4 January 2017

Sally Eilers (Silent Actress)


"I like the limelight. I'm the girl who yearned to be an actress and got her wish." ~ Sally

Sally Eilers was born Dorothea Sally Eilers on December 11, 1908 in New York City. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was a child and she began to attend acting classes. One day Sally was having lunch with her friend Carole Lombard when producer Mack Sennett saw her and asked her to become one of his bathing beauties. Soon Sally was landing small parts in movies like The Good-Bye Kiss and Broadway Babies with Alice White. In 1928 she was chosen as one of the Wampas Baby stars. She became a popular leading lady starring in the pre-code films Bad Girl and Sailor's Luck. Sally was called "the most beautiful girl in movies". She married western actor Hoot Gibson, her costar in Clearing The Range, in 1930.


They divorced three years later and she married producer Harry Brown. The couple had one son together. After divorcing Harry in 1943 she married World War 2 Lieutenant Howard Barney. By the end of the 1940s her third marriage was over and her career was in trouble. She was no longer being offered good roles so she decided to quit acting. Her final film was the 1950 western Stage To Tuscon. Sally's fourth marriage, to director Hollingsworth Morse, lasted nine years. As she grew older she suffered from health problems and stayed out of the spotlight. Sally died on January 5, 1978 from a heart attack at the age of sixty-nine. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.


No comments:

Post a Comment