Rita Jolivet was an English actress of French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 descent in theater and silent movies

Silent Movies

Silent Movies are 13 solo guitar compositions by Marc Ribot released September 28, 2010 on Pi Recordings.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "For those interested in one of the more compelling and quietly provocative and graceful guitar records of 2010,...

 in the early twentieth century. She was known in private life as the Countess Marguerita de Cippico.

Ancestry

She was one of three children of Charles Eugene Jolivet (1840–1920) from Carmansville, New York, an owner of extensive vineyards in France and his French wife, Pauline Hélène Vaillant (1857–1957), a talented musician. After marrying in 1879, Pauline did not appear again on the concert stage. Jolivet had a sister, Inez Henriette, and a brother, Alfred Eugene. Jolivet's great-great grandmother was the only member of her family to avoid the guillotine

Guillotine

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

 during the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

. Her grandmother Vaillant was among the beauties in the court of Napoleon III. She was also a singer. On November 14, 1908 Jolivet married Alfred Charles Stern, but the marriage failed soon.

Social prominence

Jolivet was an intimate of the inner society circles in London, England. She was a close friend of the family of Lord Lowther, the British ambassador to Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. Her sister, Leigh, was a noted violinist, who performed as Inez Jolivet. She had been awarded decorations from King Edward VII and Czar Nicholas II.

Theatre

She began her stage career as a youth. Jolivet made her London debut in Much Ado About Nothing. Jolivet acted the part of Juliet for William Poel

William Poel

William Poel was an English actor, theatrical manager and dramatist best known for his presentations of Shakespeare.-Life and career:...

 of London, who produced Romeo and Juliet. Poel maintained a company of players which performed in university towns in England, giving performances of Shakespeare. Jolivet was a pupil of Mademoiselle Thenaud. Thenaud was a former leading actress of the Comédie-Française

Comédie-Française

The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....

 and a personal palm reader to Queen Victoria. In 1910 Jolivet was the leading lady

Leading lady

Leading lady is an informal term for the actress who plays a secondary lead or supporting role, usually a love interest, to the leading actor in a film or play. It is not usually applied to the leading actress in the performance if her character is the protagonist.A leading lady can also be an...

 of George Alexander in his play, The Eccentric Lord Comberdene.

Jolivet played the role of Marsinah in the first American stage production of Kismet

Kismet (play)

Kismet is a three-act play written in 1911 by Edward Knoblauch . The title means Fate or Destiny in Turkish and Urdu. The play ran for an extraordinary two years in London...

 in 1911. Produced by Harrison Grey Fiske

Harrison Grey Fiske

Harrison Grey Fiske was an American journalist, playwright and Broadway producer who fought against the "Theatrical Syndicate" that formed around the turn of the twentieth century.-Early Life:...

, the principal role of Hajj the beggar, was portrayed by Otis Skinner

Otis Skinner

Otis Skinner was an American actor.He was the son of a Universalist minister; his brother, Charles Montgomery Skinner, was a noted journalist and critic in New York. Skinner was educated in Hartford, Connecticut, with an eye towards a career in commerce. A visit to the theater left him stage-struck...

. Kismet was staged at the Knickerbocker Theatre

Knickerbocker Theatre (Broadway)

The Knickerbocker Theatre — previously known as Abbey's Theatre and Henry Abbey's Theatre — was a Broadway theatre located at 1396 Broadway in New York City. It operated from 1893 to 1930...

 in March 1912.

She was in the cast of A Thousand Years Ago presented at the Shubert Theatre

Shubert Theatre (Broadway)

The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts, it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the second oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family...

 in January 1914. The play was based on the book A Thousand and One Tales, written by a Persian

Persian people

The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...

 monk in the thirteenth century. Jolivet played the Princess Turandot, Princess of
China. A critic described her as lovely and attractive. He commented: She plays charmingly, though inclined to be overshrill in the more dramatic episodes.

RMS Lusitania survivor

She was a passenger on the on May 7, 1915, when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 and sank in the Atlantic Ocean. Jolivet was rescued after standing with Charles Frohman

Charles Frohman

Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. He discovered and promoted many stars of the American theatre....

 on the bridge (ship)

Bridge (ship)

The bridge of a ship is the room or platform from which the ship can be commanded. When a ship is underway the bridge is manned by an OOW aided usually by an AB acting as lookout...

 when the liner went down. The theatrical producer uttered his final words to Jolivet: Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.

Jolivet was saved when she climbed on a chair and obtained a life preserver which was in her stateroom. She plunged into the Atlantic Ocean before being saved. Jolivet testified in Federal District Court during a hearing regarding a petition of the Cunard Steamship Company, which owned the Lusitania. The company was seeking a limitation of liabilities for the deaths and damage which occurred from the tragedy.

Jolivet's brother-in-law, George L. Vernon, was drowned on the Lusitania. He was going to join Jolivet's sister, Inez Vernon, who was residing in Europe. Inez Vernon became depressed following her husband's death and committed suicide in Apartment 19 of the Sumner Apartments, 31 West 11th Street, New York City in late July. Vernon shot herself in the right temple with a pistol. She was found by an apartment superintendent after being dead for at least three days.

In November 1919, Jolivet's younger brother Alfred had married 29-year-old American Beatrice Witherbee who was also a Lusitania survivor. She had lost her mother Mary C Brown and her 3-year-old son Alfred Scott Witherbee, Jr. in the sinking and refused to talk about it for the rest of her life.

Jolivet, a strikingly beautiful woman, was being groomed for stardom by Frohman. Jolivet also performed in motion pictures at this time but after Frohman's death her career essentially came to a halt. Her stardom had not been secured yet as had 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...

, Maude Adams

Maude Adams

Maude Ewing Kiskadden , known professionally as Maude Adams, was an American stage actress who achieved her greatest success as Peter Pan. Adams's personality appealed to a large audience and helped her become the most successful and highest-paid performer of her day, with a yearly income of more...

 or 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...

, to name a few, all of whom were Frohman proteges.

Marriages

On January 27, 1916 she married her second husband, the Italian nobleman Count Giuseppe de Cippico in Kew Gardens, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

. He had a son from a previous marriage. Cippico and Jolivet had no children together, and the marriage ended in divorce.

After the divorce, Lady Marguerite Allan (the wife of Sir H. Montagu Allan

H. Montagu Allan

Sir Hugh Andrew Montague Allan, CVO was a Canadian banker, ship owner, and a sportsman who donated the Allan Cup, the trophy symbolic of men's amateur ice hockey supremacy in Canada.-Early life:...

), another survivor of the Lusitania, introduced Rita to 'Jimmy' her husband's immensely popular Scottish cousin, James Bryce Allan (d.1961) who was then living at 'The Cliff', Wemyss Bay, Renfrewshire. He was the son of Captain (James) Bryce Allan (b.1862) who moved from Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 and settled at Ballikinrain Castle, Stirlingshire

Stirlingshire

Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a registration county of Scotland, based around Stirling, the former county town. It borders Perthshire to the north, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian to the east, Lanarkshire to the south, and Dunbartonshire to the south-west.Until 1975 it was a county...

.

Jimmy and Rita's marriage took place at the Church of Scotland in Paris on 26 April 1928, and was 'celebrated with much fanfare'. The reception was held at Ballikinrain Castle (his father's 4000 acres (16.2 km²) estate which employed fifty servants), which Jimmy had recently inherited. After the war the couple took up travelling again and sold Ballinjinrain moving to a smaller castle in Scotland where parties were regularly thrown with royalty, heads of state and many other famous people on their lengthy guest lists.

Movie career

Jolivet preferred film work to theater in some respects because the silent drama allowed her more scope for dramatic expression.

Her film career started in Italy with the Ambrosia Company. She made Fata Morgana (1914), Zvani (1915), Onore di Morire, L (1915), Mano di Fatma, La (1915), and Cuore ed arte (1915). She returned to Italy to make Teodora (1919). She portrays the Empress Theodora in a famous romance by the French dramatist Victorien Sardou

Victorien Sardou

Victorien Sardou was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play...

. Historians disagree about the character of the wife of the Emperor Justinian. The movie depicts both her beauty and charm accurately. The film was first shown in American theaters in 1922.

Jolivet came to America and was affiliated with Famous Players-Lasky

Famous Players-Lasky

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

. Her first Hollywood movie is The Unafraid from 1914. In 1917 Jolivet and Vincent Serrano

Vincent Serrano

Vincent Serrano was an American actor in plays and silent films. His best known role was as Lieutenant Denton in the Augustus Thomas play Arizona , which had its New York opening in September 1900. He acted the role in over 1,000 performances. He also appeared in 13 movies, the last of which...

 made One Law for Both

One Law for Both

One Law for Both is a 1917 silent film directed by Ivan Abramson.-Plot:Elga Pulsaki and her brother Ossip emigrate to the United States from Russia to escape persecution...

. The drama, directed by Ivan Abramson

Ivan Abramson

Ivan Abramson was a director of American silent films active in the 1910s and 1920s.Abramson emigrated to the United States from Russia in the 1880s and soon became involved in Jewish newspaper field. In 1905 he founded an opera company. In 1914, he founded Ivan Film Productions to produce...

, illustrates the secret and stirring methods of revolutionaries.

Jolivet and her husband donated the proceeds from Lest We Forget (1918) to 'the alleviation of suffering caused by World War I.' She was an avid Liberty Bond

Liberty bond

A Liberty Bond was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financial securities to many citizens for the first time. The Act of Congress which...

 booster. It was reported that she sold more of them throughout the United States than Douglas Fairbanks, Sr, 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...

, and Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

 combined. In a single week in May 1918 Jolivet disposed of more than $5,000,000 in Liberty Bonds in Baltimore, Maryland.

Lest We Forget was shown in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, with Jolivet addressing audiences prior to three of its screenings. She told them of her riveting personal experiences since the war began in August 1914. At the outset of the conflict she was in France. In the motion picture she plays Rita Heriot, who is a soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 in Paris, France. Heriot is rescued from the RMS Lusitania sinking after playing an engagement at the Metropolitan Theatre in New York City.

Jolivet continued making movies in France and Italy through 1926. The filmography

Filmography

Filmography is a collective noun for a list of films related by some criterion. For example, an actor's career filmography is the list of films he or she has appeared in; a director's comedy filmography is the list of comedy films directed by a particular director...

 of her later screen work includes the titles The Bride's Confession (1921), Roger la Honte (1922), Messalina

Messalina

Valeria Messalina, sometimes spelled Messallina, was a Roman empress as the third wife of the Emperor Claudius. She was also a paternal cousin of the Emperor Nero, second cousin of the Emperor Caligula, and great-grandniece of the Emperor Augustus...

(1922), Phi-Phi (1926), and Marchand de bonheur (1926).

External Links

• Rita Jolivet at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb))
• Rita Jolivet at the Internet Broadway Database, IBDb
• Rita Jolivet in blond wig in a silent film(Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)
• 1923 still of Rita Jolivet(Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)