Tracy Nelson

. See also: Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood. She is the daughter of the late teen pop idol, Ricky Nelson, and sister to the Nelson twins, Matthew and Gunnar Nelson of the brotherly rock duo, Nelson. She has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6280 Hollywood Blvd. Tracy Nelson is best known for playing the part of 'Sister Stevie' (the sidekick of Father Dowling in the tv show of "Father Dowling Mysteries") that starred Tom Bosley of "Happy Days" fame and the late Mary Wickes. 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. For the last 50-odd years of her life, Pickford suffered from alcoholism, which also afflicted her first husband and her father.

She also founded Mary Pickford Cosmetics, a beauty company, in 1937. 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.". 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. They divorced in January 1936.

Together they were regarded as "Hollywood Royalty" and were famous for entertaining at their estate Pickfair. (1883-1939), the action-adventure film star, on March 28, 1920. She next married Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. They were divorced in March 1920.

She was first married to Owen Moore (1886-1939), an Irish-born silent-film actor, on January 7, 1911. She was married three times. 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. 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.

Griffith screen tested and hired her for a part in a one-reel thriller, The Lonely Villa in 1909. W. D. DeMille, who was also in the cast.

DeMille, brother of Cecil B. 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. She subsequently played in many melodramas and became a popular child actress in Canada. 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.

Her father, John Charles Smith, was a purser on a steamship who died in an on-board accident. Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (for some reason, Pickford always claimed that her middle name was Marie). 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. and became its first vice president in 1936.

1919: A very astute business person, she founded United Artists together with Charlie Chaplin, David Wark Griffith and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. 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. 1918: First National. She became the first actress who was the producer of her own films.

1916: founded The Mary Pickford Corporation as a part of Paramount Pictures, she gets about $10,000 a week. 1915: worked for various companies, $1000 to $2000 a week. 1913: Famous Players, $20,000 a year. 1913: Appears (with Lillian Gish) in Belasco's Broadway production A Good Little Devil.

1912: back to Biograph. 1911: Majestic Film Corp. 1910: I.M.P., $175 a week. 1909: discovered by David Wark Griffith at Biograph, worked for $5 a week.

Prior to 1909: studied theatre actress in New York City.