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Mae Murray


Mae Murray (May 10, 1889 - March 23, 1965) was an American actress and dancer, known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen". Born Marie Adrienne Koenig in Portsmouth, Virginia, she got her start in acting on Broadway with dancer Vernon Castle in 1906. In 1908 she joined the chorus line of the Ziegfeld Follies, moving up to headliner by 1915.

Murray became a star of the club circuit in both the United States and Europe, performing with Clifton Webb, Rudolph Valentino and John Gilbert, among others. Her first film was To Have and to Hold in 1916. She became a major star for MGM, starring with Valentino in Delicious Little Devil and Big Little Person in 1919.

Murray's most famous role was probably in The Merry Widow in 1925, opposite John Gilbert. However, when silent films gave way to talkies, Murray's voice proved not compatible with the new sound, and her career began to fade. Her career was injured even further when her fourth husband, Prince David Mdivani (a Russian nobleman whose brother, Serge, married Pola Negri), became her manager and suggested that she leave MGM. Eventually, the pair divorced, and Murray lost custody of their son in a bitter court battle.

Murray's finances continued to collapse, and for most of her later life she lived in poverty. She wrote a not-particularly-successful autobiography, The Self-Enchanted. Due to her poverty, she moved into the Motion Picture Country Home, a retirement home for former Hollywood professionals, where she died.

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Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13