Virginia Rappe

 Virginia Rappe (July 7, 1895 – September 9, 1921)

She worked mostly in small bit parts, and is best known for her death after attending a party with actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was accused of complicity in her death though ultimately exonerated. Virginia Caroline Rappe was born in Chicago, Illinois to an unwed mother, Mabel Rappe, who died when she was 11. In 1916, Rappe relocated to San Francisco to pursue her career as an artist's model, where she met dress designer Robert Moscovitz, to whom she became engaged. However, shortly after the engagement, Moscovitz was killed in a streetcar accident, whereupon Rappe moved to Los Angeles. In early 1917, she was hired by director Fred Balshofer and given a prominent role in his film Paradise Garden, opposite popular screen star Harold Lockwood. Balshofer then hired her again to costar with early drag performer Julian Eltinge and newcomer Rudolph Valentino in Over the Rhine, for which she was awarded the title of "Best Dressed Girl in Pictures". During a party held on Labor Day, September 5, 1921, in Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's suite, number 1219, at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, Rappe allegedly suffered a trauma. She died on September 9 from a ruptured bladder and secondary peritonitis. She is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The exact events of that party are still unclear, with witnesses relating numerous versions of what happened.