Marie Empress
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Marie Empress (26 March 1884 – October 1919), born Mary Ann Louisa Taylor, was a British actress on stage and in
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 ...
s. She acted in England and America and she disappeared from an
ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...
the day before it docked in New York. The cause was never determined and she was declared dead in 1921.


Early life

Mary Ann Louisa Taylor was born in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
. Her father was a contractor. She sometimes claimed to be a great-grand niece of actor Edmund Kean.


Career

Empress began her stage career in England, performing as a
male impersonator Drag kings are mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, stand-up comedy and singing, eit ...
and in variety shows. She appeared on Broadway in '' The Little Cafe'' (1913), and began to work in motion pictures. She starred in several silent films, including ''Old Dutch'' (1915), ''
The Stubbornness of Geraldine ''The Stubbornness of Geraldine'' is a 1915 American silent film directed by Gaston Mervale adapted from a play by Clyde Fitch Clyde Fitch (May 2, 1865 – September 4, 1909) was an American dramatist, the most popular writer for the Broadway ...
'' (1915), ''The Woman Pays'' (1915), ''Behind Closed Doors'' (1916), ''Sibyl's Scenario'' (1916), ''
When We Were Twenty-One ''When We Were Twenty-One'' is a 1915 American silent comedy film directed by Hugh Ford and Edwin S. Porter and written by H.V. Esmond. The film stars William Elliott, Charles Waldron, Marie Empress, Helen Lutrell, Winifred Allen, and Arthur ...
'' (1915), ''Love's Cross Roads'' (1916), ''The Chorus Girl and the Kid'' (1916)'', A Lesson from Life'' (1916), ''The Woman Redeemed'' (1916), ''The Girl Who Doesn't Know'' (1916), and ''The Guilty Woman'' (1919).


Personal life and disappearance

Newspaper illustration of the mystery of Marie Empress's disappearance Empress married a dentist, William Horton, in 1902; they separated in 1906, and legally divorced in 1918. She had a tumultuous personal life, including "grand passions", suspected drug use, and unexplained scars. Her film roles tended to lurid
vamp The VaMP driverless car was one of the first truly autonomous cars Dynamic Vision for Perc ...
characters, and headlines did not always distinguish between the actress and her character. Empress was last seen in her state room on the
Cunard Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Bermu ...
ocean liner in October 1919, the day before it docked in New York City. Fellow passengers had noticed that she always had a veil and was dressed in black. She presumably went overboard and drowned, aged 35 years; precisely when she died was never determined. Newspapers understood that she had been given a glass of water on the Sunday evening but she was not in her cabin the following morning and her bed was unused. Rumours persisted that she was not actually dead but perhaps disembarked in disguise as part of a publicity stunt. Empress's will was proven and was announced in November 1921. Her death was assumed to be on 25 October 1919 or some time after.


See also

*
List of people who disappeared mysteriously at sea Throughout history, people have mysteriously disappeared at sea, many on voyages aboard floating vessels or traveling via aircraft. The following is a list of known individuals who have mysteriously vanished in open waters, and whose whereabouts r ...


References


External links

* * Samuel Fort,
The Mysterious Miss Empress: Hollywood's Forgotten Film Vampire
' (Nisirtu Publishing 2019). {{DEFAULTSORT:Empress, Marie 1884 births 1919 deaths 1920s missing person cases Actresses from Birmingham, West Midlands British women in World War I Deaths by drowning English silent film actresses People lost at sea Vaudeville performers