Biography

Jeanie Macpherson

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Overview

Born
May 18, 1886 · Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Died
August 26, 1946 · Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer)
Birth name
Abbie Jean Macpherson

Mini bio

Born in Boston to Evangeline Tomlinson and John Sinclair Macpherson. Jeanie Macperson was educated at Madame de Facq's school in Paris, the Kenwood Institute in Chicago and took dancing lessons from Theodore Kosloff. Her stage experience began when she got the lead in a school play and was awarded a gold medal by the Chicago Musical College. She made her professional debut in the musical show, "Havana", then had a part in William C. de Mille's "Strongheart", which was going out on the road. During her years as an actress Jeanie worked with Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford. She later was given her own unit at Universal and wrote and directed as well as acted in two-reelers. After leaving Universal, she was signed by Cecil B. DeMille as a writer. According to the 1938-39 Motion Picture Almanac, she is also credited as having collaborated on Cleopatra (1934) (Paramount) and adapted "Lafitte the Pirate" (basis for The Buccaneer (1938) from Paramount). She went to Rome for direction and story supervision for ERA Productions, Vittorio Mussolini's company.
- IMDb mini biography by: Dave Curbow <Curbow@apple.com>

Trivia

One of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
Was involved, for several years, in a relationship with director Cecil B. DeMille.
Jeanie MacPherson began her film career as an actor for D.W. Griffith and amassed 146 acting credits between 1908 and 1917. She left the Griffith Company and joined the Universal Company in 1913 where she wrote, directed and starred in "The Tarantula", becoming the youngest director in motion picture history. It was the only film she directed.

Quotes

[on riding with race-car driver Harry Hartz] I have traveled 145 miles an hour in an airplane but I got nothing of the sense of speed that came from going 110 miles an hour in the racing car. In the air you are too remote from the world to realize how fast you are going, but on the track you seem to be surrounded by things that flit by at an unbelievable rate.
[in 1937] Twenty-four years is a long time to work for one man. But when the man is Cecil B. DeMille, it doesn't seem so long at that.
[on her collaborator, Cecil B. DeMille] It's been a privilege to work with a man of his integrity and acumen. I think he's a genius; I think any man would have to be a genius to have made so many hits and stayed at the top so long.
All I knew was that I wanted to act. Then someone told me about motion pictures, how drama was filmed. I was fascinated. I like mechanics anyway. I hunted all over New York for a studio - and couldn't find one. At last a super told me a man named Griffith [D.W. Griffith] was doing pictures for the Biograph company. I promptly went there. Mr. Griffith wasn't in. His assistant was. I told him my stage experience. He ignored it, scorned it. "We want to know what you can do before a camera," he said.
I told him that I wanted a job as an actress and director. Mr. DeMille did not exactly snap me up eagerly. In fact, he said he had enough actresses around there and one director, himself, which was all he could stand. He also told me I should do something that I could do at 90 as well as 19 - my age at the time, believe it or not. He said I should get into writing, as there was going to be a great need for writers who knew screen technique and could do genuine dramatic continuity, instead of the "on the cuff" claptrap we had been shooting. This was an insult to my integrity as artist, writer, actress and director, so I left in a huff. I was back the next day, however, asking him for "anything" at $25 a week, and I've been with him ever since, with substantial raises, thank God.