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Photo of Alma Rubens

Alma Rubens

Actor
Born February 17, 1897Died January 22, 1931 (33 years)
From Wikipedia

Alma Rubens (February 19, 1897 – January 22, 1931) was an American film actress and stage performer. Rubens began her career in the mid 1910s. She quickly rose to stardom in 1916 after appearing opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Half Breed. For the remainder of the decade, she appeared in supporting roles in comedies and drama. In the 1920s. Her first stage opportunity came when a chorus girl in a musical comedy theater troupe became ill. Rubens was chosen to take her place and joined the troupe as a regular performer. There she met Franklyn Farnum who was also a member. He later convinced Rubens to leave the troupe and try her hand at film acting. Her breakthrough performance was in 1916 in the movie Reggie Mixes In. She made six more films in that same year. In 1917 she starred in The Firefly of Tough Luck, which was a big success. She gained fame when she became Douglas Fairbanks's leading lady in The Half Breed (1916), and supported Fairbanks and Bessie Love in the cocaine comedy The Mystery of the Leaping Fish later that same year. In 1918, Alma announced that she was changing the spelling of her last name of Rueben to "Rubens" because it caused too much confusion in the movie industry and in publications. She later told Photoplay magazine, "As a matter of fact my name is not the same [spelling] as the painter's. It's either Reubens or Ruebens-I forget which. I never could spell it. Couldn't remember where the 'e' came. So I let it go Rubens." In 1920, she completed The World and His Wife, opposite Montague Love which further solidified her popularity. In 1924, she starred in The Price She Paid and Cytherea. Rubens developed a drug addiction which eventually ended her career. She died of pneumonia shortly after being arrested on narcotics charge in January 1931. A funeral service was held on January 24 at the Little Church of the Flowers at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Her body was then shipped to Fresno where a second service was held at the Christian Science Church on January 26. She was interred in Ararat Massis Armenian Cemetery in Fresno. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Alma Rubens has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6409 Hollywood Blvd.

Movies & Shows on Plex

  • Intolerance

Known For

  • The Mystery of the Leaping Fish

Filmography

1929
Show Boat · as Julie Dozier
1929
She Goes to War · as Rosie
1928
The Masks of the Devil · as Countess Zellner
1922
1920
Humoresque · as Gina Berg (formerly Minnie Ginsberg)
1919
The Fall of Babylon · as Girl In Marriage Market
1916
The Americano · as Juana De Castalar
1916
The Children Pay · as Editha, The Girls' Stepmother
1916
Intolerance · as Girl At The Marriage Market (uncredited)
1916
The Half-Breed · as Teresa
1916
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish · as Wealthy Gent's Female Confederate
1916
Reggie Mixes In · as Lemona Reighley
1915
The Birth of a Nation · as Belle Of 1861

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