Biography

Ola Humphrey was a popular stage actress who also made a few appearances during the silent film era. She was the sister of Thomas Orral Humphrey, a well-known American silent film actor and director, and daughter of Thomas Marshall Humphrey and his wife Minnie J. Paschal. When Pearl Ola, at first known as Pearl Humphrey, was in her early teens the family moved from Iowa to Oakland, California, which was subsequently claimed as her home town and even place of birth. Pearl was graduated Class of 1893 at Oakland's Snell Seminary just before she turned 18. She had always displayed a talent for recitation, and in 1894 attended the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston, after this beginning her professional career.

While performing on the London stage, she caught the eye of Prince Ibrahim Hassan, a wealthy diplomat who was a cousin of Egypt's Khedive Abbas II Hilmi. Their 1911 marriage in a London registrar's office was witnessed by American Vice-consul Richard Westacott (1849-1922) and the Count de Nevers. There has lately been a claim that Ola converted to Islam and took the name "Habiba," but this does not appear in any findable press coverage. The idea appears to originate with researchers of the Prince's family, and could be true, but possibly was information that Ola didn't wish to share, since the marriage failed. She became known in the society pages of London, Paris and Cairo as "the Princess Hassan." The couple separated after a few months, as Ola was not happy in an Egyptian marriage with the restrictions it imposed upon her. Ola asked the U.S. State Department to help settle her divorce, asking $250,000 in exchange for relinquishing her title. However, the American government felt powerless to intervene, claiming Ola had given up her citizenship by marrying a foreign royal. Ola repeatedly asked the Prince to divorce her, since if she initiated the divorce there would be no settlement or alimony from her extremely wealthy spouse. Before the matter was settled Prince Ibrahim died at Barcelona in 1918, making her his legal widow, and after much litigation she was awarded a cool million. She soon remarried.
- IMDb mini biography by: Taymour

Her real-life marriage to Egyptian Prince Ibrahim Hassan was the subject of the 1915 film "Under the Crescent.".

Sister of Orral Humphrey.

Renowned stage actress who toured throughout Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and Asia.

Daughter of a San Francisco furniture salesman.

Graduated from Emerson College of Oratory.