Mary Claire Fuller

 Mary Claire Fuller (October 5, 1888 – December 9, 1973)

Fuller was an actress active in both stage and silent films. She also was a screenwriter and had several films produced. At age 18 she was working in live theatre. In 1907, she signed with the new Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, New York, where she made silent films such as the one-reel adaptation of Elektra (released in April 1910). Later Fuller joined the Edison Film Company in 1910. That year, she appeared in the first film version of Frankenstein, based on the Mary Shelley novel. Fuller became a major early silent movie star who, by 1914, rivaled Mary Pickford in popularity. She appeared in a wide variety of roles, and starred in such melodramas as The Witch Girl, A Daughter of the Nile, Dolly of the Dailies (1914), and Under Southern Skies, her first feature-length production. Also, Fuller wrote numerous screenplays, eight of which were produced as films from 1913 to 1915. Fuller's career, however, was over by 1917. After the demise of the first stage of her film career, Fuller apparently suffered a nervous breakdown following a failed affair with a married opera singer. She retired from the film business, and went to live with her mother in Washington, D.C. In 1926, she returned to Hollywood and unsuccessfully attempted to resume her screen career, which was more difficult since "talkies" had replaced silent films.

The death of her mother in 1940 brought a second nervous breakdown. After her sister cared for her, she arranged for Fuller to be admitted to Washington's St. Elizabeth's Hospital on July 1, 1947. She lived there for 26 years, until her death. She had been buried in an unmarked grave at Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C., however, a memorial bench was installed in recent years.