Evelyn Nesbit

Harry Thaw swore he was not the child's father, although Evelyn always insisted he was. See also: Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood. Evelyn had one child, Russell William Thaw (October 25, 1910 - 2002), a noted aviator who sometimes appeared in Hollywood films; the identity of his father remains in doubt. She has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6280 Hollywood Blvd. She was also portrayed by Elizabeth McGovern in the movie "Ragtime.". She died on May 29, 1979 holding dual U.S./Canadian citizenship and is buried with her scandal-prone brother Jack Pickford in the Pickford private family plot in the Garden of Memory of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, California, USA. In her later years, she taught ceramics and served as a technical consultant to a 1955 movie about the White shooting, "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing," in which she was portrayed by Joan Collins. For the last 50-odd years of her life, Pickford suffered from alcoholism, which also afflicted her first husband and her father.

Evelyn Nesbit eventually died in a nursing home in Santa Monica, California, at age 82. She also founded Mary Pickford Cosmetics, a beauty company, in 1937. Thaw had become reconciled and planned to resume their former relationship; however, nothing came of the couple's reported plans. Fairbanks, however, was the love of the actress's life, and upon hearing of his death, Pickford reportedly began to weep in front of her new husband, Rogers, saying "My darling is gone.". In 1926, however, several months after she attempted suicide over losing her job as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge Café in Chicago, she reappeared in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where she gave an interview to the New York Times, stating that she and Harry K. Her last husband was Charles "Buddy" Rogers (1904-1999), a fresh-faced actor known as "America's Boy Friend" and later a bandleader, whom she married in 1937; they had two adopted children, Roxanne and Ronald. She married again in 1916, in Ellicott City, Maryland, taking Virgil James Montani (1880-1956, professional name Jack Clifford, her dancing partner) as her second husband; he abandoned her in 1918 and she eventually divorced him in 1933. They divorced in January 1936.

After the trial, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw's career was largely unsuccessful (vaudeville performer, actor, dancer, café manager) and her life marred by suicide attempts. Together they were regarded as "Hollywood Royalty" and were famous for entertaining at their estate Pickfair. If she did not survive him, the money was to go to her son, Russell William Thaw (see below). (1883-1939), the action-adventure film star, on March 28, 1920. His will stipulated that his former wife was to receive $10,000 of his more than $1 million estate. She next married Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. He died of a heart attack in February 22, 1947 at his home in Miami Beach, Florida; he had another home, Villa Marie Antoinette, in Bolton, New York. They were divorced in March 1920.

Thaw moved back to Pittsburgh, and his subsequent life was also filled with scandalous brawls, affairs, and lawsuits. She was first married to Owen Moore (1886-1939), an Irish-born silent-film actor, on January 7, 1911. He was extradicted back to the United States, and in 1915 another jury found him sane. She was married three times. In 1913 he walked out of the asylum and was driven over the border to Sherbrooke, Quebec. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929, but retired from films four years later, after a series of disappointing roles and the public's inability to accept Pickford in roles that reflected her own age, rather than teenage heroines. Thaw was incarcerated at the Asylum for the Criminally Insane at Matteawan, New Jersey, enjoying nearly complete freedom. Pickford would go on to become Hollywood's biggest female star, the first female actor to receive more than a million dollars a year (the first male actor who made a million dollar deal was Charlie Chaplin), and one of the few stars who were successful in both the silent film era and the sound film era.

Evelyn got the divorce, in 1915, but not the money). Griffith screen tested and hired her for a part in a one-reel thriller, The Lonely Villa in 1909. She did just that, and performed in court wonderfully: he was found not guilty. W. (Thaw's mother told Evelyn that if she would testify that Stanford White abused her and that Harry only tried to protect her, she'd receive a divorce from Harry Thaw and one million dollars in compensation. D. At the first, the jury was deadlocked: at the second, Thaw pled insanity, and Evelyn testified. DeMille, who was also in the cast.

There were two trials. DeMille, brother of Cecil B. During the song, "I Could Love A Million Girls", Thaw fired three shots at close range into White's face, killing him. Her mother took her to New York, looking for stardom, and she landed a leading role in a 1907 Broadway play, The Warrens of Virginia, produced by David Belasco (at whose insistence she assumed the stage name Mary Pickford), which was written by William C. On June 25, 1906 Evelyn and Harry saw White at a restaurant (the Cafè Martin) and ran into him again in the audience of the Madison Square Garden's roof theatre at a performance of Mamzelle Champagne. She subsequently played in many melodramas and became a popular child actress in Canada. After a trip to Europe, Evelyn accepted Thaw's proposal and they married on April 4, 1905. Her mother, née Charlotte Hennessy, began taking in boarders, and through one of these lodgers Gladys, aged five, was cast in a local play, The Silver King, as Baby Gladys Smith.

Thaw was also a sexual sadist, and subjected Evelyn to beatings. Her father, John Charles Smith, was a purser on a steamship who died in an on-board accident. Thaw became increasingly jealous of Nesbit (he carried a pistol), and was especially sensitive about her relationship with White. Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (for some reason, Pickford always claimed that her middle name was Marie). Stanford was eventually supplanted in her affections by Harry Kendall Thaw (1871-1947), also of Pittsburgh, son of a coal and railroad baron. Mary Pickford (April 8, 1892 - May 29, 1979) was a motion picture star, known as "America's Sweetheart" and "the girl with the curl." She became one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood. Both abortions were explained as appendectomies, though a second appendectomy strains credulity. and became its first vice president in 1936.

(Nesbit refused Barrymore's marriage proposal during her second pregnancy). 1919: A very astute business person, she founded United Artists together with Charlie Chaplin, David Wark Griffith and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. She became pregnant by Barrymore twice, and he arranged for abortions both times. She gets $675,000 for three films plus 50% of all profits, plus a signing bonus of $50,000 and complete control over her films, ranging from script to the final cut. During this period, Evelyn was courted by a young actor named John Barrymore after her affair to White ended. 1918: First National. Her involvement with White continued off and on. She became the first actress who was the producer of her own films.

DeMille. 1916: founded The Mary Pickford Corporation as a part of Paramount Pictures, she gets about $10,000 a week. White arranged to have her educated at a New Jersey boarding school run by the mother of Cecil B. 1915: worked for various companies, $1000 to $2000 a week. White allegedly took her virtue there after giving her a drink that knocked her out -- a claim she repeated often to her eventual husband, though at the end of her life she claimed "Stanny" was the only man she ever loved. 1913: Famous Players, $20,000 a year. In his lavish tower apartment at Madison Square Garden, which he built, he had installed a red velvet swing from which he derived sexual pleasure watching his young friends -- including Evelyn -- use (Nesbit would be sensationalized as "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing"). 1913: Appears (with Lillian Gish) in Belasco's Broadway production A Good Little Devil.

The fact that he was married and made a hobby of "befriending" young ladies was overlooked by Evelyn's mother, who encouraged White's patronage. 1912: back to Biograph. Now a Florodora Girl on Broadway, she caught the attention of Stanford White. 1911: Majestic Film Corp. Church and Charles Dana Gibson and photographer Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr.. 1910: I.M.P., $175 a week. She continued modelling, posing for Frederick C. 1909: discovered by David Wark Griffith at Biograph, worked for $5 a week.

In 1901, at age 16, now the family breadwinner, she decided they would move to New York to further her career. Prior to 1909: studied theatre actress in New York City. As a teenager, she posed for an artist, John Storm, in Pittsburgh, and achieved some measure of success. Fortunately, Evelyn was an exceptional beauty. Born in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, her family was left destitute when her father, a lawyer, died.

Thaw. Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 - January 17, 1967) was a model noted for her entanglement in the murder of her ex-lover, architect Stanford White, by her husband, Harry K. "Dementia Americana" - A long narrative poem by Keith Maillard - 1994. Ragtime (musical) - the musical play.

Ragtime (movie) - the film. Doctorow; in turn was adapted to create the two below works: