Mary Miles Minter

Mary Miles Minter (1902-1984) was an American silent screen actress with a trademark innocent appearance. Her most famous film was Anne of Green Gables (1919). After the scandalous death of director William Desmond Taylor in 1922, who had been her lover, her screen career was quickly finished.


American postcard by Max B. Sheffer Card Co., Chicago (M.B.S.C.Co.). Photo: Realart. Mary Miles Minter in The Heart Specialist (Frank Urson, 1922).


British postcard in the 'Pictures' Portrait Gallery, London.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 950. Photo: Skandinavisk-Film-Central, Stockholm.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 951. Photo: Skandinavisk-Film-Central, Stockholm.

The rival of Mary Pickford

Mary Miles Minter was born Juliet Reilly in 1902 in Shreveport as the daughter of Broadway actress Charlotte Shelby. Shelby herself wanted that Juliet and her older sister Margaret also became stage actresses. One night when there was no babysitter available Juliet accompanied her sister to an audition, was discovered and got her first stage role.

In order to avoid the Child Labor Act, she used her cousin's passport and took the name, Mary Miles Minter. As a result, she debuted in film in 1912 and in 1915 got her first substantial lead in a feature, The Fairy and the Waif (Marie Hubert Frohmann, George Irving, 1915). With her innocent appearance, she started to work for Metro Pictures.

Soon after, she moved on to Mutual Pictures in 1916. She always played the lead, despite her young age. In 1917 she moved to the American Film Company, where Henry King often directed here, and in 1918 she traded American for Paramount. Minter became popular and grew into the rival of Mary Pickford.

In 1919 Mary Miles Minter made her most famous film, Anne of Green Gables with director William Desmond Taylor. The film, now presumed to be lost, became a huge success. Taylor then started to promote the actress so that she would grow into a legendary star. Eventually, she got into a relationship with 30-year-old Desmond Taylor.

Several films with Minter in the lead were made by their newly founded production company Realart Pictures, but distributed by Paramount. Taylor initially directed her there, but after a few films, various other directors stepped in, such as Paul Powell and Joseph Henabery.


British postcard by John Horn, London/Glasgow. Photo: Bolton's-Mutual.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, London, no. S. 63-2. Photo: Moody, N.Y.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, London, no. S. 63-3. Photo: Moody, N.Y.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, London, no. S. 63-5. Photo: Moody, N.Y.

The unresolved murder case

In 1922 William Desmond Taylor was murdered in his house. Mary Miles Minter told in an interview in 1970 that she collapsed when she saw his body in the morgue. His death became a popular topic in the media and it took place while Minter was in the prime of her career. The perpetrator could not be found and her mother Charlotte Shelby was long known as a suspect.

In 1937, when the case was still unresolved, Minter demanded that she be given a prison sentence or that the case would be left alone. Eventually, it was announced in 1999 that Ella Margaret Gibson admitted on her deathbed in 1964 that she had committed the murder. Not much later she died of a heart attack.

After the death of Taylor, Mary Miles Minter made only four more films for Paramount. Trail of the Lonesome Pine (Charles Maigne, 1923), her last film, was released in 1923. After her contract was not renewed, she received many other offers, but she refused all because she said she was never happy during the times that she was an actress.

Minter has told in interviews that she was much happier after her Hollywood years, although she was robbed in her own home in the 1970s and 1980s. She also sued her mother for all the money she had gained by filming and got a settlement out of court.

Mary Miles Minter died of a stroke at the age of 82. All in all, she did some 55 films of which just a little over a fifth survives.


American postcard by Stage and Film Celebrity Co., New York. Photo: Realart Picture Corporation.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the Les vedettes de cinéma series, no. 40. Photo: Film Paramount.


French postcard by A.N., Paris in the Les vedettes de cinéma series, no. 114. Photo: Film Paramount.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 5. The photo refers to the film The Cowboy and the Lady (Charles Maigne, 1922).


American postcard. Photo: Paramount. Mary Miles Minter in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (Charles Maigne, 1923).

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.