Ouida Bergère
Encyclopedia
Ouida Bergère was an American
screenwriter
and actress.
, the daughter of Stephen W. and Ida Branch, both natives of Tennessee. Her father was a merchant who would later work as a railroad timekeeper
. By the time of the taking of the 1900 Federal Census she was living with her brother's family in Searcy
as Eunie Branch. Ten years later she's listed in the census with her parents in Little Rock as Eula Burgess. Her marital status then was recorded as a divorced and occupation, actress. In January of that year she appeared as Ouida Bergère playing the stenographer in the play "Via Wireless" and was one of few cast members to receive positive reviews in the production.
and for various magazines, besides writing the stories (or 'scenarios') for silent film productions.
She wrote most of the stories for the films of Elsie Ferguson
, and many for Mae Murray
, including On With the Dance
. She also wrote for Pola Negri
, Corinne Griffith
, Bert Lytell
, and Betty Compson
, many of which were directed by her first husband, George Fitzmaurice
. In 1920 she wrote the screen version of Peter Ibbetson, starring Elsie Ferguson
and Wallace Reid
. During this time she met Basil Rathbone
, who was playing the lead role in the stage production of the play, whom she eventually married in 1926.
As well as the United States, Bergère also worked on films in England, France and Italy. While in Rome, she wrote a screenplay
entitled The Eternal City
(1923), based on the Hall Caine
novel, directed by her husband George Fitzmaurice
, and released by the Samuel Goldwyn Company. The film enlisted the assistance of the Fascists
, and of Mussolini
himself, with the help of the American ambassador in Rome. The film included a scene in which Mussolini appeared writing a letter and summoning a man to post it. Ten thousand real Blackshirts
appeared in the Coliseum scenes for the film.
, (April 18, 1926) Bergère gave up her film work to assist him in his work and in the management of his business affairs. Together they had one child, an adopted daughter named Cynthia Rathbone (1939–1969), and also raised Ouida's niece and namesake Ouida Branch, who married David Bruce Huxley, brother of Julian Huxley
, Aldous Huxley
, and Andrew Huxley
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and actress.
Biography
Her name was said to be Ouida DuGaze, the daughter of Stephen and Marion DuGaze. Her father was Spanish, and her mother of French and English ancestry. She was reportedly born on a railroad train en route to Madrid, Spain and raised in Europe before coming to America as a young girl. In reality she was born in Little Rock, ArkansasLittle Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
, the daughter of Stephen W. and Ida Branch, both natives of Tennessee. Her father was a merchant who would later work as a railroad timekeeper
Timekeeper
A timekeeper is an instrument or person that measures the passage of time; in the case of the latter, often with the assistance of a clock or stopwatch...
. By the time of the taking of the 1900 Federal Census she was living with her brother's family in Searcy
Searcy, Arkansas
Searcy is the largest city and county seat of White County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,663. It is the principal city of the Searcy, AR Micropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of White County...
as Eunie Branch. Ten years later she's listed in the census with her parents in Little Rock as Eula Burgess. Her marital status then was recorded as a divorced and occupation, actress. In January of that year she appeared as Ouida Bergère playing the stenographer in the play "Via Wireless" and was one of few cast members to receive positive reviews in the production.
Career
Bergère began her career as an actress. Playwright Winchell Smith gave her her first role, but she eventually abandoned her stage career and turned her attention to writing. She wrote for the New York HeraldNew York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
and for various magazines, besides writing the stories (or 'scenarios') for silent film productions.
She wrote most of the stories for the films of Elsie Ferguson
Elsie Ferguson
Elsie Louise Ferguson was an American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Benson Ferguson, a successful attorney...
, and many for Mae Murray
Mae Murray
Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen"....
, including On With the Dance
On with the Dance (1920 film)
This article is about the 1920 film. For the 1925 musical revue, see On With the Dance . For the 1975 Upstairs, Downstairs episode, see On With the Dance....
. She also wrote for 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...
, Corinne Griffith
Corinne Griffith
Corinne Mae Griffith was an American actress. Dubbed "The Orchid Lady of the Screen", she was one of the most popular film actresses of the 1920s and widely considered the most beautiful actress of the silent screen...
, Bert Lytell
Bert Lytell
Bert Lytell , Born Bertram Lytell, he was a popular screen star of the silent film era who starred in romantic, melodrama and adventure films....
, and Betty Compson
Betty Compson
Betty Compson was an American actress. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive film career. Her father died when she was young, and she was forced to drop out of school and earn a living for herself and her mother...
, many of which were directed by her first husband, George Fitzmaurice
George Fitzmaurice
George Fitzmaurice was a film director and producer. Fitzmaurice's career first started as a set designer on stage...
. In 1920 she wrote the screen version of Peter Ibbetson, starring Elsie Ferguson
Elsie Ferguson
Elsie Louise Ferguson was an American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Benson Ferguson, a successful attorney...
and Wallace Reid
Wallace Reid
Wallace Reid was an actor in silent film referred to as "the screen's most perfect lover".-Early life:Born William Wallace Reid in St...
. During this time she met Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
, who was playing the lead role in the stage production of the play, whom she eventually married in 1926.
As well as the United States, Bergère also worked on films in England, France and Italy. While in Rome, she wrote a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
entitled The Eternal City
The Eternal City (1923 film)
The Eternal City is a silent film directed by George Fitzmaurice, from a script by Ouida Bergère based on a Hall Caine novel, starring Barbara La Marr, Lionel Barrymore and Bert Lytell. The film was produced by the Samuel Goldwyn Company and distributed by First National Pictures. It was a remake...
(1923), based on the Hall Caine
Hall Caine
Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE , usually known as Hall Caine, was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his...
novel, directed by her husband George Fitzmaurice
George Fitzmaurice
George Fitzmaurice was a film director and producer. Fitzmaurice's career first started as a set designer on stage...
, and released by the Samuel Goldwyn Company. The film enlisted the assistance of the Fascists
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
, and of Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
himself, with the help of the American ambassador in Rome. The film included a scene in which Mussolini appeared writing a letter and summoning a man to post it. Ten thousand real Blackshirts
Blackshirts
The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...
appeared in the Coliseum scenes for the film.
Family
After her marriage to the actor Basil RathboneBasil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
, (April 18, 1926) Bergère gave up her film work to assist him in his work and in the management of his business affairs. Together they had one child, an adopted daughter named Cynthia Rathbone (1939–1969), and also raised Ouida's niece and namesake Ouida Branch, who married David Bruce Huxley, brother of Julian Huxley
Julian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
, Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, and Andrew Huxley
Andrew Huxley
Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley, OM, FRS is an English physiologist and biophysicist, who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his experimental and mathematical work with Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin on the basis of nerve action potentials, the electrical impulses that enable the activity...
Death
Ouida Bergere died a few weeks shy of her 88th birthday at Roosevelt Hospital in New York from complications after falling and breaking her hip. She was survived by her younger brother, Bernice C. Branch.Writer
- The Eternal CityThe Eternal City (1923 film)The Eternal City is a silent film directed by George Fitzmaurice, from a script by Ouida Bergère based on a Hall Caine novel, starring Barbara La Marr, Lionel Barrymore and Bert Lytell. The film was produced by the Samuel Goldwyn Company and distributed by First National Pictures. It was a remake...
(1923) - Six Days (1923)
- The Cheat (1923)
- The Rustle of Silk (1923)
- Bella Donna (1923)
- Kick In (1922)
- The Man from Home (1922)
- Peacock Alley (1922)
- Three Live Ghosts (1922)
- Peter Ibbetson (1921)
- Paying the Piper (1921)
- Idols of ClayIdols of Clay (1920 film)Idols of Clay is a 1920 silent drama directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Mae Murray and David Powell. A copy of the film survives in the Gosfilmofond Archive in Moscow.-Cast:* Mae Murray - Faith Merrill* David Powell - Dion Holme...
(1920) - The Right to Love (1920)
- On with the Dance (1920)
- The Broken Melody (1919)
- Counterfeit (1919)
- The Witness for the DefenseThe Witness for the Defense (1919 film)The Witness for the Defense is a silent drama directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Elsie Ferguson, Warner Oland, and Wyndham Standing.-Production background:The film is based on a novel by A. E. W. Mason...
(1919) - A Society Exile (1919)
- Our Better Selves (1919)
- The Avalanche (1919)
- The Profiteers (1919)
- The Cry of the Weak (1919)
- Common Clay (1919)
- The Narrow Path (1918)
- A Japanese Nightingale (1918)
- More Trouble (1918)
- The Hillcrest Mystery (1918)
- The On-the-Square Girl (1917)
- The Iron Heart (1917)
- Kick In (1917)
- The Romantic Journey (1916)
- Arms and the Woman (1916)
- Big Jim Garrity (1916)
- Virtue Triumphant (1916)
- New York (1916)
- Wasted Lives (1915)
- At Bay (1915)
- Saints and Sinners (1915)
- The Esterbrook Case (1915)