Mary Pickford summary

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Mary Pickford, orig. Gladys Mary Smith, (born April 9, 1893, Toronto, Ont., Can.—died May 28, 1979, Santa Monica, Calif., U.S.), Canadian-born U.S. film actress. She acted with a stock company from age 5, went on tour at 8, and was performing on Broadway by 18. She starred in D.W. Griffith’s The Lonely Villa (1909) and by 1913 was acting in movies exclusively. One of the first movie stars, she became a symbol of innocence and was known as “America’s sweetheart.” Her silent films include Tess of the Storm Country (1914), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Poor Little Rich Girl (1917), and Pollyanna (1920). A shrewd businesswoman, she formed United Artists Corp. (1919) with her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks, and others. She received an Academy Award for her first sound film, Coquette (1929). She retired from acting in 1933 and received a special Academy Award in 1975.

Academy Award Summary

Academy Award, any of a number of awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., to recognize achievement in the film industry. The awards were first presented in 1929, and winners receive a gold-plated statuette commonly

acting Summary

Acting, the performing art in which movement, gesture, and intonation are used to realize a fictional character for the stage, for motion pictures, or for television. (Read Lee Strasberg’s 1959 Britannica essay on acting.) Acting is generally agreed to be a matter less of mimicry, exhibitionism, or

film Summary

Film, series of still photographs on film, projected in rapid succession onto a screen by means of light. Because of the optical phenomenon known as persistence of vision, this gives the illusion of actual, smooth, and continuous movement. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film