Mary Miles Minter
Mary Miles Minter (
April 1,
1902 -
August 4,
1984) was a
U.S. film actress in
silent films.
Born
Juliet Reilly in
Shreveport, Louisiana, she was the daughter of an ambitious but unsuccessful actress named
Charlotte Shelby. Her mother pushed her and her sister towards a stage career, and by the age of 5 Mary had appeared in her first play. Until the age of 15, she was rarely unemployed and was greatly admired for both her talent and her beauty. Changing her name to Mary Miles Minter, she made her first film in
1915 and over the next few years steadily built her career.
Minter specialised in playing demure and innocent young girls. With her photogenic "registration", even features, "periwinkle blue eyes" and curly hair she emulated and later rivalled
Mary Pickford. Her surviving films establish that she was indeed very beautiful and, at least, an adequate actress.
Her first film for director
William Desmond Taylor was
Anne of Green Gables in
1919, and Taylor actively promoted Minter as a star of great potential. A romantic relationship developed between them, and Minter began to distance herself from her possessive mother.
In
1922 Taylor was murdered in his home and Minter apparently lied to police about when she had seen him last. The ensuing scandal was the subject of widespread media speculation and as allegations about Taylor's questionable past began to circulate, it was revealed that several intimate letters written by Minter (along with other items belonging to her) had been found in his house after his death.
Minter was at the height of her success, having starred in more than 50 films when sensationalistic newspaper revelations of the twenty year old film star's association with a forty-nine year old director caused rolling scandals. She made two more films after this but was rejected by her public. The studio terminated her contract when it became clear that her reputation had been destroyed and was beyond repair.
Years later, in
1937, she publicly announced to the newspaper
Los Angeles Examiner "Now I demand that I either be prosecuted for the murder committed fifteen years ago, or exonerated completely. If the District Attorney has any evidence, he should prosecute. If not, then I should be exonerated". Continuing that "Shadows have been cast upon my reputation". [
1]
That same year, with her career completely over, she and her older sister
Margaret Shelby, also an actress, sued their mother for mismanaging their finances, and won a substantial financial settlement. Her sister, however, died of chronic
alcoholism in
1939, and Minter essentially disappeared into obscurity.
Despite many theories, and the case remaining open, many now believe that Minter was in fact innocent, and the murder was actually committed by troubled actress
Ella Margaret Gibson. Gibson confessed to the murder in
1964 while on her deathbed. The confession was released to the public in
1999.
She had invested in Los Angeles real estate and seems to have lived in relative comfort and wealth, although she was later the victim of several robberies during the
1970s and early 80s. Police described her as a frail little old lady, and people were often shocked to learn she had once been a beautiful and famous movie star.
Minter commented she had never been happy with her Hollywood career and was content to live without it. She proclaimed her love for Taylor throughout her life. In 1984 Minter died from
heart failure in
Santa Monica, California.
By 1999, all prints of her film
Anne of Green Gables were believed to have been lost. Mary Miles Minter has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 1724 Vine St.
A print of her
1919 film,
The Ghost of Rosy Taylor surfaced in
New Zealand in the
1990s. This film depicted her as an
orphaned French girl buffeted from job to job and escaping from a workhouse prison. Other surviving films include
The Eyes of Julia Deep (1918) and
Nurse Marjorie (1920- directed by William Desmond Taylor).
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Mary Miles Minter*
Classic Images: Mary Miles Minter*
Minter and the William Desmond Taylor murder
