# Carol Dempster

Carol Dempster (December 9, 1901 – February 1, 1991) was an American film actress of the silent film era. She appeared in films from 1916 to 1926, working with D. W. Griffith extensively.

## Early years

Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Dempster was the daughter of a captain on the Great Lakes and the youngest of four children. The family moved to California when her father decided to change careers. While dancing in a school program, Dempster was noticed by Ruth St. Denis and went on to become the youngest graduate in the first class of St. Denis's school of dance.

## Career

Dempster's first feature role came in 1919 in the Griffith directed The Girl Who Stayed at Home opposite Robert "Bobby" Harron. Dempster followed this with Griffith's The Love Flower (1920), Dream Street (1921), One Exciting Night (1922) and Isn't Life Wonderful (1924), America (1924), Sally of the Sawdust (1925), and That Royle Girl (1925). Dempster appeared opposite such notable actors as John Barrymore, Richard Barthelmess, William Powell, Ivor Novello, and W. C. Fields.
In 1926 Dempster acted in her final film, a Griffith vehicle entitled The Sorrows of Satan (1926), co-starring Adolphe Menjou, Ricardo Cortez, and the Hungarian vamp Lya De Putti. Dempster then retired from the screen to marry wealthy banker Edwin S. Larson in 1926.
   "Griffith made three films at Paramount's Astoria Studios, each marked by his increasing obsession with his then inamorata, another ex-Denishawn dancer named Carol Dempster...her talents have received as little respect from historians as they did at the time from her co-workers. To Griffith's biographer Richard Schickel, Dempster was a 'mildly attractive young woman' who moved well but photographed badly. Actress Louise Brooks described her as unfriendly and withdrawn. Ed Falherty, a longtime studio gaffer who observed everything and everyone from high up in the grid, remembered icily: 'she had nothing.'"—Film historian Richard Koszarski in Hollywood on the Hudson (2008).
Dempster's critical stock was never very high, in part because she was unable to live up to the performances of Lillian Gish, whom she replaced as Griffith's leading lady. Her somewhat "ordinary" appearance and animated acting style were frequently criticized. Also, with a few exceptions, the films she appeared in were not among Griffith's more popular works. In recent years, however, viewers and critics alike have slowly begun to appreciate her performances, particularly in two later films, Isn't Life Wonderful and The Sorrows of Satan.

## Death

Dempster died in La Jolla, California, in 1991 at the age of 89 from heart failure and was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale, California. Upon her death, Dempster left $1.6 million to the San Diego Museum of Art, which was used to expand the museum's collections of prints and drawings.

## Filmography

All features were directed by D. W. Griffith except Sherlock Holmes, which was directed by Albert Parker. The Hope Chest, a product of the New Art Film Company from 1918, was produced by Griffith but directed by Elmer Clifton.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1916 | Intolerance | Dancer | Uncredited |
| 1918 | Lillian Gish in a Liberty Loan Appeal | Lillian's Sister | Short Lost film |
| 1918 | The Greatest Thing in Life | Dancer | Uncredited Lost film |
| 1918 | The Hope Chest | Ethel Hoyt | Undetermined / presumably lost |
| 1919 | A Romance of Happy Valley | Girl John Logan meets in New York | Uncredited |
| 1919 | The Girl Who Stayed at Home | Acoline France | |
| 1919 | True Heart Susie | Bettina's friend | |
| 1919 | Scarlet Days | Lady Fair | |
| 1920 | The Love Flower | Stella Bevan | |
| 1920 | Way Down East | Barn dancer | Uncredited |
| 1921 | Dream Street | Gypsy Fair | |
| 1922 | Sherlock Holmes | Alice Faulkner | |
| 1922 | One Exciting Night | Agnes Harrington | |
| 1923 | The White Rose | Marie Carrington | |
| 1924 | America | Miss Nancy Montague | |
| 1924 | Isn't Life Wonderful | Inga | |
| 1925 | Sally of the Sawdust | Sally | |
| 1925 | That Royle Girl | Joan Daisy Royle | Lost film |
| 1926 | The Sorrows of Satan | Mavis Claire | |

## Footnotes

* 1 2 "Carol Dempster". Variety. March 3, 1991. Archived from the original on October 3, 2017. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
* ↑ Menefee, David W. (2004). The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era. Westport, CT.: Praeger Publishers. pp. 41–51. ISBN 978-0-275-98259-1. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
* ↑ Koszarski, 2008 p. 52
* ↑ Koszarski, 2008 p. 52: “...gradually Dempster came to replace Gish and Mae Marsh in Griffith’s starring lineup.”
* ↑ Schickel, Richard (1984). D.W. Griffith: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-22596-4.
* ↑ Koszarski, 2008 p. 52: “...Her performance in Isn’t Life Wonderful is, in fact, quite good...”
* ↑ Freudenheim, Susan (October 26, 1991). "Actress Leaves $1.6 Million to Art Museum". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 12, 2021.

## Sources

* Gish, Lillian (1969). The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-536482-6.
* Geduld, Harry M. (1971). Focus on D.W. Griffith. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-365205-5.
* Brown, Karl (1973). Adventures with D.W. Griffith. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-10093-3.
* Koszarski, Richard. 2008. Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-4293-5