Thelma Hill

Thelma Hill (born Thelma Floy Hillerman; December 12, 1906 – May 11, 1938) was an American silent screen comedian and one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties.

Thelma Hill
From a 1920 magazine
Born
Thelma Floy Hillerman

(1906-12-12)December 12, 1906
Emporia, Kansas, U.S.
DiedMay 11, 1938(1938-05-11) (aged 31)
Culver City, California, U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park
OccupationActress, Model
Years active1919–1934
Spouse(s)
    ​
    (m. 1934)​

    Early life and career

    Born Thelma Floy Hillerman in Emporia, Kansas, she was one of the few Sennett Bathing Beauties to make it into featured roles. Hill was widely known as the "mah jongg bathing girl" because of the mah jongg bathing suit she was photographed in.

    When she was a child her parents divorced and her father died. Thelma and her mother moved to California, where they opened a cafe down the road from the Sennett studios. She was discovered by Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle when she was serving him and dropped soup in his lap. Arbuckle introduced her to Mack Sennett who made her one of his bathing beauties. In a 1924 article Sennett declared she was the "ideal bathing beauty of her time". The petite actress was just five feet tall and weighed only 100 pounds.

    She started working as an extra at the Sennett studios in 1919 and appeared in dozens of comedy shorts including Picking Peaches (1924) and The Hollywood Kid (1925). She was a talented comedienne and quickly moved on to featured roles. Hill starred opposite Ben Turpin in A Prodigal Bridegroom (1926) and with Billy Bevan in Hoboken From Hollywood. Mack Sennett saw her potential signed to her a long term long contract.

    From 1927 to 1929, she co-starred with Bud Duncan in Larry Darmour's series of silent Toots and Casper comedy shorts and was Laurel and Hardy's leading lady in Two Tars (1928). She was under contract at FBO in 1927 and was signed by MGM for a role in The Fair Co-Ed (1927). She appeared in a handful of talkies including The Old Barn (1929) and The Naughty Flirt (1931) with Alice White. Her final role was in the Hal Roach comedy Mixed Nuts (1934).

    Personal life

    Thelma's parents were married in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1899. They relocated to Emporia, Kansas, before Thelma was born and divorced when she was a baby. Her mother Augusta "Gussie" Hillerman was given full custody after alleging her father, railroad worker Clifford Hillerman, had abandoned them for another woman<. Clifford Hillerman died in 1914 after suffering an accident at work. Thelma was engaged to director St. Elmo Boyce until he committed suicide in 1930. In 1934 she married John West Sinclair, a stunt man and gag writer for W.C. Fields. By this time Thelma was suffering from alcoholism.

    Death

    By 1935 she had retired from movies and was living with her husband at 8229 Blackburn Avenue in Hollywood. Unfortunately she was suffering from depression and alcohol abuse. After having a nervous breakdown she entered Edward Merrill Sanitarium in Culver City, California, in early 1938. Her diagnosis was alcoholism, a vitamin deficiency, and malnutrition. She died on May 11, 1938, at the age of 31 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

    She was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, although newspapers reported her ashes remain in a storage closet at Forest Lawn's Great Mausoluem. Her widower Sinclair would also succumb to alcoholism a few years later.

    Partial filmography

    References
      • Los Angeles Times, Additions To Cast, August 13, 1924, Page A9.
      • Los Angeles Times, Bathing Girl Given Lead In New Comedy, August 17, 1924, Page B33.
      • Los Angeles Times, Thelma Hill, Former Sennett Player, Dies, May 12, 1938, Page A20.
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