Mary Murillo (born Mary O'Connor; January 22, 1888 – February 4, 1944) was an English actress, screenwriter, and businesswoman active during Hollywood's silent era.
Early life
Mary was the illegitimate daughter of Sarah Mary Peacock (née Sunter). In 1894, her mother married Edward O'Connor, a Roman Catholic Irish commercial traveller, and she was raised as Mary O'Connor. She was the eldest of four sisters (she also had an elder stepsister, Isabel Peacock, who later appeared in American films as
Isabel Daintry). She was educated at St. Monica's in Skipton, Yorkshire, and at the Convent of the Sacred Heart School in Roehampton. She adopted the professional name Mary Murillo after being compared in looks to a Murillo painting of the Madonna.
Career
In 1908, she traveled to America with her stepsister to start a stage career, and in February 1909, she made her debut in the chorus of the Broadway musical comedy ''Havana''. She toured the United States, finding only small parts until 1913, when she started sending scenarios to film companies. Her first script to be accepted was bought by the husband-and-wife team of
Phillips Smalley
Wendell Phillips Smalley (August 7, 1865 – May 2, 1939) was an American silent film director and actor.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was the grandson of Wendell Phillips; he was the son of George Washburn Smalley, a war corres ...
and
Lois Weber
Florence Lois Weber (June 13, 1879 – November 13, 1939) was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer and director. She is identified in some historical references as among "the most important and prolific film directors in the e ...
. Other commissions followed, and the first film known to be credited to her is 1914's ''A Strand of Blond Hair'', a
Vitagraph
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, ...
comedy short starring
John Bunny
John Bunny (September 21, 1863 – April 26, 1915) was an American actor. Bunny began his career as a stage actor, but transitioned to a film career after joining Vitagraph Studios around 1910. At Vitagraph, Bunny made over 150 short films – ma ...
and
Flora Finch
Flora Finch (17 June 1867 – 4 January 1940) was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company. The vast majority of her films from the sil ...
.
[Profile of Mary Murillo at womenandsilentbritishcinema.wordpress.com](_blank)
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She wrote five melodramas for Theda Bara
Theda Bara ( ; born Theodosia Burr Goodman; July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress.
Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatal ...
during the 1910s popularity of films. She also wrote for Bara's Fox rival, Valeska Suratt
Valeska Suratt (June 28, 1882 – July 2, 1962) was an American stage and silent film actress. Over the course of her career, Suratt appeared in 11 silent films, all of which are now lost, mainly due to the 1937 Fox vault fire.
Early life and ...
. Murillo served as screenwriter for Fox Film from 1916 to 1917, then joining Norma Talmadge
Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most pop ...
Productions in 1919. She returned to the UK in 1923 to work for Stoll Film Studios. She wrote the script for the hit French sound film ''Accusée, levez-vous!'' (1930). In 1936, she formed the company Opticolor to market in Britain a French motion picture colour system, Francita, developed by her husband, Maurice Velle, son of French film pioneer Gaston Velle
Gaston Velle (1868–1953) was a French silent film director and pioneer of special effects, who was prominent in early French and Italian cinema during the first two decades of the 20th century. Like his father, the Hungarian entertainer Joseph ...
, but the business failed after a disastrous demonstration of the system. She later worked for J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank's Religious Films Ltd.
A selection of films made by Murillo, Maurice Velle, and Gaston Velle was featured at Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
in 2015.
Filmography
* '' A Strand of Blond Hair'' (1914)
* '' Mavis of the Glen'' (1915)
* ''The Little Gypsy
''The Little Gypsy'' is a lost 1915 silent film drama directed by Oscar Apfel and starring Dorothy Bernard. It was produced by William Fox and released through Fox Film Corporation.
Cast
*Dorothy Bernard - Babbie
*Thurlow Bergen - Gavin
*Raymond ...
'' (1915)
* ''The Unfaithful Wife
''The Unfaithful Wife'' (french: La Femme infidèle) is a 1969 French crime thriller film directed by Claude Chabrol. The film had a total of 682,295 admissions in France.
Plot
Insurer Charles Desvallées lives in a beautiful house in the countrys ...
'' (1915)
* '' A Soldier's Oath'' (1915)
* '' The Green-Eyed Monster'' (1916)
* '' A Parisian Romance'' (1916)
* ''Gold and the Woman
''Gold and the Woman'' is a 1916 American silent drama film directed by James Vincent and starring Theda Bara. The film is now considered to be lost.
Plot
Dugald Chandos, an early English settler in America, tries to buy a thousand acres of ...
'' (1916)
* ''Blazing Love
''Blazing Love'' is a 1916 American silent drama film directed by Kenean Buel and starring Virginia Pearson and Louise Huff.Solomon p.233
Cast
* Virginia Pearson
Virginia Belle Pearson (March 7, 1886 – June 6, 1958) was an American st ...
'' (1916)
* ''The Eternal Sapho
''The Eternal Sapho'' (also known as ''A Modern Sapho'' and ''The Eternal Sappho'') is a 1916 American silent drama film directed by Bertram Bracken and starring Theda Bara. The film was loosely based on the 1881 French novel ''Sapho'', by Alp ...
'' (1916)
* '' Sins of Men'' (1916)
* '' East Lynne'' (1916)
* ''Ambition
Ambition, Ambitions or Ambitious may refer to:
Music
* ''Ambitions'' (One Ok Rock album), 2017
* ''Ambition'' (Tommy Shaw album), 2014
* ''Ambition'' (Wale album), 2011, or the title song
* "Ambition", a song by Band-Maid from the 2021 album ...
'' (1916)
* '' The Unwelcome Mother'' (1916)
* '' Her Double Life'' (1916)
* '' The War Bride's Secret'' (1916)
* '' Love and Hate'' (1916)
* '' The Vixen'' (1916)
* '' The Bitter Truth'' (1917)
* ''Love Aflame
''Love Aflame'' is a 1917 American silent comedy drama film directed by James Vincent and Raymond Wells and starring Ruth Stonehouse and Stuart Holmes and Jack Mulhall.Connelly p.155 Prints and/or fragments were found in the Dawson Film Find in 1 ...
'' (1917)
* '' The New York Peacock'' (1917)
* '' Sister Against Sister'' (1917)
* ''Love's Law
''Love's Law'' is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Tefft Johnson and starring Joan Sawyer, Stuart Holmes and Olga Grey.Solomon p.238
Cast
* Joan Sawyer as Innocence, later Moner Moyer
* Stuart Holmes as Andre
* Olga Grey as Jeal ...
'' (1917)
* '' Tangled Lives'' (1917)
* ''She
She most commonly refers to:
*She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English.
She or S.H.E. may also refer to:
Literature and films
*'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...
'' (1917)
* ''Two Little Imps
''Two Little Imps'' is a 1917 American silent comedy film directed by Kenean Buel and starring Jane Lee, Katherine Lee and Leslie Austin.
Cast
* Jane Lee as Jane
* Katherine Lee as Katherine
* Leslie Austin as Billy Parke
* Edna Hunter as ...
'' (1917)
* ''Jack and the Beanstalk
"Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 4th edition On Commons and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk" in 1807. Henry Co ...
'' (1917)
* ''Wrath of Love
''Wrath of Love'' is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by James Vincent and starring Virginia Pearson, Louise Bates and Irving Cummings.Solomon p.241
Cast
* Virginia Pearson as Roma Winnet
* Louise Bates as Ethel Clarke
* Irving Cummi ...
'' (1917)
* '' Outwitted'' (1917)
* '' The Eternal Mother'' (1917)
* '' The Secret of the Storm Country'' (1917)
* ''The Avenging Trail
''The Avenging Trail'' is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Francis Ford and starring Harold Lockwood, Sally Crute, and Joseph Dailey. It was released on December 31, 1917.
Plot
Gaston Olaf returns home from college and finds out ...
'' (1917)
* ''Cheating the Public
''Cheating the Public'' is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by Richard Stanton and starring Enid Markey, Ralph Lewis and Bertram Grassby.Solomon p.245
Cast
* Enid Markey as Mary Garvin
* Ralph Lewis as John Dowling
* Bertram Grass ...
'' (1918)
* '' The Reason Why'' (1918)
* ''Her Only Way
''Her Only Way'' is a 1918 silent film drama directed by Sidney Franklin with Norma Talmadge as the star.
Cast
*Norma Talmadge - Lucille Westbrook
* Eugene O'Brien - Joseph Marshall
*Ramsey Wallace - Paul Belmont
* E. Alyn Warren - Judge Hampto ...
'' (1918)
* ''The Forbidden City
''The Forbidden City'' is a 1918 American silent drama film starring Norma Talmadge and Thomas Meighan and directed by Sidney Franklin. A copy of the film is in the Library of Congress and other film archives.The Panther Woman
''The Panther Woman'' is a 1918 American drama film directed by Ralph Ince and starring Olga Petrova. It was written by Mary Murillo based upon the 1895 novel ''Patience Sparhawk and Her Times'' by Gertrude Atherton and released in October 1918 b ...
'' (1918)
* ''The Heart of Wetona
''The Heart of Wetona'' is a 1919 American silent adventure drama film directed by Sidney Franklin and starring Norma Talmadge, Fred Huntley, and Thomas Meighan.
Plot
The film tells the story of some Comanche Indians and their preparations f ...
'' (1919)
* '' The Other Man's Wife'' (1919)
* '' Mothers of Men'' (1920)
* '' Yes or No'' (1920)
* '' The Wonderful Chance'' (1920)
* '' The New York Idea'' (1920)
* ''The Passion Flower
''The Passion Flower'' is a 1921 American drama film starring Norma Talmadge, Courtenay Foote, and Eulalie Jensen, and directed by Herbert Brenon. It is based on the 1913 Spanish play '' The Unloved Woman'' (Spanish: ''La malquerida'') by Jac ...
'' (1921)
* ''The Sign on the Door
''The Sign on the Door'' is a 1921 American silent film, silent drama film starring Norma Talmadge and Lew Cody. The film was directed and written by Herbert Brenon, and based upon the 1919 play of the same name by Channing Pollock (writer), Chan ...
'' (1921)
* ''Perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
'' (1921)
* '' Shams of Society'' (1921)
* ''Moonshine Valley
''Moonshine Valley'' is a 1922 American silent Western film. Its working title was ''The Miracle Child: He Giveth and Taketh''. '' (1922)
* ''The Sins Ye Do
''The Sins Ye Do'' is a 1924 British silent romance film directed by Fred LeRoy Granville and starring Joan Lockton, Henry Victor and Eileen Dennes. It was made at Cricklewood Studios by Stoll Pictures.
Plot summary
'' Pictures and the Pict ...
'' (1924)
* ''The Princess and the Clown
''The Princess and the Clown'' (French:''La princesse aux clowns'') is a 1924 French silent film directed by André Hugon and starring Huguette Duflos, Charles de Rochefort and Magda Roche.Rège p.511
Cast
* Huguette Duflos as Princess Olga
* ...
'' (1924)
* '' Forbidden Cargoes'' (1925)
* '' A Woman Redeemed'' (1927)
* '' King's Mate'' (1928)
* '' Mon gosse de père'' (1930)
* '' Accused, Stand Up!'' (1930)
* '' My Old Dutch'' (1934)
References
Further reading
* Luke McKernan, 'Searching for Mary Murillo' in Christine Gledhill and Julia Knight (eds.), ''Doing Women's Film History: Reframing Cinemas, Past and Future'' (Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2015),
* Christina Petersen,
Mary Murillo
, Women Film Pioneers Project (2017)
External links
- ''MARY MURILLO, EARLY ANGLO LATINA SCENARIST,'' by Antonio R¨ªos-Bustamanten University of Arizona (1995)
*
portrait of Mary Murillo
portrait of Isabel Daintry, Murillo's step-sister
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murillo, Mary
1888 births
1944 deaths
Actresses from Bradford
British people of Irish descent
British women screenwriters
Women film pioneers
20th-century British screenwriters
20th-century English women
20th-century English people
British expatriates in the United States