Belle Bennett

Bennett was born in Milaca, Minnesota, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Bennett. Her father, "Billie," managed a tent-and-wagon show that toured the Midwestern United States.{{cite news |title=Belle Bennett, movie actress, born in Iowa |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/86248304/belle-bennett/ |access-date=September 30, 2021 |work=Quad-City Times |date=June 13, 1926 |location=Iowa, Davenport |page=19}}

Bennett was working as a film actress by 1913, and she was cast in numerous one-reel shorts by small east coast film companies. She appeared in minor movies like A Ticket to Red Horse Gulch (Mutual 1914). She starred in several full-length films by the Triangle Film Corporation, including The Lonely Woman (1918). She also appeared in United States Motion Picture Corporation's film Flesh and Spirit (1922).

File:The Lonely Woman (1918) - 1.jpg

She made the move to Hollywood before Samuel Goldwyn selected her from 73 actresses for the leading role in Stella Dallas (1925). While she was filming the movie, her son, 16-year-old William Howard Macy, died. Macy had posed as Bennett's brother for some time, owing to her fear that her employers might find out her true age. She was actually 34 rather than 24, which she had claimed to be. Because of the loss of her son, Bennett became close to her co-stars Lois Moran and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who were also 16 at the time.Ankerich, Michael G. Broken Silence: Conversations With 23 Silent Film Stars. McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC. 1993.

File:Belle Bennett Stars of the Photoplay.jpg

After playing the mother role in Stella Dallas, Bennett was typecast for the remainder of her film career. She later appeared in Mother Machree (1928), The Battle of the Sexes (1928), The Iron Mask (1929), Courage (1930), Recaptured Love (1930) and The Big Shot (1931).

Bennett was married three times. Her first husband was Howard Ralph Macy of La Crosse, Wisconsin. They had a son together, William Howard Macy.{{Citation needed |date=June 2021}} After Billy's death, she adopted at least one other child, Theodore Macy, who was 22 when she died.{{cite news |title=Belle Bennett, Perfect Screen Mother, is Dead|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015313/1932-11-05/ed-2/seq-1/|access-date=January 29, 2024 |work=Indianapolis Times|date=November 5, 1932 |location=Indianapolis, Indiana |page=1}}

Jack Oaker, a sailor at the submarine base in San Pedro, California, was married to her when she worked with the Triangle Film Corporation in 1918.{{cn||reason=Obituary news articles list only two marriages, Macy and Windemere|date=January 2024}}

On November 27, 1924, she married film director Fred Windemere,{{cite news |title=Ince Movie Actress will Marry Director|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1924-11-27/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=January 29, 2024 |work=The Washington Times|date=November 27, 1924 |location=Washington D.C. |page=A-2}} and she remained with him until her death.

Bennett died on November 4, 1932, in Hollywood, California. Her attending physician registered her cause of death as general carcinomatosis.

Bennett posthumously was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame during the initial ceremonies in 1960. She received a motion pictures star, located at 1511 Vine Street.{{cite web|url=http://www.walkoffame.com/belle-bennett |title=Hollywood Walk of Fame - Belle Bennett |website=walkoffame.com |publisher=Hollywood Chamber of Commerce |accessdate=November 16, 2017}}

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• Who Is the Savage? (1913)
• Through the Sluice Gates (1913)
• A Ticket to Red Horse Gulch (1914)
• Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1914)
• Mignon (1915)
• Fires of Rebellion (1917)
• The Devil Dodger (1917)
• The Fuel of Life (1917)
• The Charmer (1917)
• Bond of Fear (1917)
• Ashes of Hope (1917)
• Because of a Woman (1917)
• The Last Rebel (1918)
• The Lonely Woman (1918)
• The Atom (1918)
• Reckoning Day (1918)
• The Mayor of Filbert (1919)
• Your Best Friend (1922)
• Flesh and Spirit (1922)
• Hello, 'Frisco (1924)
• His Supreme Moment (1925)
• Playing with Souls (1925)
• If Marriage Fails (1925)
• Stella Dallas (1925)
• East Lynne (1925)
• The Lily (1926)
• Fourth Commandment (1926)
• The Way of All Flesh (1927)
• Wild Geese (1927)
• The Devil's Skipper (1928)
• The Power of Silence (1928)
• Mother Machree (1928)
• The Sporting Age (1928)
• The Battle of the Sexes (1928)
• The Iron Mask (1929)
• Their Own Desire (1929)
• My Lady's Past (1929)
• Molly and Me (1929)
• Courage (1930)
• Recaptured Love (1930)
• The Big Shot (1931)

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• Los Angeles Times, Found Unconscious, July 25, 1918, p. I10.
• Los Angeles Times, Death Takes Star of Stella Dallas, November 5, 1932, p. A1.
• Ankerich, Michael G. Broken Silence: Conversations With 23 Silent Film Stars. McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC. 1993. p. 215

• {{cite book | author=Michael G. Ankerich | author-link=Michael G. Ankerich | title=Hairpins and Dead Ends: The Perilous Journeys of 25 Actresses Through Early Hollywood| publisher=BearManor | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-62933-201-7}}

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{{Commons category|Belle Bennett}}

• {{IMDb name|0071602}}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{Find a Grave|9031650}}
• [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/11416/belle-bennett Belle Bennett profile], virtual-history.com

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Category:1891 births

Category:1932 deaths

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:Western (genre) film actresses

Category:American vaudeville performers

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Burials at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery

Category:American Christian Scientists

Category:People from Milaca, Minnesota