Lucille Ricksen

 Lucille Ricksen (August 22, 1910 – March 13, 1925)

From 1920 to 1925, Ricksen starred opposite some of the most popular actors of the silent era including Conrad Nagel, James Kirkwood, Sr., Jack Pickford, Louise Fazenda, Laura La Plante, Anna Q. Nilsson, Blanche Sweet, Bessie Love, Cullen Landis and Patsy Ruth Miller. Ricksen often portrayed characters who were much older than herself and she garnered critical acclaim from the public and within the motion picture industry for her maturity at handling adult themes. In 1924, at the age of fourteen, she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars; a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States, which honored thirteen young women each year who they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. Other actresses named that year included Dorothy Mackaill and Clara Bow. While filming the Del Andrews directed comedy The Galloping Fish in 1924 opposite Sydney Chaplin and Louise Fazenda, Ricksen became ill. She had appeared in prominent roles in ten films that year, including the popular drama The Painted Lady opposite George O'Brien and Dorothy Mackaill. However, by early 1925, her condition worsened and she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis.During her illness, her father disappeared. Ricksen's last screen appearance was opposite Claire Windsor and William Haines in the drama The Denial, filmed in 1924 and released in early 1925. Ricksen was bedridden for the last few months of her life, and her mother Ingeborg became distraught and kept a bedside vigil over her daughter. In late February 1925, Ingeborg succumbed to a fatal heart attack and collapsed on top of her bedridden daughter.

Afterwards, Ricksen spent her days being taken care of by others in the movie colony, including actress Lois Wilson. She died two weeks after her mother's death, on March 13, 1925 at the age of fourteen. Lucille Ricksen was cremated and her ashes interred at Forest Lawn-Glendale, inside the Great Mausoleum. After her death, the media wrote that her illness was caused by working non-stop for twelve years under poor conditions. Her death was used as an example for parents not to exploit their children to the showcase its talent.