Alice Hollister

Alice Hollister (born Rosalie Alice Amélie Berger, September 28, 1886 – February 24, 1973) was an American silent film actress who appeared in around 90 films between 1910 and 1925.[1][2] She is known for her roles in movies such as From the Manger to the Cross and The Vampire.

Alice Hollister
Alice Hollister in 1914
Born(1886-09-28)September 28, 1886
Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedFebruary 24, 1973(1973-02-24) (aged 86)
Costa Mesa, California, U.S.
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1903; died 1952)​
Children2

Biography

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Hollister was the last of six siblings. Her parents Pierre Napoleon Berger, a grocery clerk, and Marie Alphonse Foisy were both of French-Canadian ancestry.[3] Convent educated in the United States and Canada, in 1905 she began to work as an artist and lived with her brother Henry in Manhattan, along with his wife and three children.

On November of the same year, she married George K. Hollister who a few years later became a pioneer cinematographer with Kalem Studios in New York City. When Kalem Studios began sending a film crew to Florida in the wintertime, Alice Hollister accompanied her husband. She began appearing in film in 1910, at first because of the small crew and the frequent need for a female in a bit part. However, she liked acting and went on to appear in many films, the last in 1925.

One of Hollister's most important roles was that of Mary Magdalene in the film From the Manger to the Cross (1912). Filmed on location in Palestine, this film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The Vampire (1913) made her the first recognized vamp in cinema, predating Theda Bara in A Fool There Was (1915).[4] For that role, she was dubbed "the original vampire".[5][6][7] She reprised the character in The Vampire's Trail (1914) and The Lotus Woman (1916), her last film for Kalem.[3] In her later career, she mainly appeared in supporting roles.

Her husband died in 1952 and she died in 1973, aged 86, in Costa Mesa, California. She was affected by dementia and vision loss in her old age.[3] They are interred together in the Great Mausoleum, Columbarium of Solace at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[8]

Personal life

Alice and George K. Hollister had a daughter, Doris Ethel (1906–1990), and a son, George Jr. (1908–1976), both child actors. Doris married cartoonist Walter Lantz in 1930 but divorced several years later. George Jr. would later embark on a photography career.[3]

Partial filmography
Hollister from the film A Wise Fool (1921)
Hollister in 1923

References
  1. Slide, Anthony (2002). Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2249-6. JSTOR j.ctt2jchgq.
  2. Silently, Movies (2018-03-23). "Where are the Vamps of Yesteryear? Five Wicked Movie Women of 100+ Years Ago". Movies Silently. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  3. Jennifer Ann Redmond (2019). Silents of the Vamps: Bad Girls You Don't Know - But Should. BearManor Media.
  4. Robert K. Klepper, Silent Films, 1877–1996: A Critical Guide to 646 Movies, McFarland, 2005, p.63
  5. Kalem Films The Lotus Woman. Moving Picture World. 1916. p. 1074.
  6. Greenroom Jottings. Motion Picture Story Magazine. 1914. p. 136.
  7. Who's who in pictures. Motion Picture Magazine. 1918. pp. 51.
  8. John "J-Cat" Griffith. "Alice Hollister". findagrave.com. Retrieved June 22, 2020.


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