Kathleen Key

Kathleen Key

Born: April 1, 1903
Died: December 22, 1954
in Buffalo, New York, USA
From Wikipedia:

Kathleen Key (April 1, 1903 – December 22, 1954) was an American actress who achieved a brief period of fame during the silent era. She is best remembered for playing Tirzah in the 1925 film Ben-Hur. Key was the great-great granddaughter of Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star Spangled Banner", and a distant cousin of author F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Born Kitty Lanahan in Buffalo, New York, she debuted in films in 1920 in the film The Jackeroo of Coolabong, playing a lead role. From that point on to the end of the 1920s, Kathleen Key, sometimes credited as Kathleen Keys, starred in several films, but never really reached stardom, and was never given much credit for the roles she had, although there were some exceptions.

In the early '20s, Key had a well-known love affair with silent-film actor Buster Keaton, who was married at the time. As told in Keaton's biography, the actor attempted to call off the relationship, but Key flew into a jealous rage and ransacked his MGM dressing room, which caused her to be virtually blacklisted afterward by the movie industry. It is also stated that Keaton refused to give Key a monetary loan. A telegram, sent by one of Keaton's friends who had heard about the argument, comically read: "Congratulations. Hear you are off Key."

After her retirement in 1936, Keys spent the rest of her days in moderate comfort at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills, California, where she died at the age of 51 in 1954. Her interment was located at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Movies for Kathleen Key...

Klondike Annie
Title: Klondike Annie
Released: February 21, 1936
Type: Movie
A San Francisco singer flees Chinatown on murder charges and poses as a missionary in Alaska.
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Thunder in the Night
Title: Thunder in the Night
Character: Party Guest
Released: September 16, 1935
Type: Movie
Officer Karl Torok's best friend, Count Alvinczy, is elected president of the Hungarian cabinet. Meanwhile, Alvinczy's wife, Madalaine, receives a message from a blackmailer, threatening her husband. When the blackmailer winds up dead, Madalaine appears to be the most likely suspect. Torok, however, knows the case is more complicated than it seems and dedicates himself to revealing the truth behind the mystery.
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Sweeping Against the Winds
Title: Sweeping Against the Winds
Released: June 20, 1930
Type: Movie
A small textile factory down south is run by a cruel foreman that bullies and fires on whim the workers, especially the office girl who starts a day nursery for their children. He's also a part owner in the business. His methods usually scare away the man hired as the plant manager, until a replacement (secretly one of the other owners) arrives.
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The Phantom of the North
Title: The Phantom of the North
Character: Colette
Released: May 27, 1929
Type: Movie
In the great white north, a trapper searchers for the thief who has been stealing his furs while a local trader seeks to take advantage of the situation.
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Irish Hearts
Title: Irish Hearts
Character: Clarice
Released: May 21, 1927
Type: Movie
Sheila, a feisty Irish girl, loves Emmett, a somewhat shady Irish boy. When Emmett goes to America, Sheila and her father follow and join him. However, when he loses his job, Sheila is forced to get a job in a cheap restaurant. There she meets Rory, a poor American boy who works in a shipyard. Rory falls in love with her but she still loves Emmett. Then she finds out that Emmett has been taking up with a brassy "flapper" named Clarice.
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Hey! Hey! Cowboy
Title: Hey! Hey! Cowboy
Character: Emily Decker
Released: April 3, 1927
Type: Movie
A longstanding friendship between Julius Decker and Joe Billings, neighboring ranchers, is broken by a series of mystifying occurrences, and their relationship ultimately develops into a feud.
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The Desert's Toll
Title: The Desert's Toll
Character: Muriel Cooper
Released: November 14, 1926
Type: Movie
Frank Darwin needs to convince Muriel he didn't kill her Father, as claimed by Jasper and Oneta.
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The Flaming Frontier
Title: The Flaming Frontier
Character: Lucretia
Released: September 11, 1926
Type: Movie
Bob Langdon, a young Pony Express rider, is given an appointment to West Point, but is forced to leave the academy as the result of political intrigue stirred up by enemies of his friend, General George A. Custer. Bob returns to the west and is made a scout for Custer's 7th Cavalry. At the Battle of Little Big Horn, Custer sends Bob with a message for aid, and Bob becomes the only survivor of the battle.
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Money Talks
Title: Money Talks
Character: Vamp
Released: May 10, 1926
Type: Movie
Sam Starling (Owen Moore) is deep in debt, his wife Phoebe (Claire Windsor) is leaving him and still he is confident. When Phoebe boards a luxury yacht and is wooed by the captain, Sam comes aboard as a woman and tries to seduce the captain (in fact, a liquor smuggler), away from his wife.
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Under Western Skies
Title: Under Western Skies
Character: Milly Lewis
Released: February 7, 1926
Type: Movie
Bob Erskine, the son of a wealthy New York banker, falls in love with Ella Parkhurst, the daughter of an Oregon rancher. Bob goes to work as a fieldhand for the elder Parkhurst and discovers that the Oregon crops may fail because eastern bankers, led by Bob's father, refuse to advance the farmers credit. Bob intercedes with his father, who promises to help the ranchers if Bob wins the steeplechase in the Pendleton rodeo.
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Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Title: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Character: Tirzah
Released: December 25, 1925
Type: Movie
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
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The Big Parade
Title: The Big Parade
Character: Miss Apperson (uncredited)
Released: November 5, 1925
Type: Movie
The story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.
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A Lover's Oath
Title: A Lover's Oath
Character: Sherin
Released: September 29, 1925
Type: Movie
"The plot introduces Omar as a leader of his people but deals rather with the love of his nephew, Ben Ali, for the fairest daughter of the tribe" (Variety, 7 Oct 1925, p44).
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1925 Studio Tour
Title: 1925 Studio Tour
Character: Self
Released: April 9, 1925
Type: Movie
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.
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Revelation
Title: Revelation
Character: Madonna
Released: June 23, 1924
Type: Movie
Paul Granville becomes a famous painter for his portraits of great women as modeled by the beautiful Joline Hofer. When one of Paul's paintings appears to result in a miracle, Joline's life is changed forever. She leaves her previous life to live one of service and piety, a decision that ultimately saves Paul's life.
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The Sea Hawk
Title: The Sea Hawk
Character: Andalusian Slave Girl
Released: June 14, 1924
Type: Movie
The adventures of Oliver Tressilian, who goes from English gentry to galley slave to captain of a Moorish fighting ship.
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The Trouble Shooter
Title: The Trouble Shooter
Character: Nancy Brewster
Released: May 4, 1924
Type: Movie
Tom Mix, the most popular screen cowboy of his era, played a lineman for a power company in this action melodrama which was a Western in name only.
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The Man from Brodney's
Title: The Man from Brodney's
Character: Neenah
Released: December 16, 1923
Type: Movie
A drama of the India Seas that has Hollingsworth Chance, a young American, tangled in court intrigue to, is put to the supreme test to save the girl he loves, Princess Geneva
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Reno
Title: Reno
Character: Yvette - The Governess
Released: December 9, 1923
Type: Movie
After obtaining a divorce from his second wife Emily, Roy Tappan marries Dora Carson, who has just divorced her husband. Left poor with two children, Emily marries Walter Heath, a former suitor, then discovers that she cannot live with her new husband because the divorce is not legal in her home state. Tappan and his new wife soon run out of money, each having thought the other was wealthy. His aunt promises to support him in exchange for his two children. He kidnaps the children and hides them from Emily in his aunt's home. After Emily and Walter find them, they go to Yellowstone Park, where they are considered legally married. Tappan follows and is killed after a fight with Walter when a boiling geyser throws him into the air and throws him onto the rocks below.
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North of Hudson Bay
Title: North of Hudson Bay
Character: Estelle MacDonald
Released: November 18, 1923
Type: Movie
On a steamboat heading North, where his brother has struck gold, Mike Dane falls in love with Estelle MacDonald. When he arrives at the Canadian trading post, Dane learns that his brother has been murdered and his partner sentenced to death as the killer.
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Hell's Hole
Title: Hell's Hole
Character: Mabel Grant
Released: September 23, 1923
Type: Movie
Cowboy Tod Musgrave and his pal Del Hawkins steal a ride on a train after being kicked out of a saloon. The conductor throws them off when he discovers they have no tickets, and the two men swear revenge.
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Bells of San Juan
Title: Bells of San Juan
Character: Florrie Engel
Released: October 15, 1922
Type: Movie
Rod Norton is a lawman searching for his father's killer. Norton suspects saloon owner Jim Garson but is lacking evidence. Garson's henchmen, the Rickard brothers, kidnap Norton's sweetheart Dorothy, hoping to lure the sheriff into a trap.
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West of Chicago
Title: West of Chicago
Character: Señoria Gonzales
Released: September 3, 1922
Type: Movie
West of Chicago is a 1922 American silent western film directed by Scott R. Dunlap and starring Buck Jones, Renée Adorée and Philo McCullough.
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Where's my Wandering Boy Tonight?
Title: Where's my Wandering Boy Tonight?
Released: February 5, 1922
Type: Movie
Garry Beecher, forgetting his mother and sweetheart, Lorna, falls in love with Veronica, a chorus girl, and heads for the city; finding her with a millionaire, he returns home and robs his former employer, then returns to Veronica and begins a career of reckless spending. When he is unable to pay for a diamond necklace, Garry is threatened with arrest and is betrayed by Veronica.
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The Fighting Breed
Title: The Fighting Breed
Character: Enid MacDonald (as Ethel Payton)
Released: September 1, 1921
Type: Movie
A wealthy young Australian, the last of the "Fighting O'Farrells," decides to secretly work at his own farm in order to prove himself.
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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Title: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Character: Georgette (uncredited)
Released: March 6, 1921
Type: Movie
Set in the years before and during World War I, this epic tale tells the story of a rich Argentine family, one of its two descending branches being half of French heritage, the other being half German. Following the death of the family patriarch, the man's two daughters and their families resettle to France and Germany, respectively. In time the Great War breaks out, putting members of the family on opposing sides.
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The Rookie's Return
Title: The Rookie's Return
Character: Gloria
Released: December 26, 1920
Type: Movie
A young soldier is discharged from the service and has trouble making a living. However, when he inherits a great deal of money, he finds his troubles only beginning.