Carol Dempster

Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Dempster was the daughter of a captain on the Great Lakes and the youngest of four children. The family moved to California when her father decided to change careers. While dancing in a school program, Dempster was noticed by Ruth St. Denis and went on to become the youngest graduate in the first class of St. Denis's school of dance.{{cite book|last1=Menefee|first1=David W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VpXVmTfHNZEC&q=%22Carol+Dempster%22&pg=PA41|title=The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era|publisher=Praeger Publishers|year=2004|isbn=978-0-275-98259-1|location=Westport, CT.|pages=41–51|author-link=David W. Menefee|access-date=3 October 2017}}

Dempster's first feature role came in 1919 in the Griffith directed The Girl Who Stayed at Home opposite Robert "Bobby" Harron. Dempster followed this with Griffith's The Love Flower (1920), Dream Street (1921), One Exciting Night (1922) and Isn't Life Wonderful (1924), America (1924), Sally of the Sawdust (1925), and That Royle Girl (1925). Dempster appeared opposite such notable actors as John Barrymore, Richard Barthelmess, William Powell, Ivor Novello, and W. C. Fields.

In 1926 Dempster acted in her final film, a Griffith vehicle entitled The Sorrows of Satan (1926), co-starring Adolphe Menjou, Ricardo Cortez, and the Hungarian vamp Lya De Putti. Dempster then retired from the screen to marry wealthy banker Edwin S. Larson in 1926.

{{box quote|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=100%|salign=center|quote="Griffith made three films at Paramount's Astoria Studios, each marked by his increasing obsession with his then inamorata, another ex-Denishawn dancer named Carol Dempster...her talents have received as little respect from historians as they did at the time from her co-workers. To Griffith's biographer Richard Schickel, Dempster was a 'mildly attractive young woman' who moved well but photographed badly. Actress Louise Brooks described her as unfriendly and withdrawn. Ed Falherty, a longtime studio gaffer who observed everything and everyone from high up in the grid, remembered icily: 'she had nothing.'"—Film historian Richard Koszarski in Hollywood on the Hudson (2008).Koszarski, 2008 p. 52}}

Dempster's critical stock was never very high, in part because she was unable to live up to the performances of Lillian Gish, whom she replaced as Griffith's leading lady. Her somewhat "ordinary" appearance and animated acting style were frequently criticized.Koszarski, 2008 p. 52: “...gradually Dempster came to replace Gish and Mae Marsh in Griffith’s starring lineup.” Also, with a few exceptions, the films she appeared in were not among Griffith's more popular works. In recent years, however, viewers and critics alike have slowly begun to appreciate her performances, particularly in two later films, Isn't Life Wonderful and The Sorrows of Satan.{{Cite book|last=Schickel|first=Richard|title=D.W. Griffith: An American Life|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1984|isbn=978-0-671-22596-4|location=New York}}Koszarski, 2008 p. 52: “...Her performance in Isn’t Life Wonderful is, in fact, quite good...”

Dempster died in La Jolla, California, in 1991 at the age of 89 from heart failure and was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale, California. Upon her death, Dempster left $1.6 million to the San Diego Museum of Art, which was used to expand the museum's collections of prints and drawings.{{Cite news|last=Freudenheim|first=Susan|date=October 26, 1991|title=Actress Leaves $1.6 Million to Art Museum|work=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-26-ca-100-story.html|access-date=April 12, 2021}}

File:Carol Dempster in The Love Flower.jpg

All features were directed by D. W. Griffith except Sherlock Holmes, which was directed by Albert Parker. The Hope Chest, a product of the New Art Film Company from 1918, was produced by Griffith but directed by Elmer Clifton.

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{Cite book|last=Gish|first=Lillian|title=The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me|publisher=Prentice-Hall|year=1969|isbn=978-0-13-536482-6|location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ}}
• {{Cite book|last=Geduld|first=Harry M.|author-link1=Harry M. Geduld|title=Focus on D.W. Griffith|publisher=Prentice-Hall|year=1971|isbn=978-0-13-365205-5|location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ}}
• {{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Karl|title=Adventures with D.W. Griffith|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|year=1973|isbn=978-0-374-10093-3|location=New York}}
• Koszarski, Richard. 2008. Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff. Rutgers University Press. {{ISBN | 978-0-8135-4293-5}}

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{{commons category|Carol Dempster}}

• {{IMDb name|0218781}}
• [http://www.goldensilents.com/stars/caroldempster.html Carol Dempster at Golden Silents]
• [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/2012/carol-dempster Carol Dempster] at Virtual History

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Category:1901 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:American film actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:Actresses from Duluth, Minnesota

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)