Renée Adorée

2.1. Childhood and Stage Performances

Born Jeanne de la Fonte in Lille, France, Renée Adorée was the daughter of circus artists. From a very young age, she regularly performed alongside her parents, touring across Europe as an acrobat, dancer, and bareback rider. Through these extensive tours, she honed her skills and adopted the stage name Renée Adorée, a name derived from French words meaning "reborn" and "adored" in their feminine forms. She built a strong reputation for her dancing prowess in countries including Belgium, France, Germany, and Sweden. She was performing in Brussels when World War I began in 1914.

2.2. Early Film Debut and Transition to Vaudeville

Adorée made her cinematic debut in 1918, appearing in the Australian film £500 Reward, where she was already billed under her professional name, Renée Adorée. At that time, she was actively touring Australia as a dancer on the Tivoli circuit with an act known as "The Magneys." Following her time in Australia, she moved to New York City in 1919. There, she quickly transitioned into vaudeville, joining the cast of a musical titled Oh, Uncle. This production premiered in Washington, D.C. in March 1919, then moved to Trenton, New Jersey, and subsequently toured throughout the summer. By July, the show was renamed Oh, What a Girl! and opened at the Shubert Theatre in New York City. Over the subsequent months, Adorée continued her stage career, touring in another Shubert production, The Dancer.

3.1. Silent Film Stardom and Major Success

In January 1920, Renée Adorée seized the opportunity to advance her career in motion pictures when she was cast in the lead role for The Strongest, a dramatic photoplay written by French prime minister Georges Clemenceau and directed by Raoul Walsh. This role marked a pivotal step in her transition to the screen. She continued to star in several other silent films in the early 1920s, with her role in Reginald Barker's The Eternal Struggle, which also featured Barbara La Marr and Earle Williams, solidifying her status as a Hollywood star.

Adorée is most widely celebrated for her portrayal of Melisande in the highly successful melodramatic romance and war epic The Big Parade (1925), where she starred opposite John Gilbert. The film proved to be an immense commercial success for MGM, becoming one of the studio's highest-grossing silent films by earning between 18.00 M USD and 22.00 M USD, and significantly elevated Adorée to major stardom. Her collaboration with Gilbert was extensive, as she ultimately made nine films with him. She also shared the screen with another leading Hollywood actor, Ramón Novarro, in four productions. In 1927, she starred with the renowned actor Lon Chaney in the film Mr. Wu.

Beyond her film roles, Adorée was also a subject for prominent photographers of the era. In 1928, Ruth Harriet Louise captured her image for Eve: The Lady's Pictorial. Two years later, in 1930, Alfred Cheney Johnston photographed Adorée in the nude, contributing to her public image as a daring and modern figure. Notably, in the 1928 film The Mating Call, produced by Howard Hughes, Adorée also had a brief swimming scene in the nude, reflecting the evolving attitudes in cinema at the time.

3.2. Transition to Sound Films

With the emergence of sound in film, Renée Adorée demonstrated her adaptability. She was among the fortunate stars whose voice was deemed suitable for the new technological demands of the film industry, allowing her to continue her career into the sound era. Before her untimely death, she appeared in two all-talking films. By the close of 1930, Adorée had accumulated a filmography of forty-five movies, with her final four appearances being in sound productions.