Barbara Tennant

Barbara Tennant (19 May 1892 – 18 March 1982) was an English actress. She appeared in over a hundred silent films between 1912 and 1928.

Barbara Tennant
Born19 May 1892
London
Died18 March 1982 (aged 89)
NationalityEnglish
OccupationActress
Years active1911–1928

Early life

Barbara Tennant was born in London, and began performing there.[1][2] She moved to North America as a young actress and dancer with the Ben Greet company, and lived in Montreal while touring in various theatrical productions.[3][4]

Film career

Tennant appeared in over a hundred silent films, many of them short productions, between 1912 and 1928. Her first film was Chamber of Forgetfulness (1912), and her last film credit was in A Jim Jam Janitor (1928). Other notable appearances were as Maid Marian in an adaptation of Robin Hood (1912) with Alec B. Francis and George Larkin;[5] in Into the Wilderness (1914) and The Price of Malice (1916), both directed by Oscar A. C. Lund;[6][7] as the title character in M'Liss (1915), based on a story by Bret Harte;[8] The Better Wife (1919), starring Clara Kimball Young; in Captain January (1924), starring Baby Peggy;[9] and in The Devil Dancer (1927), featuring Anna May Wong.[10]

Tennant worked at Eclair Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, between 1911 and 1915.[11] By 1919, she was based in Los Angeles, working with producer Jesse Hampton.[12] She was ill for a few years, effectively ending her career momentum, though she made a comeback in 1922,[13] and she appeared in films as late as 1931.[14] "I love it all so," she explained. "I can't leave it."[15]

Films in the news

Tennant was in one of the first films rejected by the British Board of Film Classification in 1913, when she starred as the Virgin Mary in The Crimson Cross, apparently violating rules about the depiction of religious figures.[16]

In 2011, the Russian government presented ten American silent films, previously considered lost, to the Library of Congress. One of those films, Circus Days (1923), starred Tennant and Jackie Coogan.[17][18]

Partial filmography

References
  1. "Biographical Sketch of Barbara Tennant". The Capital Journal. 26 March 1914. p. 4. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Barbara Tennant's Rise to Fame Was Through Accident". Riverside Daily Press. 13 January 1915. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  3. "Who's Who in Picturedom: Miss Barbara Tennant". Buffalo Courier. 13 October 1912. p. 5. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Sketches of Notable Screen Players No. 85". Reading Times. 24 August 1914. p. 5. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Katchmer, George A. (20 May 2015). A Biographical Dictionary of Silent Film Western Actors and Actresses. McFarland. pp. 122, 201, 369. ISBN 978-1-4766-0905-8.
  6. "O.A.C. Lund Biography". Fandango. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  7. Denig, Lynde (18 March 1916). "Three Metro Openings". The Moving Picture World. Vol. 27. p. 1850.
  8. Hischak, Thomas S. (10 January 2014). American Literature on Stage and Screen: 525 Works and Their Adaptations. McFarland. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-7864-9279-4.
  9. "Captain January". San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  10. "Untitled news item". The San Francisco Examiner. 6 August 1927. p. 11. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Commission, Fort Lee Film (20 September 2006). Fort Lee: Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-1787-8.
  12. "Jesse Hampton's Studio Presents a Busy Aspect". Los Angeles Herald. 7 January 1919. p. 21. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  13. "Returns to Scene of Former Success". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1 October 1922. p. 87. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "The Stars Shine On". The Des Moines Register. 17 April 1932. p. 45. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Slide, Anthony (5 September 2012). Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-61703-475-6.
  16. Parkinson, David (19 August 2008). "Ask Parky: The Phelps of the Oscars". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  17. "The 10 silent films Russia returned to the U.S." The Washington Post. 8 February 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  18. "Jackie Coogan Has Ideal Stage Mother". Philadelphia Inquirer. 9 December 1923. p. 35. Retrieved 24 August 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
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