Wanda Hawley

Wanda Hawley
Wanda Hawley, 1920
Born	Selma Wanda Pittack (1895-07-30)July 30, 1895 Pennsylvania, USA
Died	March 18, 1963(1963-03-18) (aged 67) Los Angeles, USA
Other names	Wanda Petit
Occupation	Actor
Spouse	Allen Burton Hawley (divorced)

Wanda Hawley (a.k.a. Wanda Petit), (July 30, 1895 – March 18, 1963) was a veteran of the silent screen films era. She entered the theatrical profession with an amateur group in Seattle, and later toured the U.S. and Canada as a singer. She co-starred with Rudolph Valentino in the 1922's The Young Rajah, and rose to stardom in a number of Cecil B. DeMille and director Sam Wood's films.

Life and career

Hawley was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but together with her family moved to Seattle, Washington, when she was a child. She received her education in Seattle.

Hawley made her screen debut with the Fox Film Corporation and after playing with them for eight months joined time Famous Players-Lasky and appeared as leading lady for Douglas Fairbanks, in Mr. Fix-It (1918)

She had also appeared opposite William S. Hart, Charlie Ray, Bryant Washburn, Wally Reid and others. She was five feet three inches high, weighed a hundred and ten pounds, and had blond hair and greyish blue eyes. She was an able sportswoman.

With the advent of sound, Hawley's career ended, and she reportedly was working as a call girl in San Francisco by the early 1930s. She is interred in the Abbey of Psalms in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, CA.

Selected filmography

• Mr. Fix-It (1918)
• We Can't Have Everything (1918)
• Old Wives for New (1918)
• For Better, for Worse (1919)
• You're Fired (1919)
• The Tree of Knowledge (1920)
• Double Speed (1920)
• The Affairs of Anatol (1921)
• A Trip to Paramountown (1922)(*short)
• Thirty Days (1922)
• Fires of Fate (1923)
• Lights of London (1923)
• Bread (1924)
• Smouldering Fires (1925)
• Wizard of Oz (1925)
• The Midnight Message (1926)
• Pirates of the Sky (1927)
• The Eyes of the Totem (1927)
• Trails of the Golden West (1931)
• The Crooked Road (1932)

Further reading

• Michael G. Ankerich (2010). Dangerous Curves atop Hollywood Heels: The Lives, Careers, and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen. BearManor. ISBN 1-59393-605-2.

External links

• Wanda Hawley at IMDb
• Wanda Hawley at Find a Grave
• Wanda Hawley at Virtual History