Barbara La Marr

Born in Yakima, Washington, she began as a child stage actress in the Pacific Northwest until she outgrew child roles but was too young to play an adult. Her family moved to the Imperial Valley in California, where as a teenager she explored Los Angeles high life and tried unsuccessfully to break into the movies. There were several disastrous marriages, during which she developed a distinctive style as a dancer that brought her some success in the cabaret world, though dancing finally became too strenuous for her delicate constitution. She married vaudeville actor Ben Deeley; after they moved to New York, under the name Folly Lytell she was contracted to write six film scenarios for Fox. She made the successful leap from writer to actress in Douglas Fairbanks' The Nut (1921), and her career skyrocketed under her new name of Barbara La Marr. She lived extravagantly, lavishing expensive gifts on friends and relations. After an affair with John Gilbert and legal complications over the legality of some of her marriages and divorces, her career went into a decline and her contract with Metro was terminated.

Mismanaged by her new studio, scathing reviews brought her to despair as her health declined, in part due to destructive crash-dieting methods. She was 5'4" with black hair, grey eyes, and a natural bust. She died on January 30, 1926, at age 29.