13 Facts About Blanche Sweet

Sarah Blanche Sweet was an American silent film actress who began her career in the early days of the motion picture film industry.

Blanche Sweet's mother died when she was an infant, and she was raised by her maternal grandmother, Cora Blanche Alexander.

Blanche Sweet was known for her energetic, independent roles, at variance with the 'ideal' Griffith type of vulnerable, often fragile, femininity.

In 1914, Blanche Sweet was considered by Griffith for the part of Elsie Stoneman in his epic The Birth of a Nation, but the role went to Lillian Gish.

Blanche Sweet often starred in vehicles by Cecil B DeMille and Marshall Neilan, and she was recognised by leading film critics of the time to be one of the foremost actresses of the entire silent era.

The union ended in 1929 with Blanche Sweet's charging that Neilan was a persistent adulterer.

Blanche Sweet soon began a career phase as one of the newly-formed MGM's biggest stars.

Blanche Sweet made just three talking pictures, including her critically lauded performance in Show Girl in Hollywood, then retired in 1930 and married stage actor Raymond Hackett in 1935.

Blanche Sweet spent the remainder of her performing career in radio and in secondary stage roles on Broadway.

In 1980, Blanche Sweet was one of the many featured surviving silent film stars interviewed at length in Kevin Brownlow's documentary Hollywood.

On September 24,1984, a tribute to Blanche Sweet was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Blanche Sweet died of a stroke in New York City on September 6,1986.

Blanche Sweet's ashes were later scattered within the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.