Colleen Moore

Film Career

From an early age, Colleen Moore was interested in an acting career. She obtained her first film roles at age 17 and had four years of experience when she made The Sky Pilot (1921), under the direction of King Vidor.

During the 1920s Moore was the epitome of the Jazz Age flapper, thanks to her biggest success Flaming Youth (1923) (now lost along with many of her other films), and one of the most popular stars in movies. At the transition to talking pictures, her inability to adjust to changing public tastes led to the decline of her career. She appeared in only six talkies and was retired by age 34.

Personal Life

After two divorces, she made a happy marriage in 1937 and moved from Hollywood to Chicago. She was a successful businesswoman and wrote a book about investing for women, How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market, in 1969. She was creative and loved miniature dollhouses and castles. She built and exhibited a complex and ornate "Fairy Castle", now installed at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. After the death of her third husband and her marriage to a fourth, she returned to California. She lived near King Vidor in Paso Robles where she died January 25, 1988.