Mary Alden

Mary Alden
Mary Maguire Alden (June 18, 1883 – July 2, 1946) was an American motion picture and stage actress. She was one of the first Broadway actresses to work in Hollywood.
Life
Alden was born in New York City on June 18, 1883. She performed on Broadway in Personal (1907) and The Rule of Three (1914). She worked for the Biograph Company and Pathé Exchange in the first portion of her career. Her most popular role in movies came in The Birth of a Nation directed by D.W. Griffith in 1915. Alden played the role of a mulatto woman in love with a northern politician. The following year she was in Griffith's Intolerance with Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, and Vera Lewis. After making Less Than The Dust with Mary Pickford in 1917, she took a temporary leave from motion pictures, acting for a while on the stage. Critics acclaimed Alden's portrayal of the mother, Mrs. Anthon, in The Old Nest (1921) and her characterization of an old lady in The Man With Two Mothers (1922). The latter feature was produced by Sam Goldwyn.
Alden was a prolific motion picture actress throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s. A sampling of movies in which she had roles are The Plastic Age (1925), The Joy Girl (1927), Ladies of the Mob (1928), and Port of Dreams (1929). The final films she received screen credit for are Hell's House, Rasputin and the Empress, and Strange Interlude, each from 1932.
Alden died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California in 1946, aged 63 years. This had been her residence for the last four years of her life.
Alden was interred in an unmarked grave under her married name of Deangman in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California.
Selected filmography
The Battle of the Sexes (1914) as Mrs. Frank Andrews
Home, Sweet Home (1914) as The Mother
The Old Fisherman's Story (1914) as The Gypsy
The Birth of a Nation (1915) as Lydia, Stoneman's Mulatto Housekeeper
The Slave Girl (1915, Short) as Sally, a Yellow Girl
The Outcast (1915) as The Girl's Mother
A Man's Prerogative (1915) as Elizabeth Towne
Ghosts (1915) as Helen Arling
The Lily and the Rose (1915) as Mrs. Fairfax
Acquitted (1916) as Mrs. Carter
The Good Bad-Man (1916) as Jane Stuart
Macbeth (1916) as Lady Macduff
An Innocent Magdalene (1916) as The Woman
Hell-to-Pay Austin (1916) as Doris Valentine
Pillars of Society (1916) as Lona Tonnesen
The Narrow Path (1916) as Shirley Martin
Intolerance (1916) as Uplifter #1
Less Than the Dust (1916) as Mrs. Bradshaw
The Argyle Case (1917) as Nellie Marsh
The Land of Promise (1917) as Gertie Marsh
The Naulahka (1918) as Prince's Mother
The Narrow Path (1918) as Margaret Dunn
Common Clay (1919) as Mrs. Neal
The Unpardonable Sin (1919) as Mrs. Parcot
The Mother and the Law (1919) as An Uplifter
The Broken Butterfly (1919) as Zabie Elliot
Erstwhile Susan (1919) as Erstwhile Susan
The Inferior Sex (1920) as Clarissa Mott-Smith
Parted Curtains (1920) as Mrs. Masters
Miss Nobody (1920) as Jason's Wife
Milestones (1920) as Rose Sibley
Honest Hutch (1920) as Mrs. Hutchins
Silk Husbands and Calico Wives (1920) as Edith Beecher Kendall
Trust Your Wife (1921)
The Witching Hour (1921) as Helen Whipple
Snowblind (1921) as Bella
The Old Nest (1921) as Mrs. Anthon
Man with Two Mothers (1922) as Widow O'Neill
The Hidden Woman (1922) as Mrs. Randolph
A Woman's Woman (1922) as Densie Plummer
Notoriety (1922) as Ann Boland
The Bond Boy (1922) as Mrs. Newboat
Has the World Gone Mad! (1923) as Mrs. Bell
The Tents of Allah (1923) as Oulaid
The Empty Cradle (1923) as Alice Larkin
The Steadfast Heart (1923) as Mrs. Burke
The Eagle's Feather (1923) as Delia Jamiesoon
Pleasure Mad (1923) as Marjorie Benton
Painted People (1924) as Mrs. Bryne
A Fool's Awakening (1924) as Myra
When a Girl Loves (1924) as The Czarina
Babbitt (1924) as Mrs. Myra Babbitt
The Beloved Brute (1924) as Augustina
Siege (1925) as Aunt Augusta Ruyland
Faint Perfume (1925) as Ma Crumb
The Happy Warrior (1925) as Aunt Maggie
Under the Rouge (1925) as Martha Maynard
The Unwritten Law (1925) as Miss Grant
Soiled (1925) as Mrs. Brown
The Plastic Age (1925) as Mrs. Carver
The Earth Woman (1926) as Martha Tilden (The Earth Woman)
Brown of Harvard (1926) as Mrs. Brown
Lovey Mary (1926) as Mrs. Wiggs
April Fool (1926) as Amelia Rosen
The Potters (1927) as Ma Potter
The Joy Girl (1927) as Mrs. Courage
Twin Flappers (1927)
Fools for Luck (1928) as Mrs. Hunter
Ladies of the Mob (1928) as Soft Annie
The Cossacks (1928) as Lukashka's Mother
The Sawdust Paradise (1928) as Mother
Someone to Love (1928) as Harriet Newton
Girl Overboard (1929)
Bad Sister (1931) as Minor Role (uncredited)
Politics (1931) as Mrs. Mary Evans
Hell's House (1932) as Lucy Mason (uncredited)
When a Feller Needs a Friend (1932) as Mrs. Higgins (uncredited)
Strange Interlude (1932) as Mary, the Leeds' maid
Rasputin and the Empress (1932) as Natasha's Lady in Waiting (uncredited)
One More Spring (1935) as Minor Role (uncredited)
The Great Hotel Murder (1935) as Mrs. Harvey (uncredited)
Gentle Julia (1936) as Aunt (uncredited)
Legion of Terror (1936) as Accident Onlooker (uncredited)
Career Woman (1936) as Townswoman (uncredited)
That I May Live (1937) as Woman in Auto Camp (uncredited) (final film role)
References
Further reading
External links
Literature on Mary Alden
American silent film actresses
American stage actresses
Burials at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery
1883 births
1946 deaths
Actresses from New York City
20th-century American actresses
American film actresses