La Collectionneuse: Pauline Starke

Pauline Starke started her long and prolific silent movie career with D.W. Griffith. Later, she worked with other noted directors such as Frank Borzage, Maurice Tourneur, Allan Dwan, Raoul Walsh, John Ford, Ernst Lubitsch, Victor Fleming or Edmund Goulding. Like many other silent stars, Starke, who was said to have a certain likeness to Gloria Swanson, didn’t succeed in making the transition to sound films and, in 1935, she appeared in her last movie at a Poverty Row studio.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 890. Photo: Triangle-Film.


Spanish postcard by Editorial Fotografica Barcelona, no. A-93.


Mexican postcard by Gevaert.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1809/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Fanamet.

Noticed by D.W. Griffith

Pauline Starke was allegedly born on the 10th of January 1901 in Joplin, U.S.A. However, contemporary sources, such as Stars of the Photoplay or The Picturegoer’s Who’s Who and Encyclopedia, indicate 1900.

According to IMDb, she would have made her movie debut in The Claws of Greed (1914), but the actress never mentioned this short. Furthermore, as there is a child actress in the cast called Ordean Stark, there may have been a mix-up.

According to Pauline Starke herself, she was noticed by director D.W. Griffith, who hired her as an extra in The Birth of a Nation (1915) and later cast her as a harem dancer in Intolerance (1916).

In 1917, Frank Borzage gave her a leading role in Until They Get Me, and she quickly became a promising young star in Triangle Film productions. Borzage directed her again in The Shoes That Danced (1918), Innocent’s Progress (1918) and The Atom (1918).

Her other Triangle films include Alias Mary Brown (1918), for which she was advertised as "The Little Girl With the Big Personality", Daughter Angele (1918) and Irish Eyes (1918).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1312/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Loew Metro-Goldwyn.


Spanish postcard in the Kursaal series.


Italian postcard, no. 65.


Italian postcard.

Freelance actress and unusual Wampas Baby Star

Pauline Starke then freelanced and appeared in a last Borzage movie, Whom the Gods Would Destroy (Frank Borzage, 1919), which was inspired by President Woodrow Wilson’s will to establish a League of Nations and was produced by the Macauley Photoplays, Inc.

She was also directed by Maurice Tourneur in The Life Line (1919) and The Broken Butterfly (1919) and by Allan Dwan in Soldiers of Fortune (1919).

Films such as The Courage of Mary O’Doone (1920), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1921), Snowblind (1921), Salvation Nell (1921), The Forgotten Woman (1921), The Flower of the North (1921), The Kingdom Within (1922), Lost and Found on a South Sea Island (1923), Hearts of Oak (1924), The Devil’s Cargo (1925), As No Man Has Loved (1925), … followed.

In 1922, the creation year of the Wampas Baby Stars, she was among the thirteen singled-out actresses who were predicted a bright future in films. This may seem curious, as she was already a veteran in the movie world and had a long string of leading roles behind her, as was Bessie Love, who was also nominated that same year.

Maybe, as it was their first year of existence, the Wampas committee wanted to play it safe by including in their selection several established and seasoned performers.


Mexican postcard by CIF, no. 2435. Photo: Metro Goldwyn.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 329. Photo: Metro Goldwyn.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, no. 308. Pauline Starke in War Paint (W.S. Van Dyke, 1926).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci-Editore, Milano, no. 307. Pauline Starke and Tim McCoy in War Paint (W.S. Van Dyke, 1926). Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Under contract to M.G.M.

In the second half of the 1920s, Pauline Starke was under contract to M.G.M, which gave her a more sophisticated and glamourous movie image and featured her in, among others, Sun-Up (1925), Bright Lights (1925), Love’s Blindness (1926), Women Love Diamonds (1927), in a role turned down by Greta Garbo, and Captain Salvation (1927).

In 1928, she starred in The Viking, which was the first feature made in Technicolour’s dye-transfer process. It was produced by the Technicolour Corporation and distributed by M.G.M. The Viking was released with a synchronised musical score with sound effects, as was also the case for her next film, Man, Woman and Wife (1929) at Universal.

She had no great luck in talkies. She made her talkie debut in Columbia’s A Royal Romance (1930) and Universal’s What Men Want (1930). In February 1932, she appeared on Broadway in 'Zombie', which closed after only 21 performances. Variety magazine called it a "wretchedly acted play".

In November 1932, the Conciliation Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ordered director James Cruze to pay $6,050 in back salary to Pauline Starke. She had claimed that, after a few days of filming on the set of The Great Gabbo (1929), he had unceremoniously replaced her with his then-wife, Betty Compson.

She had her last starring role at Poverty Row’s Monarch Film Corporation in Twenty Dollars a Week (1935). In 1948, she was found unconscious from an overdose of sleeping pills. Her husband declared that she had been in the habit of taking sedatives for more than ten years. Pauline Starke died from the aftermath of a stroke on the 3rd of February 1977.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci-Editore, Milano, no. 305. Pauline Starke and Tim McCoy in War Paint (W.S. Van Dyke, 1926). Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


Italian postcard, no. 168.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, no. 344. Pauline Starke in Love’s Blindness (John Francis Dillon, 1926).


Spanish postcard by La Novela Semanal Cinematografica, no. 267.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4216/1, 1929-1930. Photo: United Artists.

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.