Miriam Cooper
Encyclopedia
Miriam Cooper was a silent film
actress who is best known for her work in early film including Birth of a Nation and Intolerance
for D.W. Griffith and The Honor System and Evangeline for her husband Raoul Walsh
. She retired from acting in 1923 but was rediscovered by the film community in the 1960s, and toured colleges lecturing about silent films.
family with a long history in Baltimore. Her paternal grandfather had helped discover Navassa Island
and made his wealth from selling guano
. Her father was attending Loyola University when he met her mother. Her parents had 5 children in 5 years (one died in infancy) including her sister Lenore and her brothers Nelson and Gordon. Cooper had a troubled relationship with her mother, whom Cooper loved but felt was cold to her. Once during her childhood her mother told her she hated Miriam for looking like her (Miriam's) father. Her mother remarried in 1914.
When Miriam was young, her father abandoned the family and went to Europe. Until that point the family had lived comfortably in Washington Heights, but Julian Cooper kept the inheritance, leaving the family destitute. They moved to Little Italy, which Cooper despised.
During this time, Cooper found solace by playing in an abandoned Dutch
cemetery
. She would lie on the graves and daydream
. To make her sister Lenore behave, she also became a storyteller, repeating Edgar Allan Poe
's poem "The Raven
" and saying it was named for her. Cooper cited these experiences as great influences both on her acting and on her Christian
faith.
Never intending to be an actress, Cooper originally had trained to be a painter. She attended St. Walpurga's School with the help of the nuns, who arranged her tuition. From there she attended an art school named Cooper Union
, again with help from the parish. At the suggestion of a friend of her mother's, Cooper posed for Charles Dana Gibson
at the age of 21. It was the first painting Gibson had done in oils.
Soon after, on a friend's suggestion, Cooper went to Biograph Studios
, just to see what they were doing there. Cooper had only seen one flicker
behind her mother's back and hadn't been impressed with it. Able to walk right up to the set, the two girls watched the filming of part of "A Blot on Scutcheon". One of the assistants, Christy Cabanne
, approached them and asked if they would like to be extras. They were given the choice of 'page boy' or 'scullery maid'. Cooper did not want to wear slacks, so she chose 'scullery maid'. Her friend backed out, but Cooper stayed for the $5 a day pay. Ford Sterling
's wife Teddy Sampson tried to sabotage Cooper's make up, but Mack Sennett
and Mabel Normand
spotted her and helped her. After shooting, Cooper was asked to stay in costume as D.W. Griffith wanted to screen test
her.
and Vitagraph, but was turned away. In 1912 Kalem Company
hired her and used her as an extra. As her roles grew she was invited to join their stock performance company
, which was heading for Florida
to film. Cooper was offered $35 a week plus expenses. She was initially hesitant to confess her career to her family but changed her mind when she returned home to find they had been given hand-me-downs from a very large, recently deceased, aunt. Deciding she could no longer live that way, Cooper announced her plans, much to her mother's despair.
Filming took place in Jacksonville, Florida
with Anna Q. Nilsson
and Guy Coombs as the leads. For the 50th anniversary of the American Civil War
, the company made several Civil War-themed shorts. For these films, Cooper learned to play drums and ride horseback. She was already able to swim, and these skills were used in several of her shorts.
As time passed Cooper's roles grew in size and she received favorable reviews. Feeling her roles were as big as Nilsson's (who was making $65 a week) and much more dangerous, she requested a raise. They fired her that weekend and she returned to New York and to art school at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
soldier going off to war. Pleased with what he'd seen, Griffith told her they would leave for California
, where he would make a picture about the Civil War. She would make $35 a week.
Cooper began work on several pictures for Reliance Majestic, which were made under Griffith's supervision, and began preparations for "Birth of a Nation". She stated she didn't remember being in several films as she was never told which scenes she played ended up in which picture. During this time she acted in one of Griffith's first attempts at a feature, "Home Sweet Home" though she also didn't remember anything about that film.
After working several months for the company, Cooper's star was rising and she was given a star dressing room with Mae Marsh
. She couldn't recall the start of "Birth of a Nation" other than Griffith announced he was making his Civil War picture, and they still did not use scripts. Cooper was given one of the leading roles as the eldest Southern daughter Margaret Cameron. As was standard at the time, Cooper did her own makeup and hair.
Cooper lived the role and found her only truly difficult scene came acting opposite Henry B. Walthall
, whom she found cold and difficult. After having troubles in rehearsal with the scene, she also had trouble while filming. To get her to act upset in the scene Griffith took her aside and told her that her mother had died. Despite the trick, Cooper was never angry with him for it. Cooper's sister Lenore visited her while filming and ended up as an extra playing Lillian Gish
's maid in blackface
. While having trouble funding the film, Griffith offered Cooper a chance to invest in it, but Cooper had no money. Had she invested, Cooper would have made thousands back.
Cooper was too ill to see the picture when it premiered in Los Angeles
. She finally was able to see it in April 1915, in New York. On the advice of Norma Talmadge
, she asked to get her family in for free, which the theater allowed. Although she acknowledged the picture's racist tones, Cooper never denounced it. She attended several revival screenings of it in her later years and stated that she was very glad her legacy would be that of a young girl on screen in the film.
Cooper was then given the role of 'The Friendless One' in "Intolerance
". Cooper noted she played 'a fallen woman' not a 'prostitute', as some sources claimed. During the filming of the scene where 'The Friendless One' is conflicted with inner torment, a photographer from "The New York Times
" took pictures while Cooper acted. Stills were usually taken after scenes had been filmed. This was the first time they were taken during the actual filming. While Griffith finished "Intolerance", Cooper worked on a handful of shorts under other directors for Reliance Majestic. These were her final shorts.
In late 1915 Cooper began traveling between New York and California to spend more time with Raoul Walsh. The couple secretly married in February 1916, before Cooper returned to California.
Cooper noted Griffith seemed to treat her differently than other actresses by continually giving her bigger parts (Griffith was known for casting an actress as a lead one day and a bit role the next to keep egos in check). After returning to California, Griffith called Cooper into his office and gave her a leather bound copy of "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
" telling her it was his next picture and he wanted her to play lead. Cooper was already tired of being separated from Walsh and after consulting with Mary Alden
, decided she didn't understand what the book was about and didn't want to make a picture out of it. Cooper quietly returned to New York and wired Griffith that she was leaving the company. Griffith wired back his congratulations, it was the last time they ever spoke.
After leaving Griffith, Cooper received offers from Jesse Lasky and Cecil B. DeMille
, but intended to retire and be a housewife and mother. When Walsh was offered a chance to direct a film titled The Honor System in Yuma, Arizona
he pleaded with Cooper to take a role in it. Cooper agreed for fear he would cheat on her if they were separated for the long filming period. Cooper made $1,000 a week for her role as Edith. Years later, while being interviewed by Kevin Brownlow
, Cooper found Walsh's shooting script for the film on the back of an envelope.
The Honor System opened in 1917 to good reviews (one calling it "Bigger than The Birth of a Nation") and good box office. Two years later it was played for the Prince of Wales
when he visited New York.
Walsh continued to ask Cooper's advice when dealing with the business moguls, usually asking her to speak with them as she had done before with Griffith. After filming another film, Walsh once again asked Cooper to 'temporarily return' to pictures until he was established. Cooper signed with Fox Film Corporation and made $1,200 a week. Her contract allowed Walsh to get top billing instead of her -- traditionally, it was either the director or the star.
In 1917, Cooper and Walsh began work on a film based on the Blanca de Saulles trial. Cooper bore such a resemblance to De Saulles that Fox wanted to leave her name off the credits to insinuate De Saulles had played herself. Cooper refused. The film was also notable for featuring Peggy Hopkins Joyce
as a courtesan, though she didn’t realize it until the film premiered. The film was controversial and received what amounted to an X rating for its time, as no children were allowed. The film is now considered a lost film
.
After work on The Prussian Cur
, Cooper adopted her first son and tried to return to a private life, shunning publicity. However, in 1919, as Walsh began to look for new script ideas, Cooper suggested the story Evangeline
, in which Walsh asked her to lead. Cooper refused until the studio sent a blonde to play the part. Walsh was annoyed and asked her once again, and she relented. Cooper didn’t like the picture as she thought it was too innocent, though it performed well at the box office and was one of her better-known films. Producer William Fox
thought it was the best picture of her career. It is also now considered a lost film.
With the success of Evangeline, another film, Should a Husband Forgive? was rushed into theaters. Walsh was excited with the success and wired Cooper that he would make her a big star, though she still wished to retire. Walsh signed with the Mayflower Corporation in 1920. Cooper joined him for the sake of her marriage, fearing more bouts of jealousy if she didn't. Their first film was "The Deep Purple".
Their next film was The Oath (1920), of which Cooper took control from casting to costumes. Cooper said she loved everything about the film, however, it received the worst reviews of her career and was one of Walsh's only silents to lose money. Cooper was deeply hurt by the failure. Their next film, Serenade, was fully under Walsh's control and was their most profitable. However, Cooper hated acting opposite Walsh's brother George, whom she felt was stiff. Walsh agreed and they were never paired together again.
The duo's final film together was Kindred of the Dust
. Cooper felt it was mediocre but it did decent business. During filming, she accidentally gazed into a stage light, causing injury to her eyes that troubled her well into old age. Kindred of the Dust was the last film the couple did together, the last independent film for Walsh, and is one of Cooper's few surviving films.
A little film company called 'D. M. Film Corporation' offered her a role in a pictured title Is Money Everything?. It only offered $650 a week and would film in Detroit, but Cooper took the part, anyway, for the money. It was a horrible picture and found herself overwhelmed again by her personal troubles.
After reconciling with Walsh, Cooper decided to keep working in films. Her first film back in Hollywood was for B. P. Schulberg
was The Girl Who Came Back (1923), making $1,000 a week. The picture did well and was hailed as a comeback. Schulberg asked her to make two more pictures for him, and she agreed. She also made two films for other companies. Cooper's final picture was The Broken Wing, alongside her old friend Walter Long
.
Cooper was terrified of sitting in an airplane (a main plot point) and refused. She also found the director Tom Forman
to be a drunk, and was upset that, at her final big scene, he turned up too drunk to direct. When the picture premiered Cooper cried after viewing it, feeling it was the worst movie she'd ever seen. She wrote "After The Broken Wing, I never wanted to make another picture. After all the times I thought I'd retire for good and then came back to films, I finally wound up my career in a stinker made by a drunk. What a hell of an ending."
playing bridge and shopping. During World War II
, Cooper volunteered for Red Cross, handing out doughnuts and writing letters for wounded soldiers. She attended Columbia University
in the 1940s to study writing. She bought a farm in Chestertown, Maryland
, hoping to be inspired. She wrote a novel and two plays, all of which went unpublished. The plays were based on two of her films and she sent them to FOX, but both were rejected. In the 1950s she moved to Virginia where she started a women's writing club. She continued playing golf, working for charity, and playing bridge.
In 1969, a man from the Library of Congress
called her, surprised to find she was still alive. Soon after, she began receiving calls from universities and film historians. She was invited to several colleges and screenings of her old films. In 1973 she wrote an autobiography
, "Dark Lady of the Silents".
In 1970 after attending "The D.W. Griffith Film Festival" she had a heart attack which began a series of heart troubles which limited her in her final years.
Cooper died at Cedars Nursing Home on April 12, 1976. She had been there since suffering a stroke earlier the same year. Her death left Lillian Gish as the sole surviving cast member of "Birth of a Nation". She is buried in the New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland under the name "Miriam Cooper Walsh" which she continued using long after her divorce from Walsh. Her papers were donated to the Library of Congress.
for "The D.W. Griffith Film Festival".
Cooper got along well with most of Griffith's company including Dorothy Gish
, Mary Alden
, and Mae Marsh
. She also was friends with Norma Talmadge
, Mabel Normand
, and Pola Negri
. Though they were not close, she was fond of Lillian Gish
. Cooper didn't get along with Teddy Sampson and she greatly disliked Theda Bara
, whom she felt was trying to steal Raoul Walsh away from her during the making of "Carmen" and "The Serpent". In later years Cooper was good friends with Carole Lombard
, whom she helped get some of her first roles. Cooper and Walsh were good friends with Charlie Chaplin
in 1924. Chaplin was going through some troubling times and she found him gloomy and needy. She enjoyed him more once his personal life was back in order and he was much more cheery.
Cooper met Raoul Walsh in 1914 when she joined Griffith's California Company. After Mae Marsh turned Walsh down for an Easter
Mass date Walsh and Cooper began dating in 1915. Walsh had been Griffith's assistant director
and asked Cooper if she would speak to Griffith about making him a director. On her advice Griffith made him a director a few weeks later. After directing one picture for Griffith, Walsh was signed to Fox Studios which filmed in New York while Cooper still had to film in California. The couple married in February 1916 and Cooper left the Griffith company to join Walsh in New York. Cooper intended to quit pictures to be a housewife and mother, but Walsh's gambling and cheating were big problems for her. One of the first nights she suspected him of cheating, she swallowed a bottle of carbolic acid and had to have her stomach pumped. However, Walsh continued to cheat during the marriage. As their successes grew, more trouble arose from debts and Cooper's resentment at being known as the Director's wife, something she was surprised at as she had thought she never wanted the spotlight.
After "Kindred of the Dust", Walsh admitted he didn’t think he loved her anymore. The marriage dragged on as both sides accused the other of cheating. Though the reconciled by 1925, Cooper was certain he was again cheating, this time with Ethel Barrymore
, whom she confronted. Afterward, she threatened to divorce him. Walsh pleaded for forgiveness but Cooper found he was cheating with a young society girl who he was engaged to. The final moment came when Walsh began an affair with Cooper's friend Lorraine Miller. Cooper was furious and began divorce proceedings, threatening to put infidelity as her reason. However, in the days of morality clauses, this could have caused Walsh his contract and William Fox talked her out of it. Instead she put 'irreconcilable differences'. The divorce was big news in Hollywood, with Gloria Swanson
throwing Walsh a party, while Norman Kerry
and Erich von Stroheim
threw Cooper one. Not too long after Walsh, married Miller.
Cooper desperately wanted children but was unable to conceive. Though she never learned the reason, she suspected it had to do with her kidney illness. She and Walsh adopted two boys: Jackie and Bobbie. After the divorce, both boys lived with her until their teenage years. Jackie got in trouble with the law several times, and Bobbie idolized him. At the advice of her preacher, Cooper sent Jackie to live with Walsh. On a visit, Bobbie asked to live there as well. Cooper and Walsh had been suing each other during the 1930s and Walsh later had the boys sue her as well. Cooper never heard from either of her sons again and was unsure if they were still alive as of the 1970s.
Her nieces are sisters Olympic swimmer and gold medal winner Donna de Varona
, and television actress Joanna Kerns
.
1912:
1913:
1914:
Features Only
1914:
1915:
1916:
1917:
1918:
1919:
1920:
1921:
1922:
1923:
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 who is best known for her work in early film including Birth of a Nation and Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
for D.W. Griffith and The Honor System and Evangeline for her husband Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
. She retired from acting in 1923 but was rediscovered by the film community in the 1960s, and toured colleges lecturing about silent films.
Early life
Miriam Cooper was born to Julian Cooper and Margaret Stewart in Baltimore, Maryland on November 7, 1891. Her mother was from a devout CatholicCatholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
family with a long history in Baltimore. Her paternal grandfather had helped discover Navassa Island
Navassa Island
Navassa Island is a small, uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea, claimed as an unorganized unincorporated territory of the United States, which administers it through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Haiti, which claims to have had sovereignty over Navassa since 1801, also claims the island...
and made his wealth from selling guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
. Her father was attending Loyola University when he met her mother. Her parents had 5 children in 5 years (one died in infancy) including her sister Lenore and her brothers Nelson and Gordon. Cooper had a troubled relationship with her mother, whom Cooper loved but felt was cold to her. Once during her childhood her mother told her she hated Miriam for looking like her (Miriam's) father. Her mother remarried in 1914.
When Miriam was young, her father abandoned the family and went to Europe. Until that point the family had lived comfortably in Washington Heights, but Julian Cooper kept the inheritance, leaving the family destitute. They moved to Little Italy, which Cooper despised.
During this time, Cooper found solace by playing in an abandoned Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
. She would lie on the graves and daydream
Daydream
A daydream is a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake. There are many types of daydreams, and there is no consistent definition amongst psychologists. The general public also uses the term for a...
. To make her sister Lenore behave, she also became a storyteller, repeating Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
's poem "The Raven
The Raven
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness...
" and saying it was named for her. Cooper cited these experiences as great influences both on her acting and on her Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith.
Never intending to be an actress, Cooper originally had trained to be a painter. She attended St. Walpurga's School with the help of the nuns, who arranged her tuition. From there she attended an art school named Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
, again with help from the parish. At the suggestion of a friend of her mother's, Cooper posed for Charles Dana Gibson
Charles Dana Gibson
Charles Dana Gibson was an American graphic artist, best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century....
at the age of 21. It was the first painting Gibson had done in oils.
Soon after, on a friend's suggestion, Cooper went to Biograph Studios
Biograph Studios
Biograph Studios was a studio facility and film laboratory complex built in 1912 by the Biograph Company, formerly American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, at 807 E. 175th Street, in the Bronx, New York....
, just to see what they were doing there. Cooper had only seen one flicker
Flicker
Flicker may refer to any of the following:* Flickers, woodpeckers of the subgenus Colaptes* Flicker , a fading between frames that occurs on a cathode-ray screen at low refresh rates...
behind her mother's back and hadn't been impressed with it. Able to walk right up to the set, the two girls watched the filming of part of "A Blot on Scutcheon". One of the assistants, Christy Cabanne
Christy Cabanne
Christy Cabanne , born William Christy Cabanne, was an American film director, screenwriter and silent film actor. Christy Cabanne was, along with Sam Newfield and William Beaudine, one of the most prolific directors in the history of American film.-Biography:Cabanne graduated from the U.S...
, approached them and asked if they would like to be extras. They were given the choice of 'page boy' or 'scullery maid'. Cooper did not want to wear slacks, so she chose 'scullery maid'. Her friend backed out, but Cooper stayed for the $5 a day pay. Ford Sterling
Ford Sterling
Ford Sterling was an American comedian and actor best known for his work with Keystone Studios. One of the 'Big 4' he was the original chief of the Keystone Cops.-Biography:...
's wife Teddy Sampson tried to sabotage Cooper's make up, but Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
and Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
spotted her and helped her. After shooting, Cooper was asked to stay in costume as D.W. Griffith wanted to screen test
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
her.
Kalem Company
Cooper never heard back from Biograph and, interested in making more money, she approached Edison StudiosEdison Studios
Edison Studios was an American motion picture production company owned by the Edison Company of inventor Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films as the Edison Manufacturing Company and Thomas A. Edison, Inc. until the studio's closing in 1918...
and Vitagraph, but was turned away. In 1912 Kalem Company
Kalem Company
The Kalem Company was an American film studio founded in New York City in 1907 by George Kleine, Samuel Long , and Frank J. Marion.The company immediately joined other studios in the Motion Picture Patents Company that held a monopoly on production and distribution...
hired her and used her as an extra. As her roles grew she was invited to join their stock performance company
Repertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
, which was heading for Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
to film. Cooper was offered $35 a week plus expenses. She was initially hesitant to confess her career to her family but changed her mind when she returned home to find they had been given hand-me-downs from a very large, recently deceased, aunt. Deciding she could no longer live that way, Cooper announced her plans, much to her mother's despair.
Filming took place in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
with Anna Q. Nilsson
Anna Q. Nilsson
Anna Quirentia Nilsson was a Swedish born American actress who achieved success in American silent movies.-Background:...
and Guy Coombs as the leads. For the 50th anniversary of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the company made several Civil War-themed shorts. For these films, Cooper learned to play drums and ride horseback. She was already able to swim, and these skills were used in several of her shorts.
As time passed Cooper's roles grew in size and she received favorable reviews. Feeling her roles were as big as Nilsson's (who was making $65 a week) and much more dangerous, she requested a raise. They fired her that weekend and she returned to New York and to art school at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
D.W. Griffith years
After returning to New York, Cooper decided once again to try D.W. Griffith. She went to the Biograph offices every day for a week but no one took notice of her. While leaving school one day, she ran again into Christy Cabanne, who had helped her on her first day as an extra. He was excited to have found her as Griffith had been looking for her but since she did not have a telephone number they had been unable to find her. Her first day back at Biograph, Griffith called her into his office five times, but sent her away each time. The final time he asked her to rehearse a scene with Bobby Harron, telling her Bobby was playing her sweetheart, a confederateConfederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
soldier going off to war. Pleased with what he'd seen, Griffith told her they would leave for 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...
, where he would make a picture about the Civil War. She would make $35 a week.
Cooper began work on several pictures for Reliance Majestic, which were made under Griffith's supervision, and began preparations for "Birth of a Nation". She stated she didn't remember being in several films as she was never told which scenes she played ended up in which picture. During this time she acted in one of Griffith's first attempts at a feature, "Home Sweet Home" though she also didn't remember anything about that film.
After working several months for the company, Cooper's star was rising and she was given a star dressing room with Mae Marsh
Mae Marsh
Mae Marsh was an American film actress with a career spanning over 50 years.-Early life:...
. She couldn't recall the start of "Birth of a Nation" other than Griffith announced he was making his Civil War picture, and they still did not use scripts. Cooper was given one of the leading roles as the eldest Southern daughter Margaret Cameron. As was standard at the time, Cooper did her own makeup and hair.
Cooper lived the role and found her only truly difficult scene came acting opposite Henry B. Walthall
Henry B. Walthall
Henry Brazeale Walthall was an American film actor.-Career:Walthall began his career as a stage actor, appearing on Broadway in a supporting role in William Vaughn Moody's The Great Divide in 1906–1908. His career in movies began in 1908, in the film Rescued from an Eagle's Nest, which also...
, whom she found cold and difficult. After having troubles in rehearsal with the scene, she also had trouble while filming. To get her to act upset in the scene Griffith took her aside and told her that her mother had died. Despite the trick, Cooper was never angry with him for it. Cooper's sister Lenore visited her while filming and ended up as an extra playing Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
's maid in blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
. While having trouble funding the film, Griffith offered Cooper a chance to invest in it, but Cooper had no money. Had she invested, Cooper would have made thousands back.
Cooper was too ill to see the picture when it premiered in 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...
. She finally was able to see it in April 1915, in New York. On the advice of 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...
, she asked to get her family in for free, which the theater allowed. Although she acknowledged the picture's racist tones, Cooper never denounced it. She attended several revival screenings of it in her later years and stated that she was very glad her legacy would be that of a young girl on screen in the film.
Cooper was then given the role of 'The Friendless One' in "Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
". Cooper noted she played 'a fallen woman' not a 'prostitute', as some sources claimed. During the filming of the scene where 'The Friendless One' is conflicted with inner torment, a photographer from "The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
" took pictures while Cooper acted. Stills were usually taken after scenes had been filmed. This was the first time they were taken during the actual filming. While Griffith finished "Intolerance", Cooper worked on a handful of shorts under other directors for Reliance Majestic. These were her final shorts.
In late 1915 Cooper began traveling between New York and California to spend more time with Raoul Walsh. The couple secretly married in February 1916, before Cooper returned to California.
Cooper noted Griffith seemed to treat her differently than other actresses by continually giving her bigger parts (Griffith was known for casting an actress as a lead one day and a bit role the next to keep egos in check). After returning to California, Griffith called Cooper into his office and gave her a leather bound copy of "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám , a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer...
" telling her it was his next picture and he wanted her to play lead. Cooper was already tired of being separated from Walsh and after consulting with Mary Alden
Mary Alden
Mary Maguire Alden was an American motion picture and stage actress. She was one of the first Broadway actresses to work in Hollywood.-Career:Born in New York City, Alden began her career on the Broadway stage...
, decided she didn't understand what the book was about and didn't want to make a picture out of it. Cooper quietly returned to New York and wired Griffith that she was leaving the company. Griffith wired back his congratulations, it was the last time they ever spoke.
Raoul Walsh years
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...
, but intended to retire and be a housewife and mother. When Walsh was offered a chance to direct a film titled The Honor System in Yuma, Arizona
Yuma, Arizona
Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of the state, and the population of the city was 77,515 at the 2000 census, with a 2008 Census Bureau estimated population of 90,041....
he pleaded with Cooper to take a role in it. Cooper agreed for fear he would cheat on her if they were separated for the long filming period. Cooper made $1,000 a week for her role as Edith. Years later, while being interviewed by Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
, Cooper found Walsh's shooting script for the film on the back of an envelope.
The Honor System opened in 1917 to good reviews (one calling it "Bigger than The Birth of a Nation") and good box office. Two years later it was played for the Prince of Wales
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
when he visited New York.
Walsh continued to ask Cooper's advice when dealing with the business moguls, usually asking her to speak with them as she had done before with Griffith. After filming another film, Walsh once again asked Cooper to 'temporarily return' to pictures until he was established. Cooper signed with Fox Film Corporation and made $1,200 a week. Her contract allowed Walsh to get top billing instead of her -- traditionally, it was either the director or the star.
In 1917, Cooper and Walsh began work on a film based on the Blanca de Saulles trial. Cooper bore such a resemblance to De Saulles that Fox wanted to leave her name off the credits to insinuate De Saulles had played herself. Cooper refused. The film was also notable for featuring Peggy Hopkins Joyce
Peggy Hopkins Joyce
Peggy Hopkins Joyce was an American actress and celebrity, famed as much for her several marriages to wealthy men, colorful divorces, scandalous affairs, her diamonds and generally lavish lifestyle as for her work on stage or screen.-Brief Biography:Born Marguerite Upton in Berkley, Virginia, she...
as a courtesan, though she didn’t realize it until the film premiered. The film was controversial and received what amounted to an X rating for its time, as no children were allowed. The film is now considered a lost film
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
.
After work on The Prussian Cur
The Prussian Cur
The Prussian Cur was an American anti-German silent propaganda film produced during World War I. Now considered a lost film, it is notable for perpetuating the story of the Crucified Soldier....
, Cooper adopted her first son and tried to return to a private life, shunning publicity. However, in 1919, as Walsh began to look for new script ideas, Cooper suggested the story Evangeline
Evangeline
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem published in 1847 by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.The idea for the poem came from...
, in which Walsh asked her to lead. Cooper refused until the studio sent a blonde to play the part. Walsh was annoyed and asked her once again, and she relented. Cooper didn’t like the picture as she thought it was too innocent, though it performed well at the box office and was one of her better-known films. Producer William Fox
William Fox (producer)
William Fox born Fried Vilmos was a pioneering Hungarian American motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s...
thought it was the best picture of her career. It is also now considered a lost film.
With the success of Evangeline, another film, Should a Husband Forgive? was rushed into theaters. Walsh was excited with the success and wired Cooper that he would make her a big star, though she still wished to retire. Walsh signed with the Mayflower Corporation in 1920. Cooper joined him for the sake of her marriage, fearing more bouts of jealousy if she didn't. Their first film was "The Deep Purple".
Their next film was The Oath (1920), of which Cooper took control from casting to costumes. Cooper said she loved everything about the film, however, it received the worst reviews of her career and was one of Walsh's only silents to lose money. Cooper was deeply hurt by the failure. Their next film, Serenade, was fully under Walsh's control and was their most profitable. However, Cooper hated acting opposite Walsh's brother George, whom she felt was stiff. Walsh agreed and they were never paired together again.
The duo's final film together was Kindred of the Dust
Kindred of the Dust
Kindred of the Dust is an American silent film directed by Raoul Walsh, and starring his wife Miriam Cooper. The film was the last independent picture for Walsh's production company, and the last film he and Cooper would make together. Today it is one of Walsh's earliest surviving features, and...
. Cooper felt it was mediocre but it did decent business. During filming, she accidentally gazed into a stage light, causing injury to her eyes that troubled her well into old age. Kindred of the Dust was the last film the couple did together, the last independent film for Walsh, and is one of Cooper's few surviving films.
Final films
As troubles in her marriage and finances began to appear, Cooper found she resented the role of 'The Director's Wife'. On the advice of a friend, she took to the stage for the first and only time, but received disastrous reviews. Cooper decided she didn't like stage acting and began considering film offers again.A little film company called 'D. M. Film Corporation' offered her a role in a pictured title Is Money Everything?. It only offered $650 a week and would film in Detroit, but Cooper took the part, anyway, for the money. It was a horrible picture and found herself overwhelmed again by her personal troubles.
After reconciling with Walsh, Cooper decided to keep working in films. Her first film back in Hollywood was for B. P. Schulberg
B. P. Schulberg
B.P. Schulberg was a pioneer film producer and movie studio executive.Born Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he took the name Benjamin from the boy in front of him when registering for school to avoid mockery for his British name...
was The Girl Who Came Back (1923), making $1,000 a week. The picture did well and was hailed as a comeback. Schulberg asked her to make two more pictures for him, and she agreed. She also made two films for other companies. Cooper's final picture was The Broken Wing, alongside her old friend Walter Long
Walter Long (actor)
Walter Huntley Long was an American character actor in films from the 1910s. He was born in Nashua, New Hampshire.-Career:He appeared in many D. W...
.
Cooper was terrified of sitting in an airplane (a main plot point) and refused. She also found the director Tom Forman
Tom Forman
Tom Forman was a motion picture actor, writer, and producer of the early 1920s.- Life and career :Texas-born Forman made his first film for Jesse L. Lasky's production company in 1914. With the exception of service at the front during World War I, he had a successful career as both an actor and...
to be a drunk, and was upset that, at her final big scene, he turned up too drunk to direct. When the picture premiered Cooper cried after viewing it, feeling it was the worst movie she'd ever seen. She wrote "After The Broken Wing, I never wanted to make another picture. After all the times I thought I'd retire for good and then came back to films, I finally wound up my career in a stinker made by a drunk. What a hell of an ending."
Later years
After divorcing Walsh in 1926, Cooper never made another picture. She returned to New York and joined high societySocialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
playing bridge and shopping. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Cooper volunteered for Red Cross, handing out doughnuts and writing letters for wounded soldiers. She attended Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in the 1940s to study writing. She bought a farm in Chestertown, Maryland
Chestertown, Maryland
Chestertown is a town in Kent County, Maryland, United States. The population was 4,746 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Kent County. The ZIP code is 21620 and the area codes are 410 and 443...
, hoping to be inspired. She wrote a novel and two plays, all of which went unpublished. The plays were based on two of her films and she sent them to FOX, but both were rejected. In the 1950s she moved to Virginia where she started a women's writing club. She continued playing golf, working for charity, and playing bridge.
In 1969, a man from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
called her, surprised to find she was still alive. Soon after, she began receiving calls from universities and film historians. She was invited to several colleges and screenings of her old films. In 1973 she wrote an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, "Dark Lady of the Silents".
In 1970 after attending "The D.W. Griffith Film Festival" she had a heart attack which began a series of heart troubles which limited her in her final years.
Cooper died at Cedars Nursing Home on April 12, 1976. She had been there since suffering a stroke earlier the same year. Her death left Lillian Gish as the sole surviving cast member of "Birth of a Nation". She is buried in the New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland under the name "Miriam Cooper Walsh" which she continued using long after her divorce from Walsh. Her papers were donated to the Library of Congress.
Legacy
Cooper is primarily known today for her performances in Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Very few of her films are known to survive. Only 3 of her 40 shorts still exist, while only 5 of her 21 features still exist. Her only non-Griffith features to survive are Kindred of the Dust and Is Money Everything?.Personal life
Cooper got along well with D.W. Griffith, saying he had been a perfect gentleman. However, when they first arrived in California, Cooper mistook his mannerisms as insulting (he had failed to return a hello to her one day). She complained to Mae Marsh, who trying to win Griffith's favor, and Marsh told Griffith. The next day on set, Griffith called Cooper "The Queen of Sheba". They worked out the misunderstanding but she recalled that, much to her annoyance, the nickname stuck for years afterwards. She claimed to have never been romantic with Griffith, like Lillian Gish or Mae Marsh. However, she did mention in her autobiography that he tried to kiss her once after offering her a ride home. After the release of "Birth of a Nation", Cooper's train stopped in Chicago, where Griffith was staying. He sent her a telegram asking her to see him in his hotel room but Cooper was unable to reach him. According to her, this stopped his romantic intentions with her. Though aware of Griffith's struggles later in life, she hadn't seen him since leaving for New York in 1916; she did visit his grave during her visit to KentuckyKentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
for "The D.W. Griffith Film Festival".
Cooper got along well with most of Griffith's company including Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress, and the younger sister of actress Lillian Gish.-Early life:...
, Mary Alden
Mary Alden
Mary Maguire Alden was an American motion picture and stage actress. She was one of the first Broadway actresses to work in Hollywood.-Career:Born in New York City, Alden began her career on the Broadway stage...
, and Mae Marsh
Mae Marsh
Mae Marsh was an American film actress with a career spanning over 50 years.-Early life:...
. She also was friends with 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...
, Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand
Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...
, and Pola Negri
Pola Negri
Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...
. Though they were not close, she was fond of Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
. Cooper didn't get along with Teddy Sampson and she greatly disliked Theda Bara
Theda Bara
Theda Bara , born Theodosia Burr Goodman, was an American silent film actress – one of the most popular of her era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp" . The term "vamp" soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman...
, whom she felt was trying to steal Raoul Walsh away from her during the making of "Carmen" and "The Serpent". In later years Cooper was good friends with 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...
, whom she helped get some of her first roles. Cooper and Walsh were good friends with Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
in 1924. Chaplin was going through some troubling times and she found him gloomy and needy. She enjoyed him more once his personal life was back in order and he was much more cheery.
Cooper met Raoul Walsh in 1914 when she joined Griffith's California Company. After Mae Marsh turned Walsh down for an Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
Mass date Walsh and Cooper began dating in 1915. Walsh had been Griffith's assistant director
Assistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...
and asked Cooper if she would speak to Griffith about making him a director. On her advice Griffith made him a director a few weeks later. After directing one picture for Griffith, Walsh was signed to Fox Studios which filmed in New York while Cooper still had to film in California. The couple married in February 1916 and Cooper left the Griffith company to join Walsh in New York. Cooper intended to quit pictures to be a housewife and mother, but Walsh's gambling and cheating were big problems for her. One of the first nights she suspected him of cheating, she swallowed a bottle of carbolic acid and had to have her stomach pumped. However, Walsh continued to cheat during the marriage. As their successes grew, more trouble arose from debts and Cooper's resentment at being known as the Director's wife, something she was surprised at as she had thought she never wanted the spotlight.
After "Kindred of the Dust", Walsh admitted he didn’t think he loved her anymore. The marriage dragged on as both sides accused the other of cheating. Though the reconciled by 1925, Cooper was certain he was again cheating, this time with Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
, whom she confronted. Afterward, she threatened to divorce him. Walsh pleaded for forgiveness but Cooper found he was cheating with a young society girl who he was engaged to. The final moment came when Walsh began an affair with Cooper's friend Lorraine Miller. Cooper was furious and began divorce proceedings, threatening to put infidelity as her reason. However, in the days of morality clauses, this could have caused Walsh his contract and William Fox talked her out of it. Instead she put 'irreconcilable differences'. The divorce was big news in Hollywood, with Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
throwing Walsh a party, while Norman Kerry
Norman Kerry
Norman Kerry was an American actor whose career spanned over twenty-five years in the motion picture industry beginning in the silent era at the end of World War I.-Biography:...
and Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...
threw Cooper one. Not too long after Walsh, married Miller.
Cooper desperately wanted children but was unable to conceive. Though she never learned the reason, she suspected it had to do with her kidney illness. She and Walsh adopted two boys: Jackie and Bobbie. After the divorce, both boys lived with her until their teenage years. Jackie got in trouble with the law several times, and Bobbie idolized him. At the advice of her preacher, Cooper sent Jackie to live with Walsh. On a visit, Bobbie asked to live there as well. Cooper and Walsh had been suing each other during the 1930s and Walsh later had the boys sue her as well. Cooper never heard from either of her sons again and was unsure if they were still alive as of the 1970s.
Her nieces are sisters Olympic swimmer and gold medal winner Donna de Varona
Donna de Varona
Donna Elizabeth de Varona is a former American swimmer of Mexican and Irish descent.-Swimming career:...
, and television actress Joanna Kerns
Joanna Kerns
Joanna Kerns is an American actress and director best known for her role as Maggie Seaver on the family situation comedy Growing Pains from 1985-1992.-Early life:...
.
Filmography
Films in bold still exist1912:
- A Blot on the 'Scutcheon
- Victim of Circumstances
- Battle of Pottsburg Bridge
- Tide of Battle
- War's Havoc
- The Drummer Girl of Vicksburg
- The Colonel's Escape
- The Buglier of Battery B
- The Soldier Brothers of Susannah
- The Siege of Petersburg
- The Darling of the CSA
- Saved from Court Martial
- A Railroad Lochinvar
- His Mother's Picture
- The Girl in the Caboose
- The Pony Express Girl
- Battle in the Virginia Hills
- The Water Right War
- The Battle Wits
- A Race with Time
1913:
- A Sawmill Hazard
- A Desperate Chance
- The Turning Point
- The Battle of Bloody Ford
- A Treacherous Shot
- The Farm Bully
- The Toll Gate Raiders
- Infamous Don Miguel
- Captured by Strategy
1914:
- The Stolen Radium
- For His Master
- When Fate Frowned
- A Diamond in the Rough
- The Gunman
- The Dishonored Medal
- The Odalisque
- The Double Deception
- The Fatal Black Bean
- His Return
- The Burned Hand
Features Only
1914:
- Home Sweet Home
1915:
- Birth of a Nation
1916:
- IntoleranceIntolerance (film)Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
1917:
- The Honor System
- The Silent Lie
- The Innocent Sinner
- Betrayed
1918:
- The Woman and the Law
- The Prussian Cur
1919:
- EvangelineEvangeline (1919 film)Evangeline is a 1919 silent film produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation and directed by Raoul Walsh. The star of the film was Walsh's wife at the time Miriam Cooper in the oft filmed story based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Filmed prior in 1908, 1911 and 1914...
- Should a Husband forgive?
1920:
- The Deep Purple
- The Oath
1921:
- Serenade
1922:
- Kindred of the DustKindred of the DustKindred of the Dust is an American silent film directed by Raoul Walsh, and starring his wife Miriam Cooper. The film was the last independent picture for Walsh's production company, and the last film he and Cooper would make together. Today it is one of Walsh's earliest surviving features, and...
1923:
- Is Money everything?
- The Girl Who Came Back
- Daughters of the Rich
- Her Accidental Husband
- After the Ball
- The Broken Wing