Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford April 8, 1892 May 29, 1979 was a CanadianAmerican motion picture actress, cofounder of the film studio United Artists and one of the originalfounders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Known as Americas Sweetheart, Little Mary and the girl with the curls, Pickford was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her name rather than unbilled, and was one of the most popular actresses of the 10s and 20s, earning the nickname Queen of the Movies.

Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in 1892 at 211 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her father, John Charles Smith, was the son of English Methodist immigrants, and worked a variety of odd jobs. Her mother, Charlotte Hennessey, was of Irish Catholic descent and worked for a time as a seamstress. She had two younger siblings, Charlotte, called Lottie born 1893, and John Charles, called Jack born 1896, who also became actors. To please her husbands relatives, Pickfords mother baptized her children as Methodists, the faith of their father. John Charles Smith was an alcoholic he abandoned the family and died on February 11, 1898, from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with Niagara Steamship.When Gladys was age four, her household was under infectious quarantine, a public health measure. Her mother asked a visiting priest to baptize the children as Catholic. Pickford was at this time baptized as Gladys Marie Pickford. Their devoutly Catholic maternal grandmother Catherine Faeley Hennessey approved the baptism. As an adult she attended St. Mary of the Angels Anglican Church in Hollywood, California. ........

Source: Wikipedia