Marie Empress
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{short description|British actress}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marie Empress
| image = Marie_Empress,_ca._1918.png
| alt = A white woman wearing a spiky headdress and pearls
| caption = Marie Empress, from a 1916 publication
| other_names =
| birth_name = Mary Ann Louisa Taylor
| birth_date = 26 March 1884
| birth_place = Birmingham, England
| disappeared_date = 26 October 1919 (aged 35)
| disappeared_status = Presumed dead at sea
| occupation = Actress
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = When We Were Twenty-One
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Marie Empress (26 March 1884 – October 1919), born Mary Ann Louisa Taylor, was a British actress on stage and in silent films. She acted in England and America and she disappeared from an ocean liner the day before it docked in New York. The cause was never determined and she was declared dead in 1921.
Early life
Mary Ann Louisa Taylor was born in Birmingham.{{Cite web|title=Marie Empress|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba7e311df|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426191230/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba7e311df|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 April 2021|access-date=26 April 2021|website=BFI|language=en}} Her father was a contractor. She sometimes claimed to be a great-grand niece of actor Edmund Kean.{{Cite journal|date=23 December 1916|title=Marie Empress|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRArAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Marie+Empress%22&pg=PA16-IA88|journal=The Moving Picture World|volume=30|pages=1808}}
Career
Empress began her stage career in England, performing as a male impersonator and in variety shows.{{Cite news|date=16 November 1919|title=Mystery of Stateroom No. 480|pages=75|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76533409/mystery-of-stateroom-no-480/|access-date=26 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} She appeared on Broadway in The Little Cafe (1913),{{Cite book|last=Caryll|first=Ivan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZusQAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Marie+Empress%22&pg=PP9|title=Klaw and Erlanger Present the New Musical Comedy "The Little Café"|date=1913|publisher=Chappell & Company Limited|language=en}} and began to work in motion pictures. She starred in several silent films, including Old Dutch (1915),{{Cite news|date=13 March 1915|title=At the Bijou|pages=7|work=The Journal Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76554306/at-the-bijou/|access-date=27 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} The Stubbornness of Geraldine (1915), The Woman Pays (1915), Behind Closed Doors (1916), Sibyl's Scenario (1916), When We Were Twenty-One (1915),{{Cite news|date=5 April 1915|title=At the Hippodrome|pages=4|work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76553918/at-the-hippodrome/|access-date=27 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} Love's Cross Roads (1916),{{Cite news|date=13 February 1916|title=Marie Empress Here Tuesday at Alamo 2|pages=3|work=The Atlanta Constitution|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76534077/marie-empress-here-tuesday-at-alamo-2/|access-date=26 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=5 May 1916|title=Marie Empress a Strong Vampire Woman|pages=3|work=Albany Daily Democrat|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76534855/marie-empress-a-strong-vampire-woman/|access-date=26 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} The Chorus Girl and the Kid (1916), A Lesson from Life (1916), The Woman Redeemed (1916), The Girl Who Doesn't Know (1916),{{Cite journal|last=MacDonald|first=Margaret I.|date=23 December 1916|title=The Girl Who Doesn't Know (review)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRArAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Marie+Empress%22&pg=PA16-IA95|journal=The Moving Picture World|volume=30|pages=1815}} and The Guilty Woman (1919).{{Cite news|date=22 June 1919|title=Guilty Woman—Flatbush|pages=10|work=Times Union|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76553036/guilty-woman-flatbush/|access-date=26 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life and disappearance
file:Artists illustration of the mystery of Marie Empress's disappearance.png
Empress married a dentist, William Horton, in 1902; they separated in 1906, and legally divorced in 1918. She had a tumultuous personal life, including "grand passions", suspected drug use, and unexplained scars. Her film roles tended to lurid vamp characters, and headlines did not always distinguish between the actress and her character.
Empress was last seen in her state room on the Cunard ocean liner {{SS|Orduña}} in October 1919, the day before it docked in New York City. Fellow passengers had noticed that she always had a veil and was dressed in black. She presumably went overboard and drowned,{{Cite news|date=30 October 1919|title=Actress Lost at Sea; Miss Marie Empress Vanishes from Cunard Liner|pages=12|work=The Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76553598/actress-lost-at-sea-miss-marie-empress/|access-date=27 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=6 November 1919|title=Disappears at Sea|pages=1|work=The Central New Jersey Home News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76560124/disappears-at-sea/|access-date=27 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} aged 35 years; precisely when she died was never determined. Newspapers understood that she had been given a glass of water on the Sunday evening but she was not in her cabin the following morning and her bed was unused. Rumours persisted that she was not actually dead but perhaps disembarked in disguise as part of a publicity stunt.{{Cite news|date=18 November 1919|title=Is Missing Marie Hiding to Spring Hoax on Public?|pages=11|work=The Courier|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76534643/is-missing-marie-hiding-to-spring-hoax/|access-date=26 April 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} Empress's will was proven and was announced in November 1921. Her death was assumed to be on 25 October 1919 or some time after.{{London Gazette|issue=32511|date=8 November 1921|page=8872}}
See also
References
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External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0256654}}
- Samuel Fort, [https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/mysterious-miss-empress-hollywoods-forgotten-film-vampire/id1493014560 The Mysterious Miss Empress: Hollywood's Forgotten Film Vampire] (Nisirtu Publishing 2019). {{ISBN|9781073396733}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Empress, Marie}}
Category:1920s missing person cases
Category:Actresses from Birmingham, West Midlands
Category:British women in World War I
Category:English silent film actresses
Category:20th-century English actresses