BARA
(BEAR-uh)
American
silent film actress Related crosswordese: THEDA Common
clues: Actress
Theda; Surname among screen vamps; Silents actress Theda; Vamp
Theda; Theda of silents; Silents siren; Theda of 1917's
“Cleopatra” Crossword
puzzle frequency:
2 times a year Frequency
in English language:
57053 / 86800 Video: A
Fool There Was
The
reason good women like me and flock to my pictures is that there
is a little bit of vampire instinct in every woman
~ Theda Bara
Theda
Bara was the stage name of Theodosia Burr Goodman (July 29, 1885
- 7 April 1955), a silent film actress. Movie executives made
promotional claims that her stage name is an anagram for "Arab
Death;" however, Theda is short for Theodosia, and Bara was
the middle name of her maternal grandmother.
Theda
Bara as Cleopatra
Bara
was one of the most popular screen actresses of her era, and was
perhaps cinema's first sex symbol. She was nicknamed "The
Vamp" (short for vampire) which was slang for a sexually
predatory woman at the time. Bara, along with the French film
actress Musidora, popularized the vamp persona in the early years
of silent film and was soon imitated by rival actresses such as
Nita Naldi and Pola Negri.
Briefly
known professionally as Theodosia de Coppett, Theda Bara made
more than 40 feature films between 1914 and 1926 of which
complete prints of only three still exist. Most of these were
made for William Fox, starting with "A Fool There Was"
in 1914 and ending with "The Lure of Ambition" in 1919.
Her
films made Fox a successful studio. She made her Broadway debut
in "The Devil" (1908), and her film debut was a bit
part in "The Stain" (1914), directed by Frank Powell
for Pathé Frères. A large portion of her films are
now lost, to the regret of later generations of fans.
She
regularly attended parties at the home of powerful actress Alla
Nazimova, and was rumored to have been involved with Nazimova
romantically, but that has not been confirmed beyond a doubt. She
also mingled with other powerful personalities of the day, such
as Eva Le Gallienne, Anne Morgan, Charlie Chaplin and Buster
Keaton.
At
her height, Bara was making $4,000.00 per week for her film
roles. Between 1915 and 1919, she was promoted so heavily that
when the studios dropped off their support, her career was never
able to fully recover. She struggled with several notable roles
until 1926, when she retired from film all together.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Theda Bara".
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