Louise Lovely
| Louise Lovely | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Nellie Louise Alberti 28 February 1895 Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 18 March 1980 (aged 85) Hobart, Tasmania, Australia |
| Other names | Louise Carbasse Louise Welch |
| Years active | 1904–1925 |
| Spouse(s) | Wilton Welch Bert Cowan |
Louise Lovely (born Nellie Louise Alberti, 28 February 1895 – 18 March 1980) was the first Australian motion picture actress to find success in America.
Louise Lovely was born in Paddington, Sydney to an Italian musician father, Ferruccio Carlo Alberti, and a Swiss mother, Elise Louise Jeanne de Gruningen Lehmann. She made her professional debut at age nine as Eva in the classic Uncle Tom's Cabin, using the stage name of Louise Carbasse. She soon became a successful child actress, appearing in many roles made popular by the woman with whom she would later become a competitor in Hollywood - Mary Pickford.
Lovely was acting with George Marlow's theatre company in Western Australia when she received a telegram from Gaston Mervale to appear in a series of movies for Australian Life Biograph Company.
Louise was married to fellow actor Wilton Welch in February 1912, when she was only sixteen years old. After Australian Life Biograph wound up, the two of them acted together in vaudeville.
In 1914, she moved to America with her husband, hoping to replicate her Australian success. As legend has it, it was Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle who both gave her a contract with his studio and re-christened her Louise Lovely, much to her horror. She made her American debut alongside the legendary Lon Chaney in Father and the Boys in 1915, receiving strong reviews. She starred with Chaney again in several other films including her next release US film Stronger Than Death (1915) and The Gilded Spider and Tangled Hearts (both 1916).
Lovely became one of Universal's major early stars and a challenger to Mary Pickford's status as the golden girl of early silent cinema, but was dropped by the studio in 1918 following a contract dispute. Though she was subsequently picked up by Fox, where she starred in a series of Westerns with William Farnum, her career never reached its earlier heights.
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