Florence Lawrence - ©Theda Bara

The name I’m going to highlight in this post is Florence Lawrence, known as “The Girl of a Thousand Faces”, another great actress from the silent film era, famous for her versatility in front of the camera, having acted in nearly 300 films.

Florence Lawrence, along with another actress named Florence, the American Florence E. Turner (1885-1946), is considered one of the first actresses in the world to achieve success in cinema.

A curious fact about the actress: she was passionate about automobiles and, in 1914, invented the precursor to the turn signal and brake light: an electric mechanism that raised small flags to indicate direction, in addition to a “STOP” sign on the back of the car. However, she never patented her inventions, losing the rights to them.

Florence Lawrence has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 1623 Vine Street, in recognition of her fundamental contribution as the first great star of silent cinema.

Florence was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on January 2, 1886, and died in Beverly Hills, California, United States, on December 28, 1938, at the age of 52.

Florence married three times. First, to the American silent film actor Henry Lewis Harry Solter (1873-1920), from 1908 to 1920, from whom she was widowed; then, to the singer Charles Woodring (1855-1933), from 1921 to 1932, from whom she divorced; and finally, to the politician Henry Bolton (1843-1934), from 1933 to 1934, from whom she was widowed again and never remarried. The actress never had children.