Featured Player
Publisher: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Published: October 4, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 334
ISBN-13: 9780810830448
Subjects: Biography: film, television & music; Individual actors & performers; Individual film directors, film-makers; 20th century; Individual Movie Actors And Actresses; Performing Arts; Biography / Autobiography; Cinema/Film: Book; USA; Entertainment & Performing Arts - General; Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts; Reference; Actors; Biography; Clarke, Mae; United States
Description: When Mae Clarke arrived in Los Angeles in 1929, she was a headliner in vaudeville who preferred the New York stage to acting in movies. She went to work for Fox and planned to stay just long enough to fulfill her contract. Her stay lasted 63 years.

After distinguishing herself as Molly Malloy in Howard Hughes' production of The Front Page, Mae Clarke took a two-day job at Warner Bros. that changed her life. In an unbilled bit, she allowed James Cagney to grind a grapefruit in her face and, at the age of 20, achieved a kind of fame that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

This isn't the story of a star, but rather a featured player - a talented actress who supported herself in movies and television for almost 40 years. Though hampered by failed marriages, bad luck, and bouts of mental illness, Mae Clarke managed to appear in 90 feature films, including such classics as Waterloo Bridge, Frankenstein, Lady Killer, Singin' in the Rain, Pat and Mike, and Thoroughly Modern Millie.