Bess Meredyth

Bess Meredyth
Bess Meredyth
Born	Helen Elizabeth MacGlashen (1890-02-12)February 12, 1890 Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Died	July 13, 1969(1969-07-13) (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film actress, Film writer
Spouse(s)	Burton Leslie (?-?) (annulled) Wilfred Lucas (1917-1927) (divorced) (1 child) Michael Curtiz (1929-1962) (his death)
Children	John Meredyth Lucas
Notes
Award winning filmwriter

Bess Meredyth (February 12, 1890 - July 13, 1969) was a film writer and silent film actress. The wife of film director Michael Curtiz, Meredyth wrote The Affairs of Cellini (1934) and adapted The Unsuspected (1947). She was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Meredyth began her involvement in performing and writing from an early age. Her father was the manager at a local theatre, and she studied piano throughout her childhood. After encouragement from her English teacher, Meredyth also pursued fiction writing. At the age of 13, she approached the local newspaper editor about writing a fiction column. Each story she wrote for the paper earned her a dollar, making this her first paid work as a writer.

Meredyth began her career in show business in vaudeville as a comedian. She most often sang or performed monologues while accompanying herself on the piano, a form she refereed to as a "pianologue."

Meredyth began her screen career as an extra at D.W. Griffith's Biograph studios in New York, before moving to Los Angeles in 1911. Meredyth worked as an actress for five years, supplanting her income with screenwriting. While most of this work was as an extra, her most prominent role was the titular character in the 4-reel Bess the Detectress (1914) serials.

Meredyth met Wilfred Lucas in 1911, when he encouraged her to pursue screen acting. The year after, the two worked together on the film A Sailor's Heart (1913), the first of many artistic collaborations. They were eventually given their own production unit at Universal Studios, in which they produced the 30-reel long Trey of Hearts (1914) serials.

Meredyth and Lucas had one child together, television writer John Meredyth Lucas (1919-2002). They divorced in 1927, following her return from supervising Ben Hur (1925)

In 1918, Meredyth and Lucas traveled to Australia to work with Australian sportsman Snowy Baker. They made three films together, The Man from Kangaroo (1920), The Jackeroo of Coolabong (1920) and The Shadow of Lightning Ridge (1921), the first two of which Meredyth co-directed. She was arguably the first professional screenwriter to work in Australia.