NOTE: This site is no longer being updated as of April 2024 as it's no longer easily accessible to me. It's long been impossible to keep up with the broken links. Remember that if you find a broken link that you wanted to follow, copy the URL and paste it into the Wayback Machine, and look at a cache from a few years back. And you might want to bookmark the URL for this page since it site itself will doubtless go offline at some point when Stanford pulls down the legacy webspace, so it may also only be available via the Wayback Machine

Pauline Frederick was regarded by audiences and, more notably, by her peers as one of the greatest and most powerful actresses of the screen. A well-known stage star, she was already in her 30s when she began making films. She specialized in playing commanding and authoritative women throughout her film career. Her stunning beauty stayed with her as she aged into her best remembered roles--sacrificing mothers and 40-something women having a last fling at youth and romance. She was one of the earliest stars to try talkies, and was successful there as well. The roles she received in the 1930s were not as important as her silent work, though she often still managed to steal the film--generally playing an angry matriarch. Frederick was a brave and honest actress who was willing to take on parts that other actresses feared and make them her own, and she created some of the most memorable portraits of the silent screen.

This website is a work in progress, and will be updated as I see more Frederick films and acquire more articles. Thanks to Gail Orwig for the picture above