Biography for
Colleen Moore (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

19 August 1900, Port Huron, Michigan, USA

Date of Death

25 January 1988, Paso Robles, California, USA (cancer)

Birth Name

Kathleen Morrison

Height

5' 3" (1.60 m)

Mini Biography

Colleen Moore was born Kathleen Morrison on August 19, 1900, in Port Huron, Michigan. Her father was an irrigation engineer and his job was good enough to provide the family a middle-class environment. She was educated in parochial schools and studied at the famed Detroit Conservatory. Colleen's family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and later to Tampa, Florida, where she spent some of her happiest years. She described her childhood as a happy one where her parents were very much in love. In fact, she claims she never heard her parents argue with each other, although she admitted they had their differences. As a child she was fascinated with films and the queens of the day such as Marguerite Clark and Mary Pickford and kept a scrapbook of those actresses; she even kept a blank space for the day when she would be a famous star and could put her picture there. When a neighbor down the street from her had a piano delivered, Colleen talked the deliverymen into taking the wooden packing crate to her house, and she set it up as a stage. It was the beginning of her career, as she and her friend performed plays for the other neighborhood children. By 1917 she would be on her way to becoming a star. Colleen's uncle, Walter C. Howey, was the editor of the "Chicago Tribune" and had helped D.W. Griffith make his films The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) more presentable to the censors. Knowing of his niece's acting aspirations, Hovey asked Griffith to help her get a start in the motion picture industry. No sooner had she arrived in Hollywood than she found herself playing in five films that year, The Savage (1917) being her first. Her first starring role was as Annie in Little Orphant Annie (1918). Colleen was on her way. She also starred in a number of westerns opposite Tom Mix, but the movie that defined her as a "flapper" was the classic Flaming Youth (1923), in which she played Patricia Fentriss. By 1927 she was the top box-office draw in the US, pulling in the phenomenal sum of $12,500 a week (unlike many other young, highly-paid actresses, however, Colleen did not spend her money frivolously. Instead, she put it into the stock market, making very shrewd investments). She successfully made the transition into the "talkie" era of sound films. Her final film role was as Hester Payne in The Scarlet Letter (1934). She did make one final appearance in the TV mini-series "Hollywood" (1980), but it was her silver screen appearances that mattered most. After she retired she wrote two books on investing and went so far as to marry two stockbrokers. On January 25, 1988, Colleen died of an undisclosed ailment in Paso Robles, California. She was 87.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Denny Jackson

Mini Biography

Her father was an irrigation engineer. She was convent-educated and studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory. D.W. Griffith brought her to Hollywood in 1917, returning a favor to her uncle, 'Walter C. Howey , the Chicago Examiner editor who helped him clear The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) through the censors. She played leads in B pictures and Westerns, several opposite Tom Mix. The movie which defined her as the inventor of the "flapper" look was Flaming Youth (1923). The year that came out she married the first of her four husbands, Frank McCormick, production of head of First National Pictures, later part of Warner Brothers. By 1927 she was the top box-office attraction in America and making $12,500 a week, much of which she invested in the stock market. She wrote a book on investing and married two stockbrokers. After she retired she traveled widely, frequently to China. At 83 she married her fourth husband. At the time of her death she was writing a novel, a Hollywood murder mystery centered around a Mae West type.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan

Spouse

Paul Magenot	(1983 - 25 January 1988) (her death)
Homer P. Hargrave	(1937 - 1964) (his death)
Albert P. Scott	(1932 - 1934) (divorced)
John McCormick	(1923 - 1930)

Trivia

Older sister of actor Cleve Moore.

She had one blue eye and one green.

Cousin of Jack Stone.

Donated a copy of her now lost film, Flaming Youth (1923), to a museum in the early 1960s. The museum unfortunately never "got around" to restoring the film and it deteriorated.

In the 1960s she formed a film production company, Vid-More Productions, with director King Vidor, after she met him for the first time in 40 years. Though they had kept in touch in the intervening years, they had resolved never to see each other again after they had a secret affair during the 1920s.

WAMPAS Baby Star of 1922.

Some sources credit the year of her birth as 1902.

Unlike many of her peers, she was exceptionally savvy with her money, investing it carefully. As a result, she managed to turn her not-inconsiderable film salary into an even greater fortune after she retired from acting.

As a hobby, she decided to build the grandest doll house ever, "The Enchanted Castle." She designed it, and working with hundreds of craftsmen over the course of a decade, completed it at the cost of some $500,000. Among its many one-of-a-kind features is a library that comes complete with miniature versions of many great works of literature, including a tiny version of "Tarzan of the Apes" signed by Tarzan's creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Enchanted Castle is now on public display at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry.

She starred in three silent film versions of hit Broadway musicals, Sally (1925), Irene (1926) and Oh Kay! (1928).

Interviewed in "Talking to the Piano Player: Silent Film Stars, Writers and Directors Remember" by Stuart Oderman (BearManor Media).

Loretta Young's daughter Judy Lewis wrote that although Mervyn LeRoy would later claim that he discovered Loretta Young, it was in truth Colleen Moore. Colleen even suggested that her name be changed from "Gretchen Young" to Loretta Young. The name came from Colleen's favorite childhood doll, Laurita.

Personal Quotes

[on fellow "flapper" actress Clara Bow] I liked Clara. A very warm, sweet, generous girl. What great potential! But she wasn't a finisher. Her mind was like a sponge, but she didn't have the concentration or ability to see it through. She was quite ingenuous. People would go into shock over her salty language.

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