Colleen Moore

About Colleen Moore

Colleen Moore (born Kathleen Morrison; August 19, 1899 – January 25, 1988) was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era and continued into the early sound film era. Moore became one of the most fashionable (and highly-paid) stars of the era and helped popularize the bobbed haircut.

Moore was a huge star in her day. She made 64 films in total. 30 are extant in their entirety, 7 are partially lost and 27 are completely lost. Moore donated her films to the Museum of Modern Art. Unfortunately the films were preserved so poorly that they disintegrated beyond restoration over the years which deeply distressed her. Her first two talking pictures "Smiling Irish Eyes" and "Footlights and Fools" both from 1929 are lost apart from the Vitaphone soundtrack disks. What was perhaps her most celebrated film, "Flaming Youth" (1923), is now mostly lost as well, with only one 11 minute reel surviving.

Moore took a hiatus from acting between 1929 and 1933, just as sound was being added to motion pictures. After she returned, her last four sound pictures The Power and the Glory (1933), Social Register (1934), Success at Any Price (1934), and The Scarlet Letter (1934) were not financial successes. She then retired permanently from screen acting.

After her film career, Moore maintained her wealth through astute investments, becoming a partner of Merrill Lynch. She later wrote a "how-to" book about investing in the stock market.

Moore also nurtured a passion for dollhouses throughout her life and helped design and curate The Colleen Moore Dollhouse, which has been a featured exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1949. The dollhouse, measuring 9 square feet (0.84 m2), was estimated in 1985 to be worth $7 million, and it is seen by 1.5 million people annually.