Mary Pickford

birth name: Gladys Smith

born: Toronto, Canada

Mary Pickford, also known as "Little Mary" was early Hollywood's biggest female star, and the first female actor to receive more than a million dollars a year and one of the few who were successful in both the silent film era and the sound film era (she won an Academy Award as Best Actress 1929. The first male actor who made a million dollar deal was Charlie Chaplin.

prior to 1909: studied theatre actress in New York

1909: discovered by David Griffith at Biograph, worked for $5 a week

1910: I.M.P., $175 a week

1911: Majestic Film Corp.

1912: back to Biograph

1913: Belasco as theatre actress

1913: Famous Players, $20,000 a year

1915: worked for various companies, $1000 to $2000 a week

1916: founded The Mary Pickford Corporation as a part of Paramount, she gets about $10,000 a week. She became the first actress who was the producer of her own films

1918: First National. She gets $675,000 for three films plus 50% of all profits, plus a signing bonus of $50,000 and complete control over her films, ranging from script to the final cut.

1919: Founded United Artists together with Charlie Chaplin, David Griffith and her husband [Douglas Fairbanks]?