Estelle Brody

Estelle Brody was an American actress who became one of the biggest female stars of British silent film in the latter half of the 1920s. Her career was then derailed by a series of illadvised decisions and she disappeared from sight for many years before reemerging between the late 1940s and the 1960s in smaller supporting film and television roles.

Brody was born in New York City, and began her career as a dancer in vaudeville. After working for some time as part of a touring troupe travelling round the U.S., she moved to England in the 1920s, finding work in West End theatres. Although Brody had no previous acting experience, her vivaciousness was spotted by film director Thomas Bentley, who offered her a supporting role in his 1926 film White Heat. She then immediately landed the lead role for Maurice Elvey in Mademoiselle from Armentieres, set in France during World War I. This turned out to be a huge popular success, running in British cinemas for several months and becoming reportedly the highestgrossing Britishmade film of 1926. To Brodys great surprise, she found herself acclaimed as a new star by the British media. At the time there was a general feeling, both from critics and audiences, of dissatisfaction with what was seen as excessive American influence on British filmmaking. To preempt this, publicity material falsely

Source: Wikipedia