Mary Pickford

Canadian actress and producer (1892–1979)

Fame67.5
Momentum1.8
Canada rank#204

Source-basedStable

Fame67.5
Momentum1.8
Canada rank#204
Wikipedia47.1K

Lived 1892–1979, aged 87Canada

Canada ActorsActor

Wikipedia
93 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Canada
#204
Actors
Era
1892–1979
Aged 87
Known for
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the…
1925

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

She was the silent screen's first millionaire, the first actress to own her work, and the woman whose face moved more money than anyone's in early Hollywood. Before stars had agents, Pickford had equity.

Biography

About

Gladys Louise Smith was born in Toronto on April 8, 1892, and began her film career in 1909. By 1916 she was Hollywood's first millionaire, and at her peak held complete creative control over her films — a rarity then or now. She defined the ingénue on screen, a type that earned her the nickname "America's Sweetheart" and made her one of the most recognizable women in the world. In 1919 she co-founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith, claiming distribution power for artists. She won the second-ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound fil…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford

said1968

Make them laugh, make them cry, and back to laughter. What do people go to the theater for? An emotional exercise. And no preachment.

— Kevin Brownlow, The Parade's Gone By ... (1968), p. 134

Mary Pickford

said25 Jan 1936

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.

— "Why Not Try God?", Chapter 6 (newspaper serial), appeared in St. Petersburg Times, 25 January 1936, sect. 2, p. 3

Mary Pickford

said18 Mar 1934

[Talking pictures are] like putting lip rouge on the Venus de Milo.

— Associated Press, "Mary Pickford Sees Talkies as Lipstick on Milo", Los Angeles Times, 18 March 1934, p. 1. Cf. "Los Angeles Times", 20

Mary Pickford

said1934

The refined simplicity should develop out of the complex. [...] It would have been more logical if silent pictures had grown out of the talkie instead of the other way around.

— Attributed (1934) in Eileen Whitfield, Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood (1997), p. 269–270

Mary Pickford

said28 May 1926