Barbara Tennant

Barbara Tennant was born in London, and began performing there.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35254286/barbara_tennant_1914/|title=Biographical Sketch of Barbara Tennant|date=March 26, 1914|work=The Capital Journal|access-date=August 24, 2019|pages=4|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=RDP19150113.2.82&srpos=1&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Barbara+Tennant-------1|title=Barbara Tennant's Rise to Fame Was Through Accident|date=January 13, 1915|work=Riverside Daily Press|access-date=August 24, 2019|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} She moved to North America as a young actress and dancer with the Ben Greet company, and lived in Montreal while touring in various theatrical productions.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35253899/barbara_tennant_1912/|title=Who's Who in Picturedom: Miss Barbara Tennant|date=October 13, 1912|work=Buffalo Courier|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=5|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35254127/barbara_tennant_1914/|title=Sketches of Notable Screen Players No. 85|date=August 24, 1914|work=Reading Times|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=5|via=Newspapers.com}}

Tennant appeared in over a hundred silent films, many of them short productions, between 1912 and 1928. Her first film was Chamber of Forgetfulness (1912), and her last film credit was in A Jim Jam Janitor (1928). Other notable appearances were as Maid Marian in an adaptation of Robin Hood (1912) with Alec B. Francis and George Larkin;{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VnGeCQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Barbara+Tennant%22+actress&pg=PA201|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Silent Film Western Actors and Actresses|last=Katchmer|first=George A.|date=2015-05-20|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-0905-8|pages=122, 201, 369|language=en}} in Into the Wilderness (1914) and The Price of Malice (1916), both directed by Oscar A. C. Lund;{{Cite web|url=https://www.fandango.com/people/oac-lund-408932|title=O.A.C. Lund Biography|website=Fandango|access-date=2019-08-25}}{{cite magazine|last=Denig|first=Lynde|date=March 18, 1916|title=Three Metro Openings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=saMbAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Barbara+Tennant%22+actress&pg=PA1849|magazine=The Moving Picture World|volume=27|pages=1850}} as the title character in M'Liss (1915), based on a story by Bret Harte;{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfie60kGGuAC&dq=%22Barbara+Tennant%22+actress&pg=PA149|title=American Literature on Stage and Screen: 525 Works and Their Adaptations|last=Hischak|first=Thomas S.|date=2014-01-10|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9279-4|pages=149|language=en}} The Better Wife (1919), starring Clara Kimball Young; in Captain January (1924), starring Baby Peggy;{{Cite web|url=http://silentfilm.org/archive/captain-january-1924|title=Captain January|website=San Francisco Silent Film Festival|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511092645/http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/captain-january-1924|archive-date=2013-05-11|url-status=dead|access-date=2019-08-25}} and in The Devil Dancer (1927), featuring Anna May Wong.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35254535/barbara_tennant_1927/|title=Untitled news item|date=August 6, 1927|work=The San Francisco Examiner|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=11|via=Newspapers.com}}

File:Still from 1913 film Lady Babbie with actors Barbara Tennant and O. A. C. Lund.jpeg in Lady Babbie]]

Tennant worked at Eclair Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, between 1911 and 1915.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vQUwGaiwx8C&dq=%22Barbara+Tennant%22+actress&pg=PT89|title=Fort Lee: Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry|last=Commission|first=Fort Lee Film|date=2006-09-20|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-1-4396-1787-8|language=en}} By 1919, she was based in Los Angeles, working with producer Jesse Hampton.{{Cite news|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19190107.2.226&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|title=Jesse Hampton's Studio Presents a Busy Aspect|date=January 7, 1919|work=Los Angeles Herald|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=21|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} She was ill for a few years, effectively ending her career momentum, though she made a comeback in 1922,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35253996/barbara_tennant_1922/|title=Returns to Scene of Former Success|date=October 1, 1922|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=87|via=Newspapers.com}} and she appeared in films as late as 1931.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35254481/barbara_tennant_1932/|title=The Stars Shine On|date=April 17, 1932|work=The Des Moines Register|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=45|via=Newspapers.com}} "I love it all so," she explained. "I can't leave it."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g-caBwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Barbara+Tennant%22+actress&pg=PA157|title=Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins|last=Slide|first=Anthony|date=2012-09-05|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-61703-475-6|pages=157|language=en}}

Tennant was in one of the first films rejected by the British Board of Film Classification in 1913, when she starred as the Virgin Mary in The Crimson Cross, apparently violating rules about the depiction of religious figures.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/aug/19/film.michaelphelps|title=Ask Parky: The Phelps of the Oscars|last=Parkinson|first=David|date=2008-08-19|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-08-25|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

In 2011, the Russian government presented ten American silent films, previously considered lost, to the Library of Congress. One of those films, Circus Days (1923), starred Tennant and Jackie Coogan.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-10-silent-films-russia-returned-to-the-us/2011/02/08/ABjpXuQ_story.html|title=The 10 silent films Russia returned to the U.S.|date=February 8, 2011|work=The Washington Post|access-date=August 24, 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/entertainment-clipping-dec-09-1923-1326664/|title=Jackie Coogan Has Ideal Stage Mother|date=December 9, 1923|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|access-date=August 24, 2019|page=35|via=NewspaperArchive.com}}

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• Robin Hood (1912)
• Lady Babbie (1913)
• The Closed Road (1916)
• What Every Woman Wants (1919)
• The Better Wife (1919)
• Shadows of Conscience (1921)
• What Love Will Do (1921)
• Wolves of the North (1921)
• The Golden Gallows (1922)
• The Infidel (1922)
• The Masquerader (1922)
• Bulldog Courage (1922)
• The Love Gambler (1922)
• Thelma (1922)
• Deserted at the Altar (1922)
• The Drug Traffic (1923)
• Circus Days (1923)
• The Old Fool (1923)
• Poisoned Paradise: The Forbidden Story of Monte Carlo (1924)
• Captain January (1924)
• The House of Youth (1924)
• The Street of Tears (1924)
• You Can't Get Away with It (1924)
• Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1925)
• Borrowed Finery (1925)
• The Midnight Flyer (1925)
• Hearts and Spangles (1926)
• Her Sacrifice (1926)
• The Wreck (1927)
• Your Wife and Mine (1927)
• Hidden Aces (1927)
• The Clown (1927)
• The Devil Dancer (1927)
• Possessed (1931)

{{div col end}}

{{reflist}}

{{commons category|Barbara Tennant}}

• {{IMDb name|0855036}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20170718034233/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f6c0366 Barbara Tennant] at the British Film Institute{{better source needed|reason=Help request: a live link can be searched for at https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/search/expert - if available, replace the archive URL with the live link. Or if none found, remove this 'better source needed' template. | date=October 2023}}
• A clip from Mack Sennett's The Divorce Dodger (1926), featuring Barbara Tennant, at Internet Archive.

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Category:1892 births

Category:1982 deaths

Category:English film actresses

Category:English silent film actresses

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:Actresses from London