Carmelita Geraghty

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carmelita Geraghty (March 21, 1901 – July 7, 1966) was an American film actress and painter. Born in Rushville, Indiana to screenwriter Thomas J. Geraghty, she started her film career as an extra in the early 1920s before being selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1924. She soon became a leading actress, including a co-starring role with Virginia Valli in The Pleasure Garden (1925), the first film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She also played golfer Jordan Baker in the first film version of The Great Gatsby (1926) and starred alongside Clara Bow in My Lady of Whims (1925).

When the age of sound dawned, Geraghty's career slowed. Her last role was in the re-released independent Western Phantom of Santa Fe (1936). She became a very accomplished artist about ten years after leaving motion pictures. In the last years of her life, her artwork was put on display at the Weil Gardens in Paris.

Geraghty was married to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer writer and producer Carey Wilson from 1934 until his death in 1962. On July 7, 1966, she died of a heart attack at the Lombardy Hotel in Manhattan, aged 65. She is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.