Little Mary Miles Minter, a child star who was dominated by her mother, began her stage career at the tender age of five in the play "Cameo Kirby". From that moment on, she worked consistently without a single vacation, eventually achieving her greatest stage success in "The Littlest Rebel" alongside William Farnum and Dustin Farnum.
In 1911, at the age of nine, a New York paper described her as "a ragged, straight-haired, woman-faced little one". She continued to perform on stage until 1915, when she transitioned to a film career, being groomed as a Mary Pickford star - a child of innocence.
Her early films carried this theme, with titles such as "Lovely Mary" (1916),"Faith" (1916),and "Dimples" (1916). The press praised her as "a sweet, pretty little girl with an abundance of blonde curls, a picture actress slightly bigger than a faint recollection, a little queen with delicate features and endearing young charms".
Mary later worked for Adolph Zukor at Realart Pictures, collaborating with director William Desmond Taylor, who was one of her favorite directors. During her time at Realart, she starred in films such as "Anne of Green Gables" (1919),"Judy of Rogues' Harbor" (1920),"Jenny Be Good" (1920),and "The Little Clown" (1921). Her salary, which initially started at $150 per week in 1915, increased to $2250 per week.
Around this time, Mary became involved with Taylor, but it is unclear whether Taylor was looking out for his biggest star or if there was any genuine romance between them. However, everything crumbled when Taylor was shot to death in his Hollywood bungalow on February 1, 1922. The unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major scandals, coinciding with the Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle incident.
Though Mary was never considered a suspect in the murder, when the public discovered her involvement with Taylor, they boycotted her films. The discovery of her belongings in Taylor's bungalow effectively ended her career in pictures. Mary was so devastated by grief that she was barricaded in her home for a month. By the next year, she had moved out of the home she shared with her mother and was out of pictures forever.
