Olive Thomas

Olive Thomas (Charleroi, Pennsylvania, United States, October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) was an American silent film actress.

Early Life

Born Oliveretta Elaine Duffy into a working class family in a Pittsburgh suburb, her father died when she was young and she had to leave school to help support her mother and siblings. At the age of 16, she married Bernard Thomas, but the marriage lasted only a short time. A beautiful and ambitious girl, she went to stay with an aunt in New York City where she worked in a department store.

In 1914 she entered and won "The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City" contest run by the celebrated commercial artist, Howard Chandler Christy. She then modeled for another famous artist Harrison Fisher and eventually wound up on the cover of "Saturday Evening Post." She was hired by the Ziegfeld Follies and then worked for the much racier revue, the Ziegfeld Frolics," a show staged after hours in the roof garden of the New Amsterdam Theatre for mainly male patrons with plenty of money to bestow on the young and beautiful lady performers. Before long, the gorgeous Olive Thomas was the center of attention of the in-crowd such as those associated with Condé Nast and she was being pursued by a number of very wealthy and powerful men.

Approached by an executive from Triangle Pictures, she was put under contract and in 1916 made her motion picture debut using her married name, Thomas. She went on to appear in more than twenty Hollywood films over the next four years.

Rise to Stardom and Personal Problems

Through her work she met actor Jack Pickford (1896-1933), an alcoholic, drug-using womanizer who lived extravagantly off the wealth and fame of his sister, Mary Pickford. Thomas married Pickford in October 1916, and although she was the love of his life, the marriage was stormy and sometimes filled with highly-charged conflict, followed by lavish making up through expensive gifts. Alcohol began playing an exponentially large role in Thomas's life: in a short span, she crashed her automobile on three occasions.

In 1918, film mogul and master promoter Lewis J. Selznick signed her for Selznick Pictures Company. The following year, gossip columnists such as Louella Parsons were gushing about her, while magazines were filled with stories and photos of her soaring career, and the name Olive Thomas was emblazoned in electric lights on Broadway.

By 1920, she had become one of the brightest young stars in America. Renowned artist Alberto Vargas painted another portrait of her, nude from the waist up. Florenz Ziegfeld hung the painting in his New Amsterdam Theatre office, much to the chagrin of his wife, actress Billie Burke.

Untimely Death

While doing film preparations mixed with a vacation in Paris, France, she and her husband went out for a night of entertainment at the famous bistros in the Montparnasse Quarter. Returning to their room in the Hotel Ritz at around 3:00 in the morning, an apparently drunk Olive Pickford accidentally ingested a large dose of mercury bichloride which had been prescribed for her husband's chronic syphilis. She was taken to the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly, where her husband, as well as former in-law Owen Moore, stayed by her side until she succumbed to the poison a few days later. A police investigation followed: her death was ruled accidental.

Jack Pickford brought her body home to the United States; family friend and film director Allan Dwan had to talk him out of committing suicide en route. Olive Thomas' funeral service was held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York. She was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

In 2004, with funding from Timeline Films, and with the help of Hugh Hefner and his film preservation organization, Sarah J. Baker premiered her documentary on Olive Thomas' short life titled Olive Thomas: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.

Filmography

Tom Sawyer, 1917 (uncredited)
Indiscreet Corinne, 1917
Broadway Arizona, 1917
An Even Break, 1917
Madcap Madge, 1917
A Girl Like That, 1917
Heiress for a Day, 1918
Limousine Life, 1919
Betty Takes a Hand, 1918
Out Yonder, 1919
The Glorious Lady, 1919
The Spite Bride, 1919
Prudence on Broadway, 1919
Love's Prisoner, 1919
''Upstairs and Down, 1919
The Follies Girl, 1919
Toton the Apache, 1919
Everybody's Sweetheart, 1920
Darling Mine, 1920
The Flapper, 1920
Youthful Folly, 1920
Footlights and Shadows, 1920