America to find witnesses to his parents' wedding for proof of his inheritance, Joe's partner Bos gives Ruth a Bible that he stole from Cragsnest, as a present.
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The Fall of Babylon
Title: The Fall of Babylon
Character: Attarea
Released: July 21, 1919
Type: Movie
After the relatively low box office takings of 'Intolerance', D. W. Griffith would revisit his epic film three years later by releasing two of the film's interlocking stories as standalone features, with some new additional footage. The first of the two was 'The Fall of Babylon', which depicts the conflict between Prince Belshazzar of Babylon and Cyrus the Great of Persia.
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Riders of Vengeance
Title: Riders of Vengeance
Character: The Girl
Released: June 9, 1919
Type: Movie
Harry's bride is murdered at their wedding along with Harry's mother and father, and the good-hearted outlaw turns grimly malevolent.
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One of the Finest
Title: One of the Finest
Character: Frances Hudson
Released: June 1, 1919
Type: Movie
Traffic cop Larry Hayes takes care of four-year-old Mary Jane, the daughter of Gus Andrews, a criminal sent to prison because of Larry, and Nellie, a shop girl who visits often.
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The Sheriff's Son
Title: The Sheriff's Son
Character: Beulah Rutherford
Released: March 30, 1919
Type: Movie
Sheriff's son Royal Beaudry is thought a coward, even by the young woman he has his heart set on. But he disproves cowardice when he rescues his father's friend from kidnappers.
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A Man And His Money
Title: A Man And His Money
Character: Betty Dalrymple
Released: March 16, 1919
Type: Movie
Inheriting a fortune allows Harry Lathrop to indulge in extravagant spending and wild wine parties with chorus girls, decides to change his ways after his childhood sweetheart, Betty Dalrymple, gives back her engagement ring because he arrives drunk for dinner.
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Breed of Men
Title: Breed of Men
Character: Ruth Fellows
Released: February 2, 1919
Type: Movie
Boss rider "Careless" Carmody is made sheriff of an Arizona frontier town by Chicago swindler Prentice. The naive Carmody actually believes Prentice to be on the up and up and vouches for him in a land deal with Ruth Fellowes. Taken to the cleaners, so to speak, Ruth blames Carmody, who, in love with the girl, follows Prentice back to Chicago.
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Branding Broadway
Title: Branding Broadway
Character: Mary Lee
Released: December 15, 1918
Type: Movie
Drunk and disorderly cowpoke Robert Sands is banished from an Arizona frontier town and hops on a freight train heading for New York. Arriving in Manhattan, the rough-and-tumble cowboy obtains a position as "physical guardian" to a spoiled member of the social register.
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Madame Bo-Peep
Title: Madame Bo-Peep
Released: May 26, 1917
Type: Movie
A 1917 filmd riected by Chester Withey.
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Madame Bo-Peep
Title: Madame Bo-Peep
Character: Octavia
Released: May 26, 1917
Type: Movie
A 1917 filmd riected by Chester Withey.
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A Woman's Awakening
Title: A Woman's Awakening
Character: Paula Letchworth
Released: March 24, 1917
Type: Movie
A 1917 film directed by Chester Withey.
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Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Title: Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Character: Princess Beloved (Attarea) (Babylonian Story)
Released: September 4, 1916
Type: Movie
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
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Martha's Vindication
Title: Martha's Vindication
Character: Dorothea
Released: February 20, 1916
Type: Movie
A 1916 film directed by Chester M. Franklin.
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The Lamb
Title: The Lamb
Character: Mary
Released: November 6, 1915
Type: Movie
Gerald, the somewhat frail son of a wealthy New York family, is bested at the beach by Bill, a strapping young cowboy from Arizona. His fiancée Mary, ashamed of Gerald's "yellow streak", leaves him and goes by train to visit some friends in Arizona, with Bill in tow. Gerald follows them, and before long he and Mary winds up captured by Yaqui Indians and Gerald must prove to Mary that he is not the "weakling" she thinks he is by coming up with a plan for them to escape their captors.
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A Yankee from the West
Title: A Yankee from the West
Character: Gunhild, a Norwegian Girl
Released: August 19, 1915
Type: Movie
Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In Addertown he secures a position as stationmaster of the L. & R. Railroad, but is forced out because of his drinking habits. He accidentally meets Gunhild, an emigrant Norwegian girl, as she arrives in Addertown to take up her home with Jan Hagsberg, the town's saloonkeeper. Seeking revenge on the railroad, Milford joins Jim Dorsey in a scheme to hold up the road's paymaster on his way to pay the employees of the company's mine.
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The Fox Woman
Title: The Fox Woman
Character: The Fox Woman, Alice Carroway, a.k.a. Ali-San
Released: July 15, 1915
Type: Movie
According to Japanese legend, the Fox Woman was not possessed of a soul. To exist, she was obliged to steal the soul of others.
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An Old-Fashioned Girl
Title: An Old-Fashioned Girl
Character: Bertha - the City Girl
Released: February 2, 1915
Type: Movie
Abigail, the pretty daughter of a village school teacher, and Jared Guild are lovers. Bertha comes from the city to visit in the little town. Her charms prove too strong for Jared, who neglects Abigail to dance attendance upon the new belle. The country girl is broken-hearted, though she hides her sorrow from her erstwhile sweetheart. A wealthy young planter, however, soon cuts out Jared with Bertha.
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The Craven
Title: The Craven
Character: May Walton
Released: January 23, 1915
Type: Movie
Bud Walton, the village blacksmith, is big and strong physically, but he has not the courage to put his strength to good purpose. All the boys take a slap at him whenever they choose, and Bud makes no attempt to retaliate. This causes his sweetheart, June, to despise him.
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The Better Way
Title: The Better Way
Released: December 22, 1914
Type: Movie
Sunbeam's father is sent to prison, and on his release promises to remain honest. He secures a job as a night watchman, but his prison record being discovered, he is fired, and finds it impossible to secure work. Sunbeam gets a job in a a family as a "slavey" in order to support the father and herself, but her father chafes at the idea of his daughter working, although he does not know what her job is nor where. In desperation, he decides to turn crook again, and breaks into the house where his daughter is working.