1. The daughter of Augusta Fredericka Appel and Carl Appel, Lee was born Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel on July 25,1905, in Union Hill, New Jersey, into a middle-class family of German immigrants who relocated to New York City.
27 Facts About Lila Lee
1. 2.
Lila Lee had an older sister, Pauline, who was born in Hamburg, Germany.
3.
Lila Lee's stagework became so popular with the public that her parents had her educated with private tutors.
4.
Lila Lee quickly rose to the ranks of leading lady and often starred opposite such matinee heavies as Conrad Nagel, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Reid, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, and Rudolph Valentino.
5.
Lila Lee bore more than a slight resemblance to Ann Little, a former Paramount star and frequent Reid co-star who was leaving the film business and at this stage in her career an even stronger resemblance to Marguerite Clark.
6.
In 1922, Lila Lee was cast as Carmen in the enormously popular film Blood and Sand, opposite matinee idol Rudolph Valentino and silent screen vamp Nita Naldi; Lila Lee subsequently won the first WAMPAS Baby Stars award that year.
7.
Lila Lee continued to be a highly popular leading lady throughout the 1920s and made scores of critically-praised and widely-watched films.
8.
Lila Lee is one of the few leading ladies of the silent screen whose popularity did not nosedive with the coming of sound.
9.
Lila Lee went back to working with the major studios and appeared, most notably, in The Unholy Three, in 1930, opposite Lon Chaney Sr.
10.
However, a series of bad career choices and bouts of recurring tuberculosis and alcoholism hindered further projects and Lila Lee was relegated to taking parts in mostly grade B-movies.
11.
In June 1928, Lila Lee began an affair with John Farrow while Kirkwood was in London.
12.
Lila Lee decided not to fight for custody of their son because Kirkwood threatened to kill Farrow, Lila Lee, their son, and himself.
13.
Lila Lee became engaged to John Farrow, but they separated in 1933 after Lila Lee discovered he was being unfaithful to her.
14.
Lila Lee would go on to marry Maureen O'Sullivan in 1936.
15.
At the beginning of her career, Lila Lee dated Charlie Chaplin.
16.
Leatrice Joy claimed Lila Lee had an affair with John Gilbert while they were married.
17.
Lila Lee claimed Peine was a drunk, a gambler, and a cheater.
18.
Shortly into their marriage, with Lila Lee looking for a house for the two, Peine took off to Mexico and didn't return for a month.
19.
In 1935, Lila Lee began a relationship with car salesman Reid Russell.
20.
In 1936, Lila Lee was living in California with her son James Jr, novelist Gouverneur Morris, and his wife Ruth, a screenwriter and racecar driver.
21.
Lila Lee became engaged to Russell and planned to marry him once he obtained a divorce.
22.
Lila Lee began a relationship with car salesman Reid Russell in 1935.
23.
Lila Lee went to the District Attorney's office to say that there was no suicide note; however, Morris backtracked and said that there was.
24.
Gouverneur Morris, his wife Ruth, and Lila Lee were questioned by authorities about the destruction of the suicide note.
25.
Lila Lee then moved to Saranac Lake, New York for treatment at the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital.
26.
Lila Lee made several uneventful appearances in stage plays in the 1940s and starred in early television soap operas in the 1950s.
27.
Lila Lee is buried at Brookdale Cemetery in Elyria, Ohio.