Neva Gerber
{{Short description|American actress (1894–1974)}}
{{Use American English|date=March 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Neva Gerber
| image = Neva Gerber - Jan 1920 EH.jpg
| caption = Gerber in 1920
| birth_name = Genevieve Dolores Gerber
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1894|04|03|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Argenta, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|01|02|1894|04|03|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Palm Springs, California, U.S.
| resting_place = Desert Memorial Park
| other_names = Jean Dolores
Genevieve Millett
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1912–1930
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Arthur Nelson Millett|1913|1920|end=div.}}
- {{marriage|Edward Dana Nolan|1923|1926|end=d}}
- {{marriage|David Booth|1934|end=d}}
- {{marriage|William Munchoff|1958|1960|end=d}}
}}
| partner = William Desmond Taylor (1914–1919)
}}
Genevieve Dolores Gerber (April 3, 1894 – January 2, 1974) was an American silent film actress who appeared in more than 120 films between 1912 and 1930.
Early life and career
She was born in Argenta, Illinois, to S. Nelson Gerber (1870–1902) and Juanetta Jean Pullman. Her parents separated when she was young and her mother moved her to Los Angeles, California. She was raised by nuns from the College of the Immaculate Heart. After the death of her father, Gerber's impoverished mother gave guardianship of her daughter to an attorney.{{cite book|first=Denise|last=Lowe|year=2004|title=An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films, 1895–1930|publisher=Haworth Press|isbn=0-7890-1843-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9790874369709_b7n2/page/234 234-236]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9790874369709_b7n2/page/234}}
File:Neva Gerber - Jul 3 1915 RL.jpg
After her graduation from high school, Gerber became an actress and appeared in several one-reelers. Her film debut came in The Flower Girl's Romance (1912).{{cite book |last1=Mayer |first1=Geoff |title=Encyclopedia of American Film Serials |date=2017 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9781476627199 |pages=134–135 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mCgSDgAAQBAJ&q=%22Genevieve+Dolores+Gerber%22&pg=PA134 |access-date=November 9, 2018 |language=en}} Beginning in 1917, she starred in multiple serial films, and she is considered one of the top ten "serial queens" of the silent film period. She teamed with director and actor Ben F. Wilson in many of these productions,{{cite book|author1=Strickland, A.W. |author2=Ackerman, Forrest J. |title=A reference guide to American science fiction films|publisher=T.I.S. Publications Division|year=1981|isbn=0-89917-268-7|page=188}} and starred in the first crude sound era serial, The Voice from the Sky, also directed by Wilson. However, her career stalled in 1930 after Wilson died from heart disease. Gerber retired from acting shortly thereafter.{{cite web|url=http://www.classicimages.com/past_issues/view/?x=/1999/february99/gerber.html|title=Whatever Became of Neva Gerber ?|last=Doyle|first=Billy|date=February 1999|publisher=classicimages.com|access-date=February 17, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429221625/http://www.classicimages.com/past_issues/view/?x=%2F1999%2Ffebruary99%2Fgerber.html|archive-date=April 29, 2009|url-status=dead}}
Personal life and death
Gerber's first marriage was to actor Arthur Nelson Millett on July 22, 1913. They separated the following year. In 1915, she became engaged to director William Desmond Taylor. Gerber and Taylor did not marry, because she was not yet divorced from Millett, and she and Taylor broke it off in 1919. (Taylor was subsequently murdered in 1922, a famous unsolved case). Gerber's divorce from Millett was eventually finalized in 1920. In 1923, Gerber married contractor Edward Dana Nolan, who died in 1926 of alcoholism. She went on to marry David Booth in 1934. After Booth's death, she married a fourth and final time, to contractor William Munchoff; he died in 1960.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7eX_FP8JhRwC&q=william+munchoff+neva+gerber&pg=PA205|title=Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Silent Screen Mystery|first=Charles|last=Higham|date=November 15, 2004|publisher=Terrace Books|isbn=9780299203634|via=Google Books}}
On January 2, 1974, Gerber died of a cerebral thrombosis in Palm Springs, California. She was buried in a pauper's grave in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.
Selected filmography
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1912
| The Flower Girl's Romance | Bessie Berkow | Short film |
| 1912
| The Water Rights War | Mabel | Short film |
| 1913
| The Redemption | Ogle - the Nursemaid | Short film |
| 1914
| Mrs. Peyton's Pearls | Eleanor Barton - the Daughter | Short film |
| 1914
| The Judge's Wife | Mrs. Livingston | |
| 1915
| The Madonna | Gertie | Short film |
| 1915
| Little Chrysanthemum | Little Chrysanthemum | Short film |
| 1916
| The Impersonation | Rhoda Lyons | |
| 1916
| The Mansard Mystery | Brina | Short film |
| 1917
| Polly Marion | Film serial |
| 1917
| Betty Lee | Film series |
| 1918
| Bess Thurston | Alternative title: The Three Bad Men |
| 1918
| Lola Masters | Lost film |
| 1919
| Roped | Aileen | Lost film |
| 1919
| Kate McDougal | Lost film |
| 1919
| Ruth Stanhope | Film serial |
| 1920
| Mary Landers | Film serial |
| 1920
| Bill's Wife | | Short film |
| 1921
| Lucia Robilant/Vera Robilant | |
| 1921
| Ruth Hammond | |
| 1921
| The Mysterious Pearl | Ariel/The Pearl | Film serial |
| 1922
| The Price of Youth | Adela Monmouth | |
| 1922
| Impulse | Julia Merrifield | |
| 1923
| In the West | Florence Jackson | |
| 1923
| | Film serial |
| 1924
| Sagebrush Gospel | Lucy Sanderson | |
| 1924
| Days of '49 | Sierra Sutter | Film serial |
| 1925
| The Power God | Aileen Sturgess | Film serial |
| 1925
| Neva | |
| 1925
| Evelyn Brower | |
| 1925
| Nanette | |
| 1926
| Gloria Grey | Film serial |
| 1926
| Helen Farrar | |
| 1926
| Alice Armstrong | |
| 1927
| Betty Grannan | |
| 1927
| Hell Hounds of the Plains | Esther Lawson | |
| 1928
| Lola | |
| 1928
| The Lone Patrol | | Credited as Jean Dolores |
| 1929
| Felice Landreau | |
| 1929
| Maria Valerian | |
| 1930
| Jean Lowell | Credited as Jean Dolores |
| 1930
| A Woman's Justice | | Credited as Jean Dolores |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Neva Gerber}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0314138|name=Neva Gerber}}
- {{cite journal|title=Neva Gerber, the screen-actress, and her dog|journal=The Green Book Magazine|volume=16|publisher=The Story-press Association|year=1916|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=InvNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA295|page=295|access-date=June 21, 2009}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerber, Neva}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:Actresses from Illinois
Category:American film actresses
Category:American silent film actresses
Category:Burials at Desert Memorial Park
Category:Neurological disease deaths in California
Category:Deaths from cerebral thrombosis
Category:Film serial actresses
Category:People from Macon County, Illinois