Olga Grey
Olga Grey | |
---|---|
![]() From The Photo-Play Journal, 1916. | |
Born | Anna Zacsek November 10, 1896 |
Died | April 25, 1973 (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Other names | Olga Gray |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1915 - 1920 |
Olga Grey (born Anushka Zacsek[1][2] or Anna Zacsek, November 10, 1896 – April 25, 1973[3]) was an American silent film actress, sometimes billed with the alternate spelling of her last name, Olga Gray.[4]
She was born in New York city[5] to Hungarian immigrants. Her father wanted her to become a violinist, so she studied music while harboring dreams of being an actress. She appeared in some amateur productions before joining a Little Theatre in Los Angeles. Her success there paved the way for her work in films.[1]
By her late teens, she was pursuing an acting career in Hollywood. She began working as an extra.[1] Her first film appearance was in the 1915 film His Lesson, in which she had the lead role. She would have twelve film roles that year, including a role (as the actress Laura Keene) in the now classic film The Birth of a Nation, starring Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, and directed by D. W. Griffith.
In 1916 she appeared in seven films, including the role of "Lady Agnes" in Macbeth. She would have another eleven roles between 1917 and 1920, with a steady decline of quality roles.
She left the business in 1920, and became an attorney under her original name, Anna Zacsek. In 1942 she was one of the defense attorneys in the "Sleepy Lagoon" trials, defending gang members Henry Leyvas, Victor Segobia, and Edward Grandpré.[6] She was the only woman attorney in the courtroom for these trials.[7]
Anna Zacsek was residing in Los Angeles at the time of her death on April 25, 1973, aged 76.
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1915 | The Birth of a Nation | Laura Keene | Uncredited |
1915 | The Absentee | Ruth Farwell / Justice | |
1915 | The Failure | Rose | |
1915 | Double Trouble | Madame Leclaire | |
1916 | Macbeth | Lady Agnes | |
1916 | A Wild Girl of the Sierras | Moll | |
1916 | Pillars of Society | Madame Linda Dorf | |
1916 | Intolerance | Adultress | |
1917 | The Little Liar | Fanny | |
1917 | Jim Bludso | Gabrielle | |
1917 | Love's Law | Jealousy | |
1917 | The Girl at Home | Diana Parish | |
1917 | The Ghost House | Alice Atwell | |
1917 | The Woman God Forgot | Aztec woman | |
1917 | Fanatics | Lola Monroe | |
1919 | When a Man Rides Alone | Beatriz de Taos | |
1919 | The Modern Husband | Cleo | |
1919 | The Mayor of Filbert | Miss Greta Schwartz | |
1919 | Trixie from Broadway | Gertie Brown | |
1920 | The Third Eye | Zaida Savoy | Serial, (final film role) |
References
- ^ a b c "A Vamp With a Goulash Name". Photoplay Magazine. XI (3): 73. February 1917. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
- ^ Slide, Anthony (2010). Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813127088. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
- ^ Social Security Death Index, listed as Anna Zacsek Accessed April 25, 2009
- ^ "Olga Gray". American Film Institute. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
- ^ "Silents of the Vamps: Bad Girls You Don't Know - But Should".
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Pagán, Eduardo Obregón (2004). Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 77–87. ISBN 9780807862094. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
- ^ Catherine Sue Ramirez, The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural Politics of Memory (Duke University Press 2008): 99-100.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- 1896 births
- 1973 deaths
- American film actresses
- American silent film actresses
- Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States
- Hungarian emigrants to the United States
- American people of Hungarian descent
- Actresses from Budapest
- Actors of Hungarian descent
- People from Greater Los Angeles
- 20th-century American actresses
- 20th-century American lawyers