Marion Leonard

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Marion Leonard
The Theater of Science, 1914
Born	(1881-06-09)June 9, 1881 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Died	January 9, 1956(1956-01-09) (aged 74) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1908–1915, 1926
Spouse(s)	Stanner E.V. Taylor

Marion Leonard (June 9, 1881 – January 9, 1956) was an American stage actress who became one of the first motion picture celebrities in the early years of the silent film era.^[1]

Early career[]

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Marion Leonard began working in live theatre until the age of twenty-seven when she was signed by American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. She made her screen debut in the short film At the Crossroads of Life (1908) directed by Wallace McCutcheon, Jr. (1884–1928) from a screenplay by D. W. Griffith, who also appeared as an actor in this film.

Within a year, she had leading roles, frequently directed by Griffith. At a time when screen credits were not given to actors, she and Florence Auer were the first star actresses to be billed by the studio as a "Biograph Girl". Of her films made at Biograph, thirty-two were with an up-and-coming young actress named Mary Pickford.

Marriage and switch to Universal Pictures[]

Leonard and D. W. Griffith in At the Crossroads of Life (1908)

While working for Biograph, Leonard met screenwriter/director Stanner E.V. Taylor and a personal relationship developed that led to marriage. The two eventually left Biograph to make films for Universal Pictures and other studios and sometimes through their own production company.

Engagement notice in Motion Picture News, 1911

In 1915, after appearing in more than one hundred and fifty films, Leonard retired from film. She returned eleven years later at age forty-five for one final appearance in a 1926 Mack Sennett comedy.

Leonard died in 1956 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

Selected filmography[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marion Leonard.

• Marion Leonard at IMDb
• Marion Leonard at Women Film Pioneers Project