Mae Marsh was an American film star with a career of around five decades in the film industry. Born on November 9, 1894, in New Mexico, USA. Furthermore, she was born Mary Wayne Marsh. She died at 74 and had a net worth of $13 million, at that time. She married Louis Lee Arms, who was Sam Goldwyn’s publicity manager. Mae Marsh was 5 feet 3 inches tall. Most of her earnings came from her venture, Yeezy Sneakers. However, she never disclosed how much, she actually made there. She mostly made a fortune from acting in silent movies.
Mae Marsh – Net Worth, Age, Weight, Height
At the peak of her career, she had signed a $2,500 contract per week with Sam Goldwyn. However, all the films that she starred in with him failed to make the mark. After marriage, she started doing fewer films. She went on to star in more than 120 films, in her career of 50 years. In the year 1915, when she made the movie The Birth of a Nation, she earned only $35 per week. In the year 1916, she did the movie Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages, for which she got paid around $85 per week. Her biggest breakthrough came through her contract with Sam Goldwyn. However, the films were not as good as they had expected. She was quite famous as the Silent Star of July 1997.
Mae Marsh Early Life
The American film actress was born in Madrid, in New Mexico territory, as one of the five children of Charles Marsh and May T. Warne. She attended public school and convent school at Sacred Heart in Hollywood. Charles Marsh was an auditor for Santa Fe Railroad. Her father died, when she was five. Later, her family moved to San Francisco, where her mother remarried. Her stepfather died in an earthquake in 1906. Their home was also destroyed by the fire, preceded by the earthquake. So, they moved once again, and this time to Los Angeles.
She did not enjoy her school life at all. Marsh had worked as a sales girl and also followed her elder sister on the sets of the movies she had worked in. She first starred in a movie as an extra. She was spotted at the Old Biograph Studio, where her sister was shooting.
Mae Marsh Career Beginnings
So, that is where she was discovered by David Griffith, who was an American film director. He is considered one of the most influential people, in pioneering motion pictures. In the beginning, she did small role in a movie at Old Biograph Studio. She landed her first role, when one of the big stars Mary Pickford, refused to bare her legs in Man’s Genesis. So, the director got furious and declared, that if she did not play that part, she would not star in his forthcoming film, The Sands of Dee as well.
So, she started her full-fledged film career with Mack Sennett and D.W. Griffith. By the year 1913, she was being groomed as the successor to Mary Pickford. She did roles that were either dramatic or a bit tragic, or sometimes both.
She retired after marriage. However, she was forced back to the screen by the team of Robertson-Cole, and went on to star in Little ‘Fraid Lady in 1920 and Nobody´s Kid in1921. She became the top actress in the silent movie era.
Mae Marsh Networth
There is no available data on the earnings of Mae Marsh by year, but you can get to know about the fee that she got for her movies, starting from her debut film.
She started with $5 per week for Man’s Genesis in 1912, then in 1915, for The Birth of a Nation, she got $35 per week. In 1916, in the movie Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages, she got $85 per week. Later in 1917, she worked in movies like Polly of the Circus and The Cinderella Man, she earned $2,500 per week after signing the contract with Sam Goldwyn.
In 1922, Mae Marsh went to London after receiving an offer for a salary of 750-1,000 pounds per week from the English director named Graham Cutts and a producer named Herbert Wilcox. Both wanted Griffith stars to act in their movies. However, she did not find much happiness in working in London and returned to the States.
Mae Marsh Relationships
She met her husband Louis Lee Arms, who was Goldwyn’s public manager while shooting for Polly of the Circus. The couple had three children, and they remained married until her death in 1968. Along with her husband, she had invested a huge sum in the stock market in 1929, but the market crashed. They were bankrupt at that time. So, Marsh who had retired from acting in 1918, returned to the movies in the year 1932 again. She also suffered from peritonitis. Later, she also had trouble remembering her dialogues.
Mae Marsh Awards and Honors
- She also won the George Eastman Award in 1957, which named her among the five leading actresses of the silent film genre.
- Marsh received the Hollywood Walk of Fame Award in 1960.
Mae Marsh Business Ventures
She started some businesses with her husband, after her retirement from movies. However, they lost a lot of money, after Wall Street crashed, and the recession struck in 1929. So, she had to return to the movies to earn money. She starred in small roles in more than a dozen movies, during the 1930s, and also took up a number of roles in the 1940s and 1950s. Earlier, she had started her career in the silent film era. But, after her comeback, she also did motion pictures. Yeezy Sneakers is supposedly one of her businesses.
Mae Marsh Real Estate, Automobiles Owned/ Private Jet
There is not much information on Mae Marsh’s property, the cars she owned or if she owned a private jet.
Mae Marsh died in the year 1968 after suffering a heart attack and is now resting at the Pacific Crest Cemetery, on Redondo Beach. She represented an era in the history of silent cinema.
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