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Olive Tell (September 27, 1894 – June 8, 1951)[1] was a stage and screen actress from New York City.

Biography

Tell was educated in several cities in Europe.[2] She and her younger actress sister Alma graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1915.[3] In 1914 Olive starred as Mrs. Oliver in Anne Crawford Flexner‘s The Marriage Game at the Standard Theatre in Midtown Manhattan.[4] In 1915 she was hired by Oliver Morosco as a member of the Manhattan Players, a repertory theatre company in New York.[5] In August 1915 she starred with Julian Eltinge in the premiere of Charles Klein‘s Cousin Lucy which was given on Broadway at George M. Cohan’s Theatre.[6] Later that year she portrayed Doris Baker in the Broadway production of Charles Kenyon‘s Husband and Wife at the 48th Street Theatre.[7]

In 1919–1920 Tell portrayed Florence Lanham in the Broadway production of Thompson Buchanan‘s Civilian Clothes at the Morosco Theatre. In 1921 she starred as Marcia Kallan in Augustus Thomas‘s Nemesis at the Garrick Theatre in Philadelphia[8] and on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre.[9]

She first appeared in motion pictures during World War I. Her early screen roles were in silent films, including The Silent Master (1917), The Unforeseen (1917), Her Sister (1917), and National Red Cross Pageant (1917). Tell appeared with popular film actors of the era such as Donald Gallaher, Karl Dane, Ann Little, Rod La Rocque, Ethel Barrymore and a young Tallulah Bankhead.

Her first husband was killed in World War I. Tell married George Willis Kreh in April 1923; he died four months later; she married First National Pictures movie producer Henry Morgan Hobart in 1926.[10] Hobart and Tell moved to California in 1926 and stayed in Hollywood for 12 years.

Her final screen credits came in the late 1930s. She performed in In His Steps (1936), Polo Joe (1936) with Joe E. Brown, Easy to Take (1936), and Under Southern Stars (1937). Tell’s final screen appearance was in the drama Zaza (1939), directed by George Cukor.

Olive Tell died in Bellevue Hospital in 1951 after suffering a fractured skull at the Dryden Hotel, 150 East Thirty-Ninth Street, New York City, where she resided.[11] She was 56 years old.

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 737. ISBN 9780786479924. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  2. ^ “How Olive Tell Began Career on the Stage”. The Boston Globe. Massachusetts, Boston. October 9, 1921. p. 46. Retrieved July 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ “Credit to American Academy of Dramatic Arts”. The Musical Leader. 36 (3): 52. July 18, 1918. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  4. ^ “Week’s Changes at the Theatres”. New York Herald. September 29, 1914. p. 9.
  5. ^ “Miss Olive Tell”. Democrat and Chronicle. April 23, 1915. p. 22.
  6. ^ “Eltinge Every Inch a Lady”. New-York Tribune. August 28, 1915. p. 7.
  7. ^ “Married Herione in a Kenyon Play”. New York Herald. September 22, 1915. p. 7.
  8. ^ “Nemesis is Powerful”. The Philadelphia Inquirer. March 22, 1921. p. 10.
  9. ^ “Nemesis, New Melodrama by Augustus Thomas, Not Impressive”. New York Herald. April 5, 1921. p. 11.
  10. ^ “Milestones: Jan. 3, 1927”. Time. January 3, 1927. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  11. ^ Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 737. ISBN 9780786479924. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  12. ^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era. Midnight Marquee Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
  • Los Angeles Times, “Olive Tell In Stage Return”, March 25, 1928, Page C15.
  • New York Times, “Olive Tell, Appeared On Stage And Screen”, June 9, 1951, Page 19.