- Born
- Died
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Though she is little remembered today, silent screen star Carmel Myers had a high-flying career in her heyday and she was ranked among the screen's most glamorous and enticing vamps. She was born at the turn of the century in San Francisco, the daughter of immigrant parents. Her father, a rabbi, emigrated from Australia, while her mother came from Austria. Her older brother, Zion Myers, would grow up to become a successful writer and director in Hollywood. The family moved to Los Angeles when she was in her early teens and her father, an acquaintance of director D.W. Griffith, advised Griffith on the biblical scenes for his movie Intolerance (1916), for which Carmel received a bit role as a dancer.
Signed by Universal, Carmel rose quickly up the ranks appearing with Rudolph Valentino in A Society Sensation (1918) and All Night (1918). She later branched out and worked for other studios. Her most prestigious film was the epic extravaganza Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), in which she portrayed Iras, the evil Egyptian seductress out to snare both Ramon Navarro and Francis X. Bushman. Outrageously adorned, she was a tremendous hit and MGM signed her up for their pictures The Devil's Circus (1926) and Tell It to the Marines (1926), with each showcase striving to outdo the costumes she wore for "Ben-Hur."
Carmel managed the transition into talkies but, due to her age, she started appearing more and more in supporting roles until she was finally left with nothing but bit parts. In the 1950s she tried television, making her debut in July 1951 with an interview show called, fittingly, The Carmel Myers Show (1951), in which she conversed with such show biz elite as Richard Rodgers and Sigmund Romberg, but the show lasted only one season. Married three times, she eventually turned to real estate and she also founded Carmel Myers, Inc. which distributed French fragrances. She died on November 9, 1980.
- IMDb mini biography by: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpousesAlfred Schwalberg(October 30, 1951 - December 1973) (his death)Ralph H. Blum(June 9, 1929 - May 1, 1950) (his death, 3 children)Isidore Kornblum(July 16, 1919 - 1923) (divorced)
- Played enchanting vamps
- Was involved in an auto accident in 1931 when the car she was driving, lent to her by theatrical agent Milton C. Bren, overturned. Myers sustained cuts to her face, a broken wrist and a broken arm, so she sued Bren for $50,000.
- January 16, 1932: Myers and her maid, Margaret Moore, were robbed in Myers' apartment by two masked gunmen who made off with $20,000 worth of jewels.
- Occasionally emerged from retirement to play character roles in films of the 30s and 40s.
- Myers was a good friend of fellow screen actress Mae Murray and of Murray's husband and producing partner, director Robert Z. Leonard.
- Cousin of director Mark Sandrich
- David W. Griffith [D.W. Griffith] had come to Dad and interviewed him concerning some of the historical background for "Intolerance" [Intolerance (1916)]. One day when I was with Dad I met Mr. Griffith. I had been passing the "Intolerance" sets - the walls of Babylon and all that - almost every day on my way to and from school, and I had taken particular notice of the two stucco or papier mache figures of elephants with their trunks curled up. "They - those elephants - always seem to be beckoning me," I told Mr. Griffith, "saying, 'Come on! Come on!'"
- Talking pictures have done a lot of things to this industry, one of the most important being the placement of a value on brains. Brains never mattered before as far as an actor or actress was concerned. But now we must learn our lines.
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