Florence Lawrence

 Florence Lawrence (January 2, 1886 – December 28, 1938)

Lawrence was a Canadian-American stage performer and film actress. She is often referred to as "The First Movie Star", and was the first film actor to be named publicly. At the height of her fame in the 1910s, she was known as "The Biograph Girl" for work as one of the leading ladies in silent films from the Biograph Company. She appeared in almost 300 films for various motion picture companies throughout her career. By the late 1920s, Lawrence's career was in decline. She was devastated when her mother, to whom she was close, died suddenly in August 1929. While Lawrence managed to earn a small fortune during her film career, she made many poor business decisions. She lost much of her fortune after the stock market crash in October 1929 and ensuing economic depression. The cosmetics store that she and her second husband opened in Los Angeles also lost business because of the depression and the couple were forced to close its doors in 1931. While Lawrence was able to find bit parts with MGM, her health began to fail and she fell into a depression. On the morning of December 28, 1938, Lawrence phoned the offices of M-G-M where she was to report to work that afternoon claiming that she was ill. Some time in the afternoon, Lawrence ingested cough syrup and ant paste at her home in West Hollywood.

Doctors were unable to save her and she was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m. Lawrence's grave at Hollywood Forever was unmarked until actor Roddy McDowall paid for her grave marker in 1991. However, the marker lists her birth year incorrectly as 1890, a mistake done originally by the coroner and mortuary who handled her.