Marguerite Gabrielle Courtot (August 20, 1897 – May 28, 1986) was an American
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
actress.
Early life
Marguerite Gabrielle Courtot was born in
Summit, New Jersey
Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...
, on August 20, 1897 to Gustave Courtot, who was born in France, and Charlotte Marie Courtot (née Kramer), who was born in Switzerland, and later followed in her daughter's footsteps in becoming an actress. Gustave arrived in America in 1887, and Charlotte one year later. The two married in Manhattan on July 7, 1890, and Marguerite's sister, Juliette, was born two and a half months later. Marguerite was of French and German descent.
Courtot received her education in New York and Switzerland.
Career
![Marguerite Courtot 1915](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Marguerite_Courtot_1915.jpg)
Courtot became a child model and in June 1912, while not yet fifteen years old, joined the
Kalem Company
The Kalem Company was an early American film studio founded in New York City in 1907. It was one of the first companies to make films abroad and to set up winter production facilities, first in Florida and then in California. Kalem was sold to V ...
, appearing in 1913's ''The Riddle of the Tin Soldier'' alongside star
Alice Joyce
Alice Joyce Brown ( Joyce; October 1, 1890 – October 9, 1955) was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film '' The Green Goddess'' and its 1930 remake of ...
and
Harry F. Millarde
Harry F. Millarde (November 12, 1885 – November 2, 1931) was a pioneer United States, American silent film actor and film director, director.
Biography
Millarde was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and began his acting in film in 1913 with Kalem Stu ...
, who was making his film debut. Between then and 1916, Courtot made 37 films for Kalem, playing the starring role in ''The Ventures of Marguerite'', a sixteen episode action/adventure
serial.
Following the Kalem Company's merger with
Vitagraph Studios
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...
, Courtot starred in the
Gaumont Pictures production of ''The Dead Alive'', directed by Henri J. Vernot. After several films with
Jesse L. Lasky's Famous Players Film Company and smaller independents, Courtot took most of 1918 off to use her public persona to tour the country to promote America's
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
effort in Europe. When the war ended, she returned to film, joining
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...
. Although she had starring roles, she also worked in prominent secondary parts such as in the 1921 serials ''
The Sky Ranger'', starring
June Caprice
June Caprice (born Helen Elizabeth Lawson, November 19, 1895 – November 9, 1936) was an American silent film actress.
Early life and career
Born Helen Elizabeth Lawson in Arlington, Massachusetts, Caprice was educated in Boston.
She began ...
, and ''The Yellow Arm'', starring
Juanita Hansen
Juanita Hansen (born Juanita Cecilia Hanson; March 3, 1895 – September 26, 1961) was an American actress who performed in silent films. She became one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties and appeared in a variety of serials through the late 19 ...
.
Marriage and retirement
In 1922, while working on ''
Down to the Sea in Ships'', the film that became her most important feature-length work, Marguerite Courtot began a relationship with co-star
Raymond McKee
Eldon Raymond McKee (December 7, 1892 – October 3, 1984), also credited as Roy McKee, was an American stage and screen actor. His film debut was in the 1912 production ''The Lovers' Signal''. Over the next 23 years, he performed in no less ...
, who was her childhood sweetheart. They married on April 23, 1923, and after she completed two more films, Courtot retired from the film business to raise a family with McKee. They had one child together, son Raymond Courtot McKee (June 25, 1926 – November 15, 2015). Courtot and McKee ran a successful restaurant in Los Angeles called The Zulu Hut and divided their time between homes in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
and
Long Beach
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
. Their marriage lasted more than sixty years.
Death
Her husband, Raymond McKee, died in 1984 and Marguerite Courtot died two years later in Long Beach, California. They are buried together in the
Riverside National Cemetery
Riverside National Cemetery (RNC) is a cemetery located in Riverside, California, dedicated to the interment of United States military personnel. The cemetery covers , making it the largest cemetery managed by the National Cemetery Administration ...
in
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...
.
''Resting Places''
/ref>
Partial filmography
*'' Breaking into the Big League'' (1913)*short
*''The Octoroon
''The Octoroon'' is a play by Dion Boucicault that opened in 1859 at The Winter Garden Theatre, New York City. Extremely popular, the play was kept running continuously for years by seven road companies. Among antebellum melodramas, it was con ...
'' (1913)*short
*'' The Vampire'' (1913)
*''A Celebrated Case
''A Celebrated Case'' is a 1914 American silent drama film starring Alice Joyce, Guy Coombs and Marguerite Courtot. It is based on the 1877 play ''Une cause célèbre'' by Adolphe Philippe Dennery and Eugene Cormon. A French soldier is wrongfull ...
'' (1914)
* ''Crime and Punishment
''Crime and Punishment'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Преступление и наказание, Prestupléniye i nakazániye, prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪje ɪ nəkɐˈzanʲɪje) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...
'' (1917)
*''The Unbeliever
''The Unbeliever'' is a 1918 American silent propaganda film made towards the end of World War I. It was directed by Alan Crosland for the Edison Company towards its last days as a functioning film-making company. It stars Raymond McKee and Marg ...
'' (1918)
*'' The Perfect Lover'' (1919)
*'' Bound and Gagged'' (1919)
*'' The Undercurrent'' (1919)
*'' Pirate Gold'' (1920)
*'' Velvet Fingers'' (1920)
*''Rogues and Romance
''Rogues and Romance'' is a surviving 1920 American silent drama film directed by George B. Seitz. The film was a feature-length version of the serial '' Pirate Gold'', also directed by Seitz, and was shot in Europe. The film survives incomplete ...
'' (1920)
* '' The Yellow Arm'' (1921)
*''Beyond the Rainbow
''Beyond the Rainbow'' is a 1922 American silent drama film starring Billie Dove, Harry T. Morey and Clara Bow in her film debut. A 16mm print of the film is in the collection of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Plot
As described in a fi ...
'' (1922)
* ''The Cradle Buster
''The Cradle Buster'' is a 1922 American silent comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Glenn Hunter, Marguerite Courtot and William H. Tooker.
Cast
* Glenn Hunter as Benjamin Franklin Reed
* Marguerite Courtot as Gay Dixon
*Mary F ...
'' (1922)
* ''Silas Marner
''Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe'' is the third novel by George Eliot. It was published in 1861. An outwardly simple tale of a linen weaver, the novel is notable for its strong realism and its sophisticated treatment of a variety of issues ...
'' (1922)
*'' Down to the Sea in Ships'' (1922)
*'' The Steadfast Heart'' (1923)
* ''Jacqueline
Jacqueline may refer to:
People
* Jacqueline (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Jacqueline Moore (born 1964), ring name "Jacqueline", American professional wrestler
Arts and entertainment
* ''Jacqueline'' (1923 film), ...
'' (1923)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Courtot, Marguerite
American people of French descent
American film actresses
American silent film actresses
Actresses from New Jersey
Burials at Riverside National Cemetery
People from Summit, New Jersey
1897 births
1986 deaths
20th-century American actresses