Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898 – April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films.

[10] She attended school in Midland until she was in the eighth grade,[11] when her family moved to Arizona, New Mexico, and then to California, where they settled in Hollywood.

[13] In June 1915, while a student at Los Angeles High School, Horton went to the set of a film to meet with actor Tom Mix, who had recommended that she visit him if she wanted to "get into pictures".

She later appeared opposite William S. Hart in The Aryan and with Douglas Fairbanks in The Good Bad-Man, Reggie Mixes In, and The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (all 1916).

Her performances often received positive reviews, but her films often were shown at smaller movie theaters, which impacted the growth of her career.

[24][25] Because of her performance in The King on Main Street (1925), Love is credited with being the first person to dance the Charleston on film,[26] popularizing it in the United States.

[29] In 1925, she starred in The Lost World, a science fiction adventure based on the novel of the same title by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

[36] She appeared in the successful sound musical short film The Swell Head in early 1928, and was signed to MGM later that year.

Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the success of the film resulted in a five-year contract with MGM and an increase in her weekly salary from US$500 to $3,000 (equivalent to $53,000 in 2023)—$1,000 more than her male co-star Charles King.

[37] She appeared in several other early musicals, including 1929's The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and 1930's Chasing Rainbows, Good News, and They Learned About Women.

[41][42] During World War II in Britain, when it was difficult to find employment as an actress, Love worked as the script supervisor on the film drama San Demetrio London (1943).

[43] Towards the end of the war, Love began acting again, this time primarily in the theater and on BBC radio as a member of their Drama Repertory Company;[44] she also played small roles in British films, often as an American tourist.

In addition to playing the mother of Vanessa Redgrave's titular character in Isadora (1968), Love also served as dialect coach to the actress.

[53] Love appeared in John Osborne's play West of Suez (1971),[55][56] and as "Aunt Pittypat" in a large-scale musical version of Gone with the Wind (1972)[57] and as an "American Lady" in Vampyres (1974).

Love married then-stockbroker William Hawks[58] at St. James' Episcopal Church in South Pasadena, California on December 27, 1929.

[10][55] After several years of declining health,[2][76] Love died at the Mount Vernon Hospital[76][77] in Northwood, London, from natural causes on April 26, 1986.

[5] In Damien Chazelle's 2022 film Babylon, fellow Academy Award nominee Margot Robbie wears overalls with nothing underneath, which pays homage to a famous photo of Love.