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Gwendolyn Pates (April 4, 1891 – November 1970), also billed as Gwendoline Pates, was an American actress in silent films and on stage.
George W. Beatty Collection
,
In ''For Mayor–Bess Smith'' (1913), Pates played a woman running for political office, who instead accepts her opponent's marriage proposal. For herself, she said she did not want the vote; "I'm truly so busy that I couldn't stop to vote," she told an interviewer in 1913.
After her time in films, Pates performed in
Early life
Gwendoline Ivore Pates was born inDallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
, the daughter of Frederick B. Pates and Allie Beckwith Pates. Her father was a voice teacher. She and her sister attended the Boyd Theater School of Acting in Omaha. Her sister Vivian Pates was also an actress. She lived some of her youth in Alton, Illinois
Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the ...
.
Career
As an actress, Pates was best known for "dainty, girlish" roles that focused on her "bewitching prettiness" and adventurous nature. She appeared in more than forty short silent films between 1911 and 1915. She was often in the title role, for example in ''His Date with Gwendoline'' (1913), ''The Blind Girl of Castle Guille'' (1913), and ''When Romance Came to Anne'' (1914). In 1912 she appeared withGeorge W. Beatty
George William Beatty (August 28, 1887 – February 20, 1955) was an American pioneer aviator who set early altitude and distance records, including one record set on the same day that he flew his first solo flight.
Early life
Beatty was born ...
in ''An Aeroplane Love Affair''. Beatty was not an actor, but he was the chief test pilot and instructor at the United States Army Aviation School
The U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, formerly known as the Army Aviation Center and School, is the United States Army Aviation Branch's headquarters and training and development center, located at Fort Rucker, Alabama. It coordinates a ...
.Igoe, KateGeorge W. Beatty Collection
,
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...
, 1997. Accessed September 6, 2009.
"The necessary qualifications for a successful photoplayer are that you must photograph well, and be able to express facially the idea you want to convey to the audience," she explained about her work.
In ''For Mayor–Bess Smith'' (1913), Pates played a woman running for political office, who instead accepts her opponent's marriage proposal. For herself, she said she did not want the vote; "I'm truly so busy that I couldn't stop to vote," she told an interviewer in 1913.
After her time in films, Pates performed in vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
. She and her husband had a stock company, the Grew-Pates Players, performing ''The Gates of America,'' ''Electrocuted at 5 A. M.,'' ''Tess of the Storm Country'', ''The Lure of the City, The End of the Trail'', ''After Five, The Prince Chap,'' and a stage version of ''The Perils of Pauline,'' in Boston and elsewhere, in 1914 and 1915. In 1917, she headlined ''The Heart of Wetona'' in New York and on tour. The Grew-Pates Players were based in Canada in 1918 and 1920. In 1927, she appeared on Broadway in the original cast of ''The Mating Season'', a farce; her husband wrote the show, and was also in the cast.
Personal life
Gwendolyn Pates married actor and playwright William A. Grew by 1914. They divorced after 1927. She died in 1970, aged 79 years, in New York.References
External links
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pates, Gwendolyn 1891 births 1970 deaths American silent film actresses American stage actresses People from Alton, Illinois Actresses from Illinois Actresses from Dallas 20th-century American actresses