Marie Walcamp

Marie Walcamp (1894–1936) was one of Hollywood's most popular Serial Queens of the silent film era. She had her breakthrough at Universal with the serial The Werewolf. The blonde Ohio girl became an action heroine in many serials, including Westerns, in which she often appeared with Eddie Polo. All through the 1910s, she had a prosperous career at Universal such as in the very popular serial Liberty (1917), in which she had the lead. When the serials vogue was over by the early 1920s, so was Walcamp's career. In 1936 she committed suicide.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Universal.


British postcard in the "Pictures" Portrait Gallery by Pictures Ltd., London, no. 125.

The first werewolf film

Marie Walcamp was born in Dennison, Ohio, in 1894. She was the daughter of Mary (née Mackel) and Arnold Walcamp. When she was five years old she won a local cake-walking contest. After her father's death, her family moved to Swissvale, Pennsylvania.

Marie dreamed of being on the stage so she started taking singing and dancing lessons. In 1912 she joined the Kolb and Dill stock company in San Francisco. After landing various roles in New York, she signed to Universal Studios in 1913.

At the age of 19, she was cast in the film The Werewolf (Henry McRae, 1913), considered the first werewolf film. She appeared in over 50 motion pictures, mostly shorts, over the next two years, although by 1916 the pace of her work in films began to decrease.

That year she still performed in no less than 13 productions, including the leading role in the Western serial Liberty (Jacques Jaccard, Henry MacRae, 1916) opposite Jack Holt and Eddie Polo. Marie played Liberty Horton, an American heiress, who is kidnapped by a Mexican rebel and ransomed to fund his rebellion. Liberty was the first purely Western serial ever made, although Western elements were included in earlier serials such as The Perils of Pauline (Louis J. Gasnier, Donald MacKenzie, 1914). The serial, which is now presumed to be lost, was one of the most popular of all time.

Marie Walcamp also battled a lion in the appropriately titled The Lion's Claws (Harry Harvey, Jacques Jaccard, 1918), her second chapterplay, and wore a deep scar for the rest of her life.


Spanish cromo by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona, no. 15. Photo: Distr. J. Verdaguer / Universal. Marie Walcamp in the Western serial Liberty (Henry MacRae, Jacques Jaccard, 1916). Here, Walcamp's Liberty is kidnapped.


Spanish cromo by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona, no. 36. Photo: Distr. J. Verdaguer / Universal. Marie Walcamp with probably Raymond Nye as Pancho Lopez in the Western serial Liberty (Henry MacRae, Jacques Jaccard, 1916).

The dare-devil girl of the movies

Marie Walcamp was known for doing her own dangerous stunts, which earned her nicknames like 'The Daredevil of the Films' and 'The Dare-Devil Girl of the Movies'. She starred in the adventure serials The Red Ace and The Red Robe.

She also played roles in several Lois Weber films, including the social melodrama Hop - The Devil's Brew (Phillips Smalley, Lois Weber, 1916), the anti-abortion drama Where Are My Children? (Phillips Smalley, Lois Weber, 1916), and The Blot (Lois Weber, 1921).

Marie married actor Harland Tucker in 1919. They co-starred together in the action serial The Dragon's Net (Henry MacRae, 1920). The 1920s brought an end to women's dominance in all aspects of filmmaking, and Walcamp's film career was also waning as fewer serials were being made. Her final role was in 1927 as Alice Gage in the melodrama In a Moment of Temptation (Philip Carle, 1927).

Marie spent the next few years acting with a theatrical stock company. She made a screen test in 1933 for the serial The Perils Of Pauline but she didn't get the role. In 1934 she and Harland briefly separated. In 1936, Walcamp, suffering from depression, committed suicide by turning on the gas (or ingesting an overdose of painkillers - the sources differ) in her Los Angeles apartment while Harland Tucker was away on business.

She was only 42. In her will, Marie Walcamp asked that her ashes be scattered over the backlot at Universal Studios, where she had worked for so many years. Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: "Sadly, her only surviving films, the aforementioned Where Are My Children? and The Blot, are hardly representative of this pioneering action heroine whose popularity in the mid-1910s nearly rivalled serial queens Pearl White, Ruth Roland, and Helen Holmes."


British postcard by The Transatlantic-Film Company Ltd. Transatlantic was the European subsidiary of Universal, with its main office in London.


British postcard in the "Pictures" Portrait Gallery by Pictures Ltd., London, no. 125. Hand-coloured version.

Sources: Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie - now defunct), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Classic Actresses, (now defunct) Wikipedia, and IMDb.