Clara Bow Bio (Biography)
Real name:
Clara Gordon Bow
Date of birth:
July 29. 1905
Place of birth:
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Astrology Sign:
Leo
Height:
5' 3½" (1.61 m)
Tags:
Biography
The 1920s was the age of the flappers - young women who discarded the corset, shortened their skirts, cut their hair, drank and smoked and wore makeup and lived through scandalous affairs. If there is one woman who is considered to be the embodiment of what a flapper is, most people would not look any further from Clara Bow.
Clara Bow was one of the screen sirens of the silent age of cinema. The first American sex symbol, she was the original "It" girl, a term coined by author Elinor Gryn to describe her when she starred in the movie It in 1927. The movie was based on Gryn's novella of the same name.
Clara Bow was of humble origins. She was born to a dysfunctional family in Brooklyn on July 29, 1905. Her mother was an occasional prostitute who was afflicted with mental illness while her father was an abusive drunkard. She got her big break into show business when she won the Fame and Fortune contest in 1921, landing a bit part in the movie Beyond the Rainbow (1922). Though her scenes were cut from the final take of the film, Clara Bow began having small roles in a series of silent movies, until she was discovered by Preferred Pictures in 1923.
The year 1925 saw her starring in a movie called The Plastic Age. It was the movie that catapulted her to stardom. The film was followed by a string of hits, with her popularity reaching its peak with the movie It. She also starred in Wings, the first film ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Clara Bow was, however, mentally unstable, an affliction she inherited from her parents. While her movies made her famous, the tabloid rumors attached to her name because of her reputed affairs with different personalities at the time did not earn her respect in straitlaced Hollywood back then. Her reputation as an actress began to wane when sound was introduced to the film studio, and she later on retired to a private life with her husband, the actor Rex Bell.
Clara Bow was diagnosed a schizophrenic in 1949 and was committed to a mental health regimen. In 1965, she died of a heart attack and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in California.
Clara Bow was one of the screen sirens of the silent age of cinema. The first American sex symbol, she was the original "It" girl, a term coined by author Elinor Gryn to describe her when she starred in the movie It in 1927. The movie was based on Gryn's novella of the same name.
Clara Bow was of humble origins. She was born to a dysfunctional family in Brooklyn on July 29, 1905. Her mother was an occasional prostitute who was afflicted with mental illness while her father was an abusive drunkard. She got her big break into show business when she won the Fame and Fortune contest in 1921, landing a bit part in the movie Beyond the Rainbow (1922). Though her scenes were cut from the final take of the film, Clara Bow began having small roles in a series of silent movies, until she was discovered by Preferred Pictures in 1923.
The year 1925 saw her starring in a movie called The Plastic Age. It was the movie that catapulted her to stardom. The film was followed by a string of hits, with her popularity reaching its peak with the movie It. She also starred in Wings, the first film ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Clara Bow was, however, mentally unstable, an affliction she inherited from her parents. While her movies made her famous, the tabloid rumors attached to her name because of her reputed affairs with different personalities at the time did not earn her respect in straitlaced Hollywood back then. Her reputation as an actress began to wane when sound was introduced to the film studio, and she later on retired to a private life with her husband, the actor Rex Bell.
Clara Bow was diagnosed a schizophrenic in 1949 and was committed to a mental health regimen. In 1965, she died of a heart attack and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in California.