Lina Basquette
Encyclopedia
Lina Basquette was an American actress noted as much for her more than 75 years in entertainment beginning in the silent film
era, as her tumultuous personal life and nine marriages.
. After the death of her father and subsequent marriage of her mother to dance director Ernest Belcher, she and half-sister Marge Champion
got an early start in dance and entertaining. She danced in the Ziegfeld Follies
in New York City
, and secured her first film contract at the age of nine in 1916 with Universal Studios
for the silent film series, Lena Baskette Featurettes.
producers officially dubbed her "America's Prima Ballerina." Basquette was named one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars
in 1928 and the following year made The Younger Generation with Frank Capra
.
In 1929, she also made The Godless Girl
with Cecil B. DeMille
, arguably the role for which she was best remembered, for she named her 1990 autobiography Lina: DeMille's Godless Girl. In this film, made at the transition from the silent era
to the talkies, she played the title character. Judith is based on Queen Silver, a child prodigy and socialist orator. The character, leader of a high school atheist society, forces members to renounce The Bible while placing a hand on the head of a live monkey. In the climactic scene, DeMille insisted on realism in filming a last shot of the reformatory going up in flames.
. After this, she agreed to marry Marley, and the two were married in 1928. By 1930, Basquette was broke and spent a good amount of her time partying with fellow actresses Jean Harlow
, Clara Bow
and Carole Lombard
.
, as the governor of West Virginia
, and Johnny Paycheck
. Boyd was a communications professor at West Virginia State University
.
According to her obituary in The New York Times, "from 1947 to 1974, she ran Honey Hollow Kennels in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
. She became one of the best-known breeders and handlers of champion Great Danes in American dog-show history, and also wrote several books on dog breeding."
of Warner Brothers and the couple married on July 4, 1925. She was a mother at 19, and a widow at 20 when Sam Warner died from a brain abscess complicated by pneumonia
. Warner left her $100,000.00 of his money and $40,000 from a life insurance policy, a car, the household goods, and $85 a week from one of Warner's trust funds.
When Basquette began to neglect her family, Warner's older brother, Harry, filed for legal guardianship of Lita Warner and it was awarded on 30 March 1930. Basquette was never financially stable enough to regain custody of her daughter. In 1931, Basquette, now divorced from Marley and depressed without her daughter, tried to commit suicide by taking poison. Basquette would only see Lita on two occasions over the next twenty years: in 1935, when Harry Warner and his family moved to Los Angeles, and when Lita was married to Dr. Nathan Hiatt in 1947.
In her autobiography, Lina: Demille's Godless Girl (1990), Basquette recounts her tempestuous affair with former world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey
. The relationship came after Basquette discovered that her current husband, Theodore Hayes, whom she married on October 31, 1931, was a bigamist. Hayes was Dempsey's former trainer and Basquette's manager in theatrical affairs. On September 10, 1932, the actress was granted a Mexican divorce from Hayes. The divorce was granted on a plea of desertion for more than six months in Nogales, Sonora
, Mexico
.
In 1943, Basquette was rape
d by an AWOL serviceman who trespassed onto her Pennsylvania farm. The highly-publicized crime led to the soldier getting 20 years in prison.
at her home in Wheeling, West Virginia
. She was 87. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Lena Basquette has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
located at 1529 Vine Street
.
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...
era, as her tumultuous personal life and nine marriages.
Early years
She was born Lena Copeland Baskette to shop owner Frank Baskette and Gladys Rosenberg in San Mateo, CaliforniaSan Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
. After the death of her father and subsequent marriage of her mother to dance director Ernest Belcher, she and half-sister Marge Champion
Marge Champion
Marge Champion is an American dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue. In addition, she also worked in film and appeared in a number of television variety shows.-Early years:...
got an early start in dance and entertaining. She danced in the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and secured her first film contract at the age of nine in 1916 with Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
for the silent film series, Lena Baskette Featurettes.
Early success
In 1923, Ziegfeld FolliesZiegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
producers officially dubbed her "America's Prima Ballerina." Basquette was named one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
in 1928 and the following year made The Younger Generation with Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
.
In 1929, she also made The Godless Girl
The Godless Girl
The Godless Girl is a drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shown for years as his last completely silent film.-Production background:...
with Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
, arguably the role for which she was best remembered, for she named her 1990 autobiography Lina: DeMille's Godless Girl. In this film, made at the transition from the silent era
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...
to the talkies, she played the title character. Judith is based on Queen Silver, a child prodigy and socialist orator. The character, leader of a high school atheist society, forces members to renounce The Bible while placing a hand on the head of a live monkey. In the climactic scene, DeMille insisted on realism in filming a last shot of the reformatory going up in flames.
Sound years
After appearing in The Godless Girl, Basquette soon became a star in future DeMille films. While working for DeMille, Basquette began an affair with DeMille's chief cameraman, J. Peverell MarleyJ. Peverell Marley
J. Peverell Marley was an American cinematographer. He is one of only six cinematographers to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame...
. After this, she agreed to marry Marley, and the two were married in 1928. By 1930, Basquette was broke and spent a good amount of her time partying with fellow actresses Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
, Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
and Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...
.
Later years
In 1991, Basquette was cast as Nada in filmmaker Danny Boyd's Paradise Park. She played a grandmother who dreamed God was coming to grant a wish to residents of an Appalachian trailer park. The film features Porter WagonerPorter Wagoner
Porter Wayne Wagoner was a popular American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. He introduced the young Dolly Parton near the beginning of her career on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known duet throughout the late 1960s and...
, as the governor of West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, and Johnny Paycheck
Johnny Paycheck
Johnny Paycheck was the legal name of Donald Eugene Lytle , a country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member most famous for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It"...
. Boyd was a communications professor at West Virginia State University
West Virginia State University
West Virginia State University is a historically black public college in Institute, West Virginia, United States. In the Charleston-metro area, the school is usually referred to simply as "State" or "West Virginia State"...
.
According to her obituary in The New York Times, "from 1947 to 1974, she ran Honey Hollow Kennels in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- Industry and commerce :The boroughs of Bristol and Morrisville were prominent industrial centers along the Northeast Corridor during World War II. Suburban development accelerated in Lower Bucks in the 1950s with the opening of Levittown, Pennsylvania, the second such "Levittown" designed by...
. She became one of the best-known breeders and handlers of champion Great Danes in American dog-show history, and also wrote several books on dog breeding."
Personal life
In 1925, Basquette began an affair with Sam WarnerSam Warner
Samuel Louis "Sam" Warner was an American film producer who was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Warner Bros. Studios. He established the studio along with his brothers Harry, Albert, and Jack Warner. Sam Warner is credited with procuring the technology that enabled Warner Bros...
of Warner Brothers and the couple married on July 4, 1925. She was a mother at 19, and a widow at 20 when Sam Warner died from a brain abscess complicated by pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. Warner left her $100,000.00 of his money and $40,000 from a life insurance policy, a car, the household goods, and $85 a week from one of Warner's trust funds.
When Basquette began to neglect her family, Warner's older brother, Harry, filed for legal guardianship of Lita Warner and it was awarded on 30 March 1930. Basquette was never financially stable enough to regain custody of her daughter. In 1931, Basquette, now divorced from Marley and depressed without her daughter, tried to commit suicide by taking poison. Basquette would only see Lita on two occasions over the next twenty years: in 1935, when Harry Warner and his family moved to Los Angeles, and when Lita was married to Dr. Nathan Hiatt in 1947.
In her autobiography, Lina: Demille's Godless Girl (1990), Basquette recounts her tempestuous affair with former world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey
Jack Dempsey
William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey was an American boxer who held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history. Many of his fights set financial and attendance records, including the first...
. The relationship came after Basquette discovered that her current husband, Theodore Hayes, whom she married on October 31, 1931, was a bigamist. Hayes was Dempsey's former trainer and Basquette's manager in theatrical affairs. On September 10, 1932, the actress was granted a Mexican divorce from Hayes. The divorce was granted on a plea of desertion for more than six months in Nogales, Sonora
Nogales, Sonora
Heroica Nogales , more commonly known as Nogales, is a city and its surrounding municipality on the northern border of the Mexican State of Sonora. The municipality covers an area of 1,675 km², and borders to the north the city of Nogales, Arizona, United States, across the U.S.-Mexico border...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
In 1943, Basquette was rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
d by an AWOL serviceman who trespassed onto her Pennsylvania farm. The highly-publicized crime led to the soldier getting 20 years in prison.
Death
Basquette died of cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
at her home in Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. She was 87. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Lena Basquette has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
located at 1529 Vine Street
Vine Street
Vine is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California that runs north-south from Melrose Avenue up past Hollywood Boulevard. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine was once a symbol of Hollywood itself...
.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1916 | The Dumb Girl of Portici | Child | Uncredited |
| Juvenile Dancer | |||
| Brother Jim | Margie Marsh | Credited as Lena Basquette | |
| The Grip of Crime | Credited as Lena Basquette | ||
| Shoes | Undetermined role | Uncredited | |
| The Human Cactus | Credited as Lena Basquette | ||
| The Caravan | Credited as Lena Basquette | ||
| 1917 | Polly Put the Kettle On Polly Put the Kettle On "Polly Put the Kettle On" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7899.-Lyrics:Common modern versions include:In middle-class families in the mid-eighteenth century "Sukey" was equivalent to "Susan" and Polly was a pet-form of Mary.The nursery rhyme is... |
Nellie Vance | |
| His Wife's Relatives | |||
| The Gates of Doom | Agatha as a child | ||
| The Star Witness | Credited as Lena Basquette | ||
| A Dream of Egypt | Credited as Lena Basquette | ||
| A Romany Rose | Credited as Lena Basquette | ||
| A Prince for a Day | Credited as Lena Basquette | ||
| Little Mariana's Triumph | Credited as Lena Basquette | ||
| 1919 | The Weaker Vessel | Jessie | |
| 1922 | Penrod | ||
| 1927 | Ranger of the North | Felice MacLean | |
| Serenade | The Dancer | ||
| 1928 | The Noose The Noose (film) The Noose is a silent film adaptation of the Willard Mack play The Noose, which was released in 1928, and stars Richard Barthelmess, Montagu Love, Robert Emmett O'Connor and Thelma Todd. The movie was adapted by Garrett Graham and James T. O'Donohoe from the play... |
Dot | |
| Wheel of Chance | Ada Berkowitz | ||
| Celebrity | Jane | ||
| Show Folks | Rita Carey | ||
| 1929 | The Godless Girl The Godless Girl The Godless Girl is a drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shown for years as his last completely silent film.-Production background:... |
Judy Craig - The Girl | |
| Come Across | Mary Houston | ||
| The Younger Generation | Birdie Goldfish | ||
| 1930 | The Dude Wrangler | Helen Dane | Alternative title: Feminine Touch |
| 1931 | Goldie Goldie (1931 film) Goldie is a 1931 black-and-white comedy film about a woman named Goldie, portrayed by Jean Harlow, pursued by two sailors, played by Spencer Tracy and Warren Hymer. The movie was written by Paul Perez and Gene Towne, and directed by Benjamin Stoloff... |
Constantina | |
| Pleasure | |||
| Arizona Terror | Katherine "Kay" Moore | ||
| Hard Hombre | Senora Martini | ||
| Morals for Women | Claudia | Alternative titles: Big City Interlude Farewell Party |
|
| Trapped | Girl Reporter | Alternative title: The Shadow #2: Trapped | |
| Mounted Fury | Nanette LeStrange | ||
| 1932 | Arm of the Law | Zelma Shaw, a Dancer | |
| The Midnight Lady | Mona | Alternative title: Dream Mother | |
| Hello Trouble | Janet Kenyon | ||
| The Phantom Express The Phantom Express - Plot summary :A phantom express starts derailing trains, and threatens a company's future. The son of the owner must find out what is happening before the company is sold.- Cast :*William Collier Jr. as Bruce Harrington*Sally Blane as Carolyn Nolan... |
Betty | ||
| 1934 | The Chump | ||
| 1936 | The Final Hour | Belle | |
| 1937 | Souls at Sea Souls at Sea Souls at Sea is a 1937 seafaring film starring Gary Cooper and George Raft. The movie features Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Robert Cummings, George Zucco, Joseph Schildkraut, Paul Fix, and Tully Marshall, and was directed by Henry Hathaway. The title of this film was spoofed in the Laurel and Hardy... |
Brunette in Saloon | Uncredited |
| Ebb Tide Ebb Tide (1937 film) Ebb Tide is a 1937 American drama film directed by James P. Hogan and starring Oskar Homolka, Frances Farmer and Ray Milland. Much of the film is set in the South Seas and is based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson.... |
Attwater's Servant | ||
| 1938 | The Buccaneer The Buccaneer (1938 film) The Buccaneer is a 1938 American adventure film made by Paramount Pictures based on Jean Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. It was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille from a screenplay by Harold Lamb, Edwin Justus Mayer and C. Gardner Sullivan adapted by Jeanie... |
Roxanne | Uncredited |
| Rose of the Rio Grande | Anita | ||
| Four Men and a Prayer Four Men and a Prayer -Cast:* Loretta Young - Miss Lynn Cherrington* Richard Greene - Geoffrey Leigh* George Sanders - Wyatt Leigh* David Niven - Christopher Leigh* C. Aubrey Smith - Col. Loring Leigh* J. Edward Bromberg - Gen. Torres* William Henry - Rodney Leigh... |
Ah-Nee | ||
| 1942 | Who Calls | ||
| 1943 | A Night for Crime | Mona | |
| 1991 | Paradise Park Paradise Park (film) Paradise Park , also known as Heroes of the Heart, is a film shot in West Virginia, written and directed by Daniel Boyd.-Plot:Paradise Park is told by a young observer of the Paradise Trailer Park in West Virginia, and is about the earthly existence and dreams of the people living in the... |
Nada | Alternative title: Heroes of the Heart |