June Mathis

 June Mathis, born June Beulah Hughes (January 30, 1887 – July 26, 1927)

Mathis was the first female executive for Metro/MGM and at only 35, she was the highest paid executive in Hollywood. In 1926 she was voted the third most influential woman in Hollywood, behind Mary Pickford and Norma Talmadge. Mathis had influence over casting, choice of director and many other aspects of production.Her strength lay in careful preparation of the shooting script along with the director, cutting out waste in production while at the same time sharpening narrative continuity. Mathis is best remembered for discovering Rudolph Valentino and writing such films as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and Blood and Sand (1922). To the disappointment of many film archivists of today, she was one of the persons who helped cut the 10-hour long epic film “Greed” to a two-hour movie. In December of 1924 she married Sylvano Balboni, an Italian cameraman. In 1925 she wrote the screenplay for the silent “Ben-Hur.”

When Valentino unexpectedly died in August 1926, Mathis offered up what she thought would be a temporary solution; she lent him her spot in the family crypt she had purchased in Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called the Hollywood Forever Cemetery). However, when Mathis herself died the following year, the arrangement became permanent. On July 26, 1927, during the third act of the Broadway show The Squall at the 48th Street Theater while accompanied by her 84 year old grandmother Emily Hawkes, Mathis suffered a fatal heart attack. She was 40 years old, her remains were cremated and interred next to Valentino at Hollywood Forever.