Olive Thomas

Biography

Olive Thomas (born Oliva R. Duffy;[1] October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model.

Thomas began her career as an illustrator's model in 1914, and moved on to the Ziegfeld Follies the following year. During her time as a Ziegfeld girl, she also appeared in the more risqué show The Midnight Frolic. In 1916, she began a successful career in silent films and would appear in more than 20 features over the course of her four-year film career. That year she also married actor Jack Pickford, the younger brother of fellow silent-film star Mary Pickford.

On September 10, 1920, Thomas died in Paris five days after ingesting her husband's syphilis medication, mercury dichloride, that brought on acute nephritis. Although her death was ruled accidental, news of her hospitalization and subsequent death were the subject of speculation in the press. Thomas' death has been cited as one of the early scandals in Hollywood that was heavily publicized.

Known For

The Flapper

Olive Thomas: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Love's Prisoner

Out Yonder

The Glorious Lady

Upstairs and Down

Sigrid Holmquist

The Spite Bride

An Even Break

Filmography

2010 Sigrid Holmquist

as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage)

2003 Olive Thomas: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

as Self (archive footage)

1920 Everybody's Sweetheart

as Mary

1920 Darling Mine

as Kitty McCarthy

1920 The Flapper

as Genevieve 'Ginger' King

1920 Youthful Folly

as Nancy Sherwin

1920 Footlights and Shadows

as Gloria Dawn

1919 Out Yonder

as Flotsam

1919 The Glorious Lady

as Ivis Benson

1919 The Spite Bride

as Tessa Doyle

1919 Prudence on Broadway

as Prudence

1919 Upstairs and Down

as Alice Chesterton

1919 Love's Prisoner

as Nancy, later Lady Clevela

1919 The Follies Girl

as Doll

1919 Toton

as Toton/ Yvonne

1918 Heiress For a Day

as Helen Thurston

1918 Limousine Life

as Minnie Wells

1918 Betty Takes a Hand

as Betty Marshall

1917 Tom Sawyer

as Choir Member (Uncredited)

1917 Indiscreet Corinne

as Corinne Chilvers