Helen Dunbar was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 theatrical performer and silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 actress.

Career

Born Katheryn Burke Lackey in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, she first appeared with the Weber & Fields Stock Company, when it began its career on the New York stage. In 1899 she appeared in Whirl-i-gig and The Other Way at the Weber and Fields Broadway Music Hall. She also worked with the Charles Dillingham Company and the Boston Opera Company

Boston Opera Company

The Boston Opera Company was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts that was active from 1909 to 1915.-History:The company was founded in 1908 by Bostonian millionaire Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr. and impresario Henry Russell...

. She appeared in motion pictures beginning in 1912 and continued until 1926. Her stage and screen career extended over thirty-five years.

Dunbar's film career started with Out of the Depths (1912). The production starred Francis X. Bushman

Francis X. Bushman

Francis Xavier Bushman was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. His matinee idol career started in 1911 in the silent film His Friend's Wife, but it did not survive the silent screen era....

. She became a leading lady for the old Essanay Studios

Essanay Studios

The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture studio. It is best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies of 1915.-Founding:...

. For a number of years she was under contract to Famous Players-Lasky

Famous Players-Lasky

Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...

. Aside from Bushman, Dunbar made films with stars like Harry Cashman, Richard Carroll, Ruth Stonehouse

Ruth Stonehouse

Ruth Stonehouse was an actress and film director during the silent film era.-Early life and career:Ruth Stonehouse was born to James Wesley Stonehouse and Georgia C. Worster on September 28, 1892 in Denver, Colorado...

, Beverly Bayne

Beverly Bayne

Beverly Bayne was an American actress who appeared in silent films beginning in 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, where she worked for Essanay Studios.-Early life:...

, Frank Keenan

Frank Keenan

Frank Keenan was a stage and screen actor and stage director and manager during the silent film era. He was among the first stage actors to star in Hollywood, and he pursued work in film features a number of years....

, John Gilbert

John Gilbert (actor)

John Gilbert was an American actor and a major star of the silent film era.Known as "the great lover," he rivaled even Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw...

, Mary Astor

Mary Astor

Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...

, Phyllis Haver

Phyllis Haver

Phyllis Haver was an American actress of the silent film era.-Early life:She was born Phyllis Haver in Douglass, Kansas. When she was young, her family moved to Los Angeles, California, then a city of less than half a million people. Haver attended Los Angeles Polytechnic High...

, Norma Talmadge

Norma Talmadge

Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...

, and Noah Beery. Her final movie was Stranded In Paris (1926), which featured Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, became a star in musicals like 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain...

 and Tom Ricketts.

Death

Dunbar died of complications of arthritis

Arthritis

Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....

 in 1933 at the home of her daughter, 1203 Poinsettia Place, Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. She resided in Los Angeles the final fourteen years of her life. Her funeral was conducted from Pierce Brothers' Mortuary with interment at Hollywood Cemetery.

External links