Blanche Sweet

Blanche Sweet (1896-1986) was an American actress of the silent screen, who first appeared at Biograph in countless shorts and became known as 'The Biograph Blonde'. She also starred in the feature Judith of Bethulia (1914) by D.W. Griffith. In the 1920s she acted at e.g. Lasky/Paramount, became a highly paid star, and was married to director Marshall Neilan. For both Anna Christie (1923) and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1924), Sweet received raving reviews.


British postcard by J.D. Walker World's Films Ltd. Caption: Jesse Lasky's Leading Star Artiste.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Philadelphia. Image: Lasky / Paramount.

A smart and resourceful presence

Sarah Blanche Sweet was born into a family of show people in 1896 in Chicago, Illinois. She was named 'Blanche' after her maternal grandmother, Blanche Alexander. Her father, Gilbert Sweet, deserted the family and her mother Pearl, a dancer, died at age 19. Blanche was raised by her maternal grandmother, who agreed to let her appear on stage when she was only 18 months old.

At the age of four, Blanche toured in a play called 'The Battle of the Strong' with Marie Burroughs and Maurice Barrymore. She was a talented actress by 1909 when she started to work at The Biograph Co. with D.W. Griffith. By 1910, aged 14, she was four years younger than Mary Pickford, but her maturity and appearance soon lead to leading roles. Sweet later remembered: "It never occurred to me that I was different from other children. My wonderful grandmother was both mother and father."

By 1911, she got leads in D.W. Griffith's films. Sandra Brennan at AllMovie: "Unlike other heroines of her time such as Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh, Sweet did not play fragile shrinking violets in constant need of salvation; instead she played confident and resourceful women who attempted to save themselves."

She starred in countless short films by Biograph, such as the thriller The Lonedale Operator (D.W. Griffith, 1911), as well as the feature Judith of Bethulia (D.W. Griffith, 1914). Her presence was smart and resourceful, and she became known as 'the Biograph Blonde'. In The Lonedale Operator, she pretends a wrench is a gun, to keep burglars at a distance until the rescue party arrives.

The prestigious epic Judith of Bethulia, on the Biblical tale of Judith (Sweet) and the enemy general Holophernes (Henry B. Walthall), was unanimously praised including by ex-president Theodore Roosevelt. The Moving Picture World of 1914 wrote: "A fascinating work of high artistry, Judith of Bethulia will not only rank as an achievement in this country but will make foreign producers sit up and take notice. It has a signal and imperative message, and the technique displayed throughout an infinity of detail, embracing even the delicate film tinting and toning, marks an encouraging step in the development of the new art.

Ancient in story and settings, it is modern in penetrative interpretation - it is a vivid history of one phase of the time it concerns and is redemptive as well as relative, a lesson from one of those vital struggles that made and unmade nations as well as individuals, yet it is not without that inspiring influence that appeals powerfully to the human sense of justice. The entire vigorous action of the play works up to the personal sacrifice of Judith of Bethulia, a perilous chance she takes for the sake of the lives and happiness of her people. She dares expose herself to overwhelming humiliation and dishonor..."


American postcard. Caption: Jesse L. Lasky Stars No. 1.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 118.

A highly publicised affair with director Marshall Neilan

Blanche Sweet left Biograph in 1914 and joined Paramount (then Famous Players-Lasky) for the much higher pay that studio was able to afford. She worked with Cecil B. DeMille in The Warrens of Virginia (1915). A popular and independent actress, she worked for many studios and directors in the age of silent films.

After a highly publicised affair with director Marshall Neilan, Neilan divorced from former actress Gertrude Bambrick and married Sweet in 1922. He would direct her in the Thomas Hardy adaptation Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1924), opposite Conrad Nagel, Stuart Holmes, and George Fawcett.

In 1923, Sweet starred opposite Eugénie Besserer, William Russell, and George Marion in Anna Christie (1923), directed by John Griffith Wray, and the first adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's popular play. In 1930 Greta Garbo would do an early sound adaptation, both in an English and a German version. For both Anna Christie and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Sweet received raving reviews.

By the mid-1920s, she was a very successful actress, gaining 10.000 dollars per week with acting. Even before the sound film set in, though, her career was in decline. She made three talking pictures, including Show Girl in Hollywood (Mervyn LeRoy, 1930), starring Alice White. This was to be the last film Sweet appeared in before retiring.

Her line, in the film, about being washed up at 32 in Hollywood, was close to the truth for her (she was 34). After that, Sweet retired from the screen and returned to the stage. She appeared in plays on Broadway and with touring companies and also worked in radio during the 1930s.

Eventually, she quit show business and got a job at a department store. Sweet, whose marriage with Neilan had ended in divorce in 1929, married co-star Raymond Hackett in 1936 and they remained happily married until his death in 1958. Both of her marriages were childless. Afterward, Sweet started acting again and appeared in several television shows. She returned to the screen one last time to play a bit part in the Danny Kaye vehicle The Five Pennies (Melville Shavelson, 1959).

In 1975, she was honored with the George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of film. Blanche worked with film historians such as Kevin Brownlow. She was an important source on his 1980 series Hollywood about the silent era and on his 1993 documentary Griffith, Father of Film. Sweet also gave lectures about the early days of Hollywood.

Sweet is the subject of a documentary by Anthony Slide, titled Portrait of Blanche Sweet (1982), in which she talks of her life and her career. In 1984 she helped a friend, producer Thomas R. Bond II, re-establish The Biograph Co., aka American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., which is the oldest movie company in the US, having been established in 1895.

Blanche Sweet would spend her final years living in New York City. At the age of 90, she died from a stroke in 1986 in New York City. Sweet was cremated and her ashes were scattered in Brooklyn's botanical gardens.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 827/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Bafag (British-American Films A.G.). Sweet's outfit concurs with that in Quincy Adams Sawyer (Clarence Badger, Sawyer-Lubin Pictures Corporation, 1922), also with John Bowers and Lon Chaney.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series, no. 111. Photo: Paramount Film.


American postcard. Caption: Residence of Blanche Sweet, Beverly Hills, California. The postcard was mailed in 1931. This was the house of Sweet and Marshall Neilan.

Sources: bio's by Tony Fontana and Elizabeth Ann on IMDb, Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), and Wikipedia. A tinted version (the colour is essential to the plot) of The Lonedale Operator (1911) can be found on the Desmet Playlist of EYE Filmmuseum on YouTube.