1896-1977
Silent film actress Zena Virginia Keefe was born on this day in San Francisco, California. She was a child stage actress in her. According to Moving Picture World, she made her film debut as "Mattie" when you was 15 years of age in the Vitagraph short All is Fair in Love and War released in early 1911 [though at least one source claims that she worked for Fox at the start of film career]. Her film career lasted through 1924. She stayed with Vitagraph for what in those time would be considered an eternity--through 1915--in a world where the standard player contract was for 1 year; having a bit part in their The Spider's Web (1912) along the way. Her last film for them--Putting Pep in Slowtown--was released in March of 1916. Her first real major role in an actual feature came in the Paragon produced drama Her Maternal Right also in 1916. She next appeared in Albert Capellani's huge epic La vie de Bohème (the film is 112 minutes long) in 1916; it stars amongst others: Alice Brady, Frederick Truesdell, June Elvidge, and Capellani's brother Paul. Also in 1916, she was cast in the serial Perils of Our Girl Reporters. By 1917 she was a leading lady, albeit in smaller productions from various companies that included World Film and Albert Capellani Productions. As an child/teenage actress, she had been known to the Ince Brothers and the first major production that she had the leading lady role in the 1920's was directed for Ralph Ince for Selznick Pictures; she played opposite matinee idol Eugene O'Brien in the melodrama His Wife's Money (1920). By 1921 she was a big enough star to appear in one of Federated's Screen Snapshots. In all, she appeared in some sixteen films in the 1920's, when she retired in 1924. He last film was Trouping With Ellen, a romantic comedy made with Eastern Productions. It's pure speculation as a why she retired. She had reportedly been unhappy with not gaining more acting work during her adult career. She was also married, so perhaps that played a role. She instead lived in Danvers, Massachusetts, with her husband and daughter, where she died at the age of 80 in 1976 on the 17th of November. She is interred at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA in the Columbarium there. A very attractive young woman, also she posed for some fashion photography.
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