After performing tear-jerking dramas like Dora Thorne and East Lynne began to depress Lawrence, her mother dropped them from the company's repertoire.

[6] On February 18, 1898, George Bridgwood died from accidental coal gas poisoning at his home in Hamilton (Lawrence's parents had been separated since she was four years old).

Lotta Lawrence moved the family from Hamilton to Buffalo, New York to live with her mother Ann Dunn.

[7] Lawrence was one of several Canadian pioneers in the film industry who were attracted by the rapid growth of the fledgling motion picture business.

Both she and her mother received parts and were paid five dollars per day for two weeks of outdoor filming in freezing weather.

[citation needed] In 1907, she went to work for the Vitagraph Company in Brooklyn, New York, acting as Moya, an Irish peasant girl in a one-reel version of Dion Boucicault's The Shaughraun.

She returned briefly to stage acting, playing the leading role in a road show production of Melville B. Raymond's Seminary Girls.

Griffith, the most prominent producer-director at Biograph Studios, had noticed the beautiful blonde-haired woman in one of Vitagraph's films.

Because the film's actors received no mention, Griffith had to make discreet inquiries to learn she was Florence Lawrence and to arrange a meeting.

[citation needed] After her success in this role, she appeared as a society belle in Betrayed by a Handprint and as an Indian in The Red Girl.

Lawrence gained much popularity, but because her name never was publicized, fans began writing to the studio asking to know her identity.

[citation needed] Finding themselves 'at liberty', Lawrence and Solter in 1909 were able to join the Independent Moving Pictures Company of America (IMP).

The company, founded by Carl Laemmle, the owner of a film exchange (who later absorbed IMP into Universal Pictures, of which he was founder and president), was looking for experienced filmmakers and actors.

First, Laemmle organized a publicity stunt by starting a rumor that Lawrence had been killed by a street car in New York City.

Then, after gaining much media attention, he placed ads in the newspapers that announced "We nail a lie" and included a photo of Lawrence.

The ad declared she is alive and well and making The Broken Oath, a new movie for his IMP Film Company to be directed by Solter.

To add to her problems, Universal refused to pay her medical expenses, leaving Lawrence feeling betrayed.

[17][18] In 1933, Lawrence wed for the third and final time, to Henry Bolton, who turned out to be an abusive alcoholic and beat her severely.

The cosmetics store that she and her second husband opened in Los Angeles also lost business because of the Depression, and the couple was forced to close its doors in 1931.

In 1936, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio head Louis B. Mayer began giving extra and bit parts to former silent film actors for $75 per week.

Around this time she moved into a home on Westbourne Drive in West Hollywood, with a studio worker named Robert "Bob" Brinlow and his sister.

The mistake was repeated by the Pierce Brothers Mortuary, where Lawrence's funeral was held, although most obituaries printed her correct year of birth: 1886.