Olive Thomas
Actor
Biography
Olive Thomas (born Oliva R. Duffy;[1] October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model.
Thomas began her career as an illustrator's model in 1914, and moved on to the Ziegfeld Follies the following year. During her time as a Ziegfeld girl, she also appeared in the more risqué show The Midnight Frolic. In 1916, she began a successful career in silent films and would appear in more than 20 features over the course of her four-year film career. That year she also married actor Jack Pickford, the younger brother of fellow silent-film star Mary Pickford.
On September 10, 1920, Thomas died in Paris five days after ingesting her husband's syphilis medication, mercury dichloride, that brought on acute nephritis. Although her death was ruled accidental, news of her hospitalization and subsequent death were the subject of speculation in the press. Thomas' death has been cited as one of the early scandals in Hollywood that was heavily publicized.
Filmography
Tom Sawyer
as Choir Member (Uncredited) 1917
Love's Prisoner
as Nancy, later Lady Clevela 1919
Out Yonder
as Flotsam 1919
The Glorious Lady
as Ivis Benson 1919
Everybody's Sweetheart
as Mary 1920
Olive Thomas: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
as Self (archive footage) 2003
Beatrice Fairfax
as Rita Malone (#10 Playball) 1916
Sigrid Holmquist
as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage) 2010
An Even Break
as Claire Curtis 1917
Madcap Madge
as Madge Flower 1917
Broadway Arizona
as Fritzi Carlyle 1917
Betty Takes a Hand
as Betty Marshall 1918
Upstairs and Down
as Alice Chesterton 1919
The Spite Bride
as Tessa Doyle 1919
Indiscreet Corinne
as Corinne Chilvers 1917
The Follies Girl
as Doll 1919