People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph: Silent Era image collection.

Pearl White

Born 4 March 1889 in Green Ridge, Missouri, USA, as Pearl Fay White.
Died 4 August 1938 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of cirrhosis of the liver.

Married actor Victor Sutherland, 11 October 1907; divorced, 24 April 1914.
Married actor Wallace McCutcheon Jr., June 1919; divorced, 26 July 1921.

Pearl White was born on the family farm near Green Ridge, Missouri, and grew up in Springfield, Missouri. Her mother died when Pearl was three. To earn money for the family, she began acting at age six. While still in high school, she joined the Diemer Theatre Company. By age 18, she was acting full-time in a touring company.

Pearl appeared in her first motion pictures for the Powers Film Company in 1910. Best known for her work in serial action films, her breakout role was in The Perils of Pauline (1914). Pearl appeared in several serials and was known for performing many of her own stunts. As her valuable as a star rose, producers substituted a male stunt double for White. On 10 August 1922, stunt double John Stevenson attempted to perform a stunt that accidentally killed him.

White left Hollywood in 1923, moved to France and appeared in at least one French feature film. Pearl retired from film work in 1924 due to poor health. Presumably distressed over the suicide on 27 January 1928 of her second husband and the accidental death of stuntman Stevenson, White appears to have eventually drunk herself to death.

References: Website-IMDb.