Gladys Leslie: The Girl With the Million Dollar Smile

I first encountered Gladys Leslie (Gladys Leslie Moore, 1899-1976) as Houdini’s leading lady in Haldane of the Secret Service (1923). Though she was a star in her own day, Haldane was to be one of her last films.

Leslie’s screen career lasted almost precisely one decade (1915-1925). The bulk of her 55 movies were done at three studios, where she was contracted at each in succession: Edison, then Thanhouser, then Vitagraph. Notable among the Edisons were a series of “Grouch Chaser” shorts, animated-live-action hybrids created by Raoul Barré, who later worked with Charley Bowers. Her performance as Sophia, the eligible daughter in Thanhouser’s adaptation of The Vicar of Wakefield (1917) earned her the critical soubriquet “The Girl with the Million Dollar Smile”, leading to star parts, and a move to the more prestigious Vitagraph. From this point she headlined dozens of features opposite such top draws as Richard Barthelmess, Matt Moore, Lionel Barrymore, Nita Naldi, Creighton Hale, Betty Blythe, Montagu Love, Arthur Housman, Maurice Costello, and Burr McIntosh. Overall, she was regarded as a sort of lesser Mary Pickford, and none of these films proved to be enduring classics.

In 1923, Leslie married Charles Jerome “Buck” Moore. She bore him a son, also Charles, and retired from films in 1925. Contrary to some accounts, she was not the Gladys Leslie who was married to western star Rocky Lane.

For more on silent film history please seeChain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.