Katherine MacDonald

Katherine MacDonald
Katherine Agnew MacDonald (December 14, 1891–June 4, 1956) was an American stage and film actress, film producer, and model. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was the older sister of actresses Miriam MacDonald and Mary MacLaren.
Career
Starting her career as a popular model in New York City in the 1910s, MacDonald moved to Los Angeles in 1917. She became one of the first women to produce films in Hollywood, and produced nine features for her company, Katherine MacDonald Pictures, from 1919 to 1921.
MacDonald was among the top ranks of actresses financially in 1920, earning about $50,000 per picture from a contract with First National. She achieved the peak of her popularity between 1920 and 1923. From 1922 to 1925 she appeared in films produced by B. P. Schulberg.
She was considered a minor talent in the film industry, but her curvaceous figure nevertheless resulted in the nickname given her of the "American Beauty".
Her first significant role was her lead role in Shark Monroe (1918) opposite William S. Hart. She was featured in a number of silent films, including The Squaw Man (1918), Mr. Fix-It (1918), Passion's Playground (1920) and The Infidel (1922). Her films typically were romantic dramas. MacDonald made only two pictures after 1923, one each in 1925 and 1926.
Personal life
MacDonald had a public feud with her sister, fellow actress Mary MacLaren, nine years her junior.
While working as a model in New York City, Katherine met her first husband, the well-known artist and writer Malcolm Atherton Strauss. They married in New York in June 1911, but the union ended after eight years. In its May 17, 1919 issue, the New York-based trade journal Motion Picture World tersely announces, "Katherine MacDonald Strauss has been granted a decree of divorce by Judge Crail, of Los Angeles, from Malcolm A. Strauss, New York artist." Four years later in Atlantic City, New Jersey, she married Charles Schoen Johnson, a young Chicago millionaire. That marriage also ended in divorce in 1926 but produced one son, Britt.
After retiring from the movie industry MacDonald ran a successful cosmetics business in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1928 she married Christian Rasmus Holmes (1898-1944), an heir to the Fleischmann's yeast company, but that marriage ended in a sensational divorce suit in 1931, one widely covered in the press. MacDonald claimed cruelty, alleging that her husband had fired a revolver at her through a locked door, had deliberately burnt her with lit cigarettes, and had sometimes locked her in a cage. Holmes counter-sued, claiming that MacDonald had embarrassed him by having affairs. MacDonald and Holmes had one daughter, Ann.
Her statistics list her height as with a weight of , with brown hair and blue eyes. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6777 Hollywood Boulevard.
Death
MacDonald later in life suffered from diabetes, which in 1954 finally required the amputation of her right leg. Two years later, after a series of debilitating strokes, she died at St. Francis Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. She is buried in the Santa Barbara Cemetery in California.
Filmography
The Spirit of '17 (1918) Lost
Headin' South (1918) Lost
Mr. Fix-It (1918) Surviving
His Own Home Town (1918) Lost
Shark Monroe (1918) Surviving
Riddle Gawne (1918) Incomplete
Battling Jane (1918) Lost
The Squaw Man (1918) Incomplete
Speedy Meade (1919) Lost
The Woman Thou Gavest Me (1919) Lost
High Pockets (1919) Surviving
The Thunderbolt (1919) Lost
The Beauty Market (1919) Lost
The Turning Point (1920) Lost
Passion's Playground (1920) Lost
The Notorious Miss Lisle (1920) Lost
Curtain (1920) Lost
My Lady's Latchkey (1921) Lost
Stranger Than Fiction (1921) Lost
Her Social Value (1921) Lost
The Beautiful Liar (1921) Lost
The Woman's Side (1922) Lost
The Infidel (1922) Lost
Domestic Relations (1922)Lost
Heroes and Husbands (1922) Lost
White Shoulders (1922) Lost
The Woman Conquers (1922) Lost
Money! Money! Money! (1923) Lost
Refuge (1923)
The Lonely Road (1923) Lost
The Scarlet Lily (1923)
Chastity (1923)
Trust Your Wife (1924) Lost
The Unnamed Woman (1925) Lost
Old Loves and New (1926) Lost
References
Further reading
External links
AllMovie
Katherine MacDonald at Virtual History
kinotv.com
1891 births
1956 deaths
American film actresses
American silent film actresses
Film producers from Pennsylvania
Actresses from Pittsburgh
20th-century American actresses
American women film producers