Mary Philbin

Mary Philbin
Philbin in 1922
Born	Mary L. Philbin (1902-07-16)July 16, 1902 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	Huntington Beach, California, U.S.
Years active	1921–1929

With Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera

Mary Philbin (July 16, 1902 – May 7, 1993) was a notable film actress of the silent film era, who is best known for playing the roles of Christine Daaé in the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera opposite screen legend Lon Chaney and as Dea in The Man Who Laughs. Both roles cast her as the beauty in Beauty and the Beast-type stories.

Biography

Mary Philbin

Born in Chicago, Illinois into a middle-class Irish American Catholic family, she began her acting career after winning a beauty contest sponsored by Universal Pictures. Her father John Philbin was born in Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland.

Mary Philbin made her screen debut in 1921 and during the 1920s she became a highly successful film actress and starred in a number of high-profile films, most notably in D. W. Griffith's 1928 film Drums of Love.

In 1922 Philbin was awarded at the first annual WAMPAS Baby Stars awards, a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States, which honoured thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom.

Like so many publicly acclaimed silent film actors and actresses however, Philbin was unable to continue a successful acting career during the talkie era of the late 1920s-early 1930s.

Philbin played a few parts during the early talkie era and most notably dubbed her own voice when The Phantom of the Opera was given sound and re-released. She retired from the screen in the early 1930s and devoted her life to care for her aging parents. She was engaged in 1927 to Universal Studio executive, Paul Kohner; but due to her parents' dissuasion from the union (as she was Catholic and he was a staunch Czech Jew), she called off the engagement; in 1935 another engagement to a young police officer named David McCarrison was also called off.

Philbin remained single for the rest of her life, and rarely made public appearances. One rare public appearance by Philbin occurred in her later years at the Los Angeles opening of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera.

Mary Philbin died of pneumonia, aged 90, in Huntington Beach, California in 1993 and was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1921	The Blazing Trail	Talithy Millicuddy
	Danger Ahead	Tressie Harloow
	Twelve Hours to Live	–	Short film
	Red Courage	Eliza Fay
	Sure Fire	–
	False Kisses	Mary
1922	Foolish Wives	Crippled girl	uncredited
	The Trouper	Mary Lee
	Human Hearts	Ruth
	His First Job	–
	Once to Every Boy	–
1923	Penrod and Sam	Margaret Schofield
	Merry-Go-Round	Agnes Urban
	Where Is This West?	Sallie Summers
	The Age of Desire	Margy (Age 18)
	The Temple of Venus	Moira
	The Thrill Chaser	Cameo appearance
1924	Fools' Highway	Mamie Rose
	The Gaiety Girl	Irene Tudor
	The Rose of Paris	Mitsi
1925	Fifth Avenue Models	Isoel Ludant
	The Phantom of the Opera	Christine Daaé
	Stella Maris	Stella Maris/Unity Blake
1927	Surrender	Lea Lyon
	The Last Performance	Julie
	Love Me and the World Is Mine	Hannerl
1928	Drums of Love	Princess Emanuella
	The Man Who Laughs	Dea
1929	Port of Dreams	Joan
	The Shannons of Broadway	Tessie Swanzey
	After the Fog	Faith Barker

External links

• Mary Philbin at the Internet Movie Database
• Mary Philbin at Golden Silents
• Mary Philbin at Find a Grave
• Photographs and literature