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The New York Daily News shouted its headline: “Why I Remain a Dope Fiend: The Most Amazing Confession Ever Told! Alma Rubens’ Own Story, Written Personally by the Once Great Movie Star Who Was Ruined by Drugs.” In poor health, Rubens died shortly after its publication. She was only 33.
2. She Supported Her Family. By all accounts, Rubens’ childhood was as woeful as her adult years. Both of her parents suffered from poor health and Rubens had to work to support the family. According to a 1932 biography, “Her earnings average about twelve dollars a week, not much for a family of three.”.
Jul 24, 2011 · Alma Rubens was a major film star by age 19 in 1916 after co-starring in a couple of Douglas Fairbanks hits. She already had two husbands behind her by the time of her January 1926 marriage to Cortez and was by that time, by her own account, already a drug addict. By the time of her death, January 22, 1931, she had already separated from Cortez ...
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- 10 William Desmond Taylor
- 9 Barbara La Marr
- 8 Charlie Chaplin
- 7 Olive Thomas
- 6 Thomas Ince
- 5 Jewel Carmen
- 4 Rudolph Valentino
- 3 Alma Rubens
- 2 Gloria Swanson
- 1 Roscoe Arbuckle
At the height of the silent era, William Desmond Taylor was riding high. A noted film director, he directed 60 films and acted in 27. But on February 1, 1922, he was murderedby an unknown assailant. The scandal that followed almost destroyed the fledgling movie industry. Taylor had been shot in his home. There was no sign of a break-in, and cash wa...
Barbara La Marr was nicknamed the “girl who was too beautiful”—too beautiful for Hollywood and, it seemed, too beautiful to live. Her life was always colorful. She was at one time kidnapped by her own sister. A star of 27 silent films, such as The Three Musketeers and The Prisoner of Zenda, La Marr even co-wrote some of her movies. Her public succe...
Probably the most famous star of the silent era, Charlie Chaplinis still adored by many today. His Tramp character is one of the most enduring in Hollywood history. His success brought him the kind of wealth he could only have dreamed of during his poverty-stricken childhood. He had a mind for business and set up his own studio, increasing both his...
Olive Thomas began her career as an artist’s model and then as a dancer. She won her first movie contract in 1916 and soon met and married the actor Jack Pickford. The couple seemed to have a glamorous life, though there were signs that, perhaps due to long work-induced separations, things were not going well. In September 1920, the two went on a s...
Thomas Ince was the world’s first movie mogul. He created the first movie studio and later went on to form Paramount Pictures. By 1924, he was said to be close to bankruptcy and began to discuss a deal with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. On November 16, he joined Hearst on his yacht, along with Charlie Chaplin and Hearst’s mistress, Mari...
Jewel Carmen was an actress with Keystone Studios. Though talented, she appears to have been quite troubled. She had a long-running legal disputewith the Fox Film Corporation to try to get out of her contract, even signing to a new studio while still tied to Fox. The legal battle took her off the screen for three years, during which her career suff...
Rudolph Valentino, the “Latin Lover,” began his working life as a “tango pirate,” dancing with wealthy women. This ended abruptly after a scandal involving a court case, a vice charge, imprisonment, and a murder. He changed his name and moved to California, where he began to pick up film parts. By 1921 Valentino had a starring role in The Sheik, a ...
Today, Alma Rubens is little-remembered as an actress, though she appeared in almost 60 films, including, fittingly, The Regenerates, which is about a woman tormented by drug addiction. By the mid-1920s, Rubens had a heavy morphine and cocaine addiction, and she was replaced on the movie The Torrentby newcomer Greta Garbo. Rubens was earning large ...
Gloria Swanson transcended both silent films and the talkies. Her life is as fascinating as any of her films. She had a uniquely powerful position in Hollywood. She started her own production company, and she was one of the few movie stars of her time to sign a seven-figure contract. And yet Swanson was still a victim of the studio system. In 1925,...
The trial of Roscoe Arbuckle is probably one of the most shameful moments in Hollywood history, not just because of the death of a young woman, and the debauchery of the scene where she died, but also because of the way that Arbuckle, commonly known as “Fatty Arbuckle,” was pilloried by a presswhich seemed to confuse Roscoe Arbuckle the actor with ...
The actress tracks down a black maid she recently fired for dishonesty from her Beverly Hills home. Rubens trades a $4,000 mink coat for a few day’s supply of dope. Rubens catches the look of perfect revenge on her former maid’s face as the exchange is finalized.
Alma Rubens, Early Studio Portrait Many persons who have followed my career on the screen and stage mistake me for a Jewess. This belief perhaps was strengthened when I married Ricardo Cortez, my third husband, the only one I ever really loved, and whom I am now trying to divorce.
Alma Rubens passed away on January 22, 1931 in Los Angeles. While at a friend's house, Alma collapsed and was soon diagnosed with pneumonia, her body worn out from years of alcohol and drug abuse. She soon lapsed into a coma and never regained consciousness, dying with her mother and older sister, Hazel by her side. She was only 33 years old.
