Mary Pickford (born Gladys Louise Smith) first hit the stage when she was just six years old. Her father had died suddenly from a blow to the head, and her mother put her daughters onstage to make a few extra dollars each week, despite her reservations about women in theater. Pickford was an immediate success - audiences loved her. In 1909 she walked into the building of the American Biograph Company and asked D.W. Griffith for a job. He told her they could pay five dollars a day, and she replied: "Mr. Griffith, I’m a Belasco actress and an artist. I must have ten." Griffith laughed and agreed.

Career Highs.
Pickford worked for Biograph, Carl Laemmle’s IMP company, and Adolph Zukor, whose company eventually became Paramount Pictures. When the average annual income for a family was less than $2000, Mary Pickford was raking in $150,000 a year. Eventually, she and Zukor became partners, and Pickford was one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. In 1929, she won the first Academy Award given to a best actress in a talking picture for her performance in Coquette. She was a phenomenon: America's First Sweetheart.
Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.
                                                                                              - Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford in a Coquette movie poster.
Career Lows. 
Throughout her career, Pickford played both child and adult roles, but the public preferred to see Pickford as a young girl; as a result, she was often pressured to choose childlike parts to appeal to audiences. In 1928, the silent film industry began to dwindle, and Pickford didn't appear in a single picture until Coquette, when she was forced to adapt to a new medium.

Legacy.
Mary Pickford invented the damsel in distress, the likeable poor little rich girl who fights for justice and is perfect as a man's first love. This role has been imitated in every romantic comedy in the last century. Her big, honest eyes, blonde ringlets and sweet disposition made audiences feel like they knew and could trust her. Before Shirley Temple, Meg Ryan and Reese Witherspoon, there was Mary Pickford. But don't be fooled - much like Temple and Witherspoon, Pickford was in fact a brilliant businesswoman (as you can see from her earnings mentioned above). She played a damsel in some of her films, but in reality, she was a powerful mogul who invented a genre and forever changed the film industry.

The full Mary Pickford look.
Get the Look.
Pickford is angelic and innocent. Think sweet, sincere, blonde hair and pink cheeks. Sweet dresses, wide-brim hats and Mary Jane shoes will top off this image.

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