Lila Lee

A performer since childhood (she was widely known then as "Cuddles"), pert and pretty, raven-haired Lila Lee was brought to Hollywood by Paramount mogul Jesse L. Lasky and debuted in a starring role with The Cruise of the Make-Believes (1918) as a poor girl supported by a rich admirer. Following her appearance as a servant wench in Cecil B.

DeMille's Male and Female (1919), Paramount starting grooming her to eventually supplant the highly temperamental and troublesome Gloria Swanson.

Her turbulent marriage to matinee idol James Kirkwood in the 1920s came very close to an "A Star Is Born" scenario. Her acting career was shooting up while his was plummeting. They divorced in 1931.

Lila's talent, however, was lighter in weight and, though she enjoyed great popularity in such films as Blood and Sand (1922) with Rudolph Valentino, Another Man's Wife (1924), The Midnight Girl (1925), Love, Live and Laugh (1929) co-starring George Jessel and The Unholy Three (1930) opposite Lon Chaney, Swanson had little to worry about. A series of bad judgments and highly publicized bouts with illness led to Lila's swift decline.

She had starred in nine films in 1929. She then had tuberculosis in the 1930s and a stay at the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital in Saranac Lake, New York until her death.

She made a few dismal comebacks on stage and in TV soaps in the 1950s but to little fanfare.

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1716 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960, the exact same day as Bela Lugosi, her co-star in The Midnight Girl (1925) was posthumously awarded his.

Her last picture was as a hayseed mom in the deservedly obscure Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers (1967). Her actor-turned-writer son James Kirkwood Jr.. , however, earned fame on his own for penning the play "P. S. Your Cat Is Dead" and the musical "A Chorus Line.