Mary Fuller

Mary Claire Fuller[citation needed] (October 5, 1888 – December 9, 1973) was an American actress active in both stage and silent films.

In 1907, she signed with the new Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, New York, where she made silent films such as the one-reel adaptation of Elektra (released in April 1910).

[4] She appeared in a wide variety of roles, and starred in such melodramas as The Witch Girl, A Daughter of the Nile, Dolly of the Dailies (1914),[5] and Under Southern Skies, her first feature-length production.

As quoted in Sally Dumaux's King Baggot: A Biography and Filmography of the First King of the Movies, an August 18, 1917 article in Variety stated though Fuller was "one of the best drawing cards of the Universal for a long time ..her last few pictures were both financial and productional disappointments...and at the expiration of her contract she was allowed to depart...Miss Fuller has offered her services to several concerns along Broadway, but it is understood that they were turned down with the remark 'You are no longer film type.'"

After the demise of the first stage of her film career, Fuller apparently suffered a nervous breakdown following a failed affair with a married opera singer.

Cover of 1916 news magazine The Masses , featuring profile of Fuller's character in the film The Heart of a Mermaid (1916); graphic by Frank Walts