Frances Lee
Biography
From Wikipedia Frances Lee was born as Myrna Tibbetts (some sources indicate Merna Tibbetts) in Eagle Grove, Iowa. She initially began pursuing a career as a teacher but began taking dance lessons, which led to her being spotted by Gus Edwards, who owned a theater in New York City. Edwards persuaded Lee to perform at his theater, and she joined the cast of The Ziegfeld Follies in 1923, when she was hired by Al Christie to perform in his Christie Comedies. Moving to Hollywood in the mid-1920s to pursue acting, she received her first film role in 1924, starring in Hello and Goodbye, a comedy short film. That brought her to the attention of the studios and launched her into a very successful and busy silent film career. In 1925 she had roles in three films, and in 1926 her number of films jumped to seven. She was a frequent guest at the home of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and became friends with other notable Hollywood legends, to include Rudolph Valentino until his death in 1926. In 1927 she had roles in five films and was selected as one of thirteen girls to be WAMPAS Baby Stars, which that year included silent film star Sally Phipps and actress Barbara Kent. The year 1928 was a big year for her. She starred in nine films, the most memorable of which was Sweeties with Bobby Vernon. Her biggest year by far was 1929, when she starred in ten films, including the lead role in Stage Struck Susie opposite Eddie Barry and Divorce Made Easy starring alongside Marie Prevost and Douglas MacLean. That year, she married Alexander Bennett, brother to Australian silent film actress Enid Bennett. Their wedding was attended by such famous Hollywood legends as Enid Bennett's husband, film producer Fred Niblo; actresses Gloria Swanson and Greta Garbo; and actors Rod La Rocque and John Gilbert. She retired from film acting after 1935, living with her husband in Beverly Hills, California. She began working in interior design and studied for and received a degree in teaching. She and her husband lived in Brentwood, where she began one of the early Head Start programs at Knox Presbyterian Nursery School. She also taught dance, society behavior, and etiquette at the Elisa Ryan Studio, where she instructed the daughters of President Richard M. Nixon. In 1972 she and Alex moved to Cardiff-by-the-Sea. She worked as a children's librarian at the Rancho Sante Fe Library until only a few years before her death. She died on November 5, 2000, in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, aged 94.
Known For & Full Filmography14 Titles
Movie - 1929, 2h 15m • as Performer in 'Ladies of the Ensemble' Number (uncredited)
Now hear this. The studio that gave the cinema its voice offered 1929 audiences a chance to see and hear multiple silent-screen favorites for the first time in a gaudy, grandiose music-comedy-novelty revue that also included Talkie stars, Broadway luminaries and of course, Rin-Tin-Tin. Frank Fay hosts a jamboree that, among its 70+ stars, features bicyclers, boxing champ Georges Carpentier, chorines in terpsichore kickery, sister acts, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic Far East beauty, John Barrymore in a Shakespearean soliloquy (adding an on-screen voice to his legendary profile for the first time) and Winnie Lightner famously warbling the joys of Singing in the Bathtub. Watch, rinse, repeat!
Movie - 1934, 2h 15m • as Blonde (uncredited)
A private stationed in Hawaii gets involved with the general's engaged daughter. In order to avoid a scandal, the pair break up, but meet again years later when he's at West Point producing the annual play that turns out to star her.
Movie - 1933, 2h 15m • as Natalie
Solomon Ginsberg is the President of International Pictures Corporation and hires Joan McAllister, an unemployed stenographer, to double for his star, Laura Girard. While on a location trip, Laura is killed in an automobile accident, and in order to save the money already invested in the film Ginsberg, aided by the film's leading-man, Wallace Morely, with whom Joan is more than a little infatuated, persuades Joan to assume the identity of the dead actress, whose death is being concealed.
Movie - 1928, 2h 15m • as Babe Lorraine
A married tightwad learns to loosen up by living the life of a playboy.
Movie - 1934, 2h 15m • as Mae Lercombe
Ford Motor Company-sponsored saga of a small-town car dealer who had faith in the development of the auto as a common public conveyance and in the Ford product.
Movie - 1932, 2h 15m • as Mary Jones
A timid accountant for a California cattle ranch and a lookalike dashing bandit become rivals for the beautiful daughter of a wealthy rancher.
Movie - 1933, 2h 15m • as Judy Lane
A cowboy called The Thunderbolt Kid comes to the aid of a town that is being threatened by outlaws who don't want a railroad to go through the town.
Movie - 1927, 2h 15m • as Jane Laurier
Buck Brady is the son of a prospector whose valuable claim was stolen when Buck was a child. Brady grows up with revenge on his mind and retaliates by holding up the mine's payroll messengers. Until, that is, he falls in love with Janet, the new owner.
Movie - 1929, 2h 15m • as Eileen Stanley
When his aunt disapproves of his marriage to Mabel Deering and threatens to disinherit him, Percy elicits the aid of his buddy Billy Haskell, who is engaged to Eileen Stanley. It is arranged that Billy and Mabel be found together in compromising circumstances by Percy and his aunt, but matters are complicated by the arrival of Billy's uncle in the city, and Aunt Emma becomes very fond of him. All is subsequently explained and thoughts of "divorce" are smoothed away as Uncle Todd couples up with Aunt Emma, and Billy and Eileen, and Percy and Mabel, reinstitute their carefree engagements.
Movie - 1929, 2h 15m • as Doris Whitely
It's a case of mistaken identity in this comedy that centers around a country bumpkin mistaken for a Chicago hitman.
Movie - 1929, 2h 15m • as Susie
Eddie Barry bewilders himself backstage at a show.
Movie - 1928, 2h 15m • as Alice
May Banks (May McAvoy) is a working-class girl who gets ideas above her station in life when her father, Colonel Banks (Aleck B. Francis), a Coney Island employee, save enough money to send her to an expensive, snobby all-girl finishing school.
Movie - 1929, 2h 15m • as Peggy
A gorgeous showgirl is hired as a lingerie model at a fashion show......
Movie - 1926, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Unable to pay his hotel bill Bobby has to become a bellboy to cover the cost. Among the many complications that ensue he finds himself handing from the hotel's ledge from many stories up.