page_title: Marguerite Clark
section_title: Early life and theatre
hierarchical_section_title: Marguerite Clark / Early life and theatre
caption_attribution_description: English: Candid photograph of actress Marguerite Clark, then starring in the stage production Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (details) and appearing in the stage production The Affairs of Anatol (details)
context_page_description: Helen Marguerite Clark was an American stage and silent film actress. As a movie actress, at one time, Clark was second only to Mary Pickford in popularity. With the exception of five films, most of her films are considered lost.
context_section_description: Born in Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio on February 22, 1883, she was the third child of Augustus "Gus" James and Helen Elizabeth Clark. She had an older sister, Cora, and an older brother named Clifton. Clark's mother Helen died on January 21, 1893. Her father worked in his self-owned successful haberdashery located in downtown Cincinnati before his death on December 29, 1896. Following the death, Clark's sister Cora was appointed her legal guardian and removed her from public school to further her education at Ursuline Academy.
  She finished school at age 16, decided to pursue a career in the theatre and soon made her Broadway debut in 1900. The 17-year-old performed at various venues. In 1903, she was seen on Broadway opposite that hulking comedian DeWolf Hopper in Mr. Pickwick. The 6-foot-6-inch (1.98 m) Hopper dwarfed the nearly 5-foot-tall (1.5 m) Clark in their scenes together. Several adventure-fantasy roles followed. In 1909, Clark starred in the whimsical costume play The Beauty Spot, establishing the fantasy stories for which would soon become her hallmark. In 1910, Clark appeared in The Wishing Ring, a play directed by Cecil DeMille and later made into a motion picture by Maurice Tourneur. That same 1910 season had Clark appearing in Baby Mine, a popular play produced by William A. Brady.
  In 1912, Clark performed in a lead role with John Barrymore, Doris Keane and Gail Kane in the play The Affairs of Anatol later made into a motion picture by Clark's future movie studio Famous Players-Lasky and directed by Cecil DeMille. That same year, she starred in a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The classic tale was adapted for the stage by Winthrop Ames (writing under the pseudonym Jessie Braham White), who closely oversaw its production at his Little Theatre in New York and personally selected the lead actress. Clark expressed her delight in the role, and the play had a successful run into 1913. Clark's popularity led to her signing a contract in 1914 to make motion pictures with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company, and over the next two years she was cast in starring roles in more than a dozen features. She then reprised her stage role in a film that would define the Clark persona—the influential 1916 screen version of Snow White.
caption: Clark in 1912, the year she starred in two Broadway plays: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Affairs of Anatol
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