"silent movies" "silent
film" "silent era"
Sylvia Breamer
(sometimes spelled "Bremer")
Selected films of this star available for viewing:
The Pinch
Hitter (1917)
The Narrow Trail (1917)
Up in Mabel's Room (1926)
Sylvia Breamer was born in Australia June 9, 1903.
Her father was an officer in the British navy. Her father died
while she was still young, and she went to live with an aunt on
a sheep farm in Australia. One source mentions that her mother
was vehemently opposed to her daughter becoming an actress, but
there is no mention of her mother's whereabouts at this time.
When a traveling show came to town, she was so enamored with the
troupe, she left the town with them. Not satisfied with the parts
she was given, she joined a company of barnstormers in Sydney
who were on their way to do a tour of New Zealand. She advanced
as an actress appearing on the stage in Sydney and Melbourne.
Feeling that she had done all she could in Australia, she decided
to head for New York. Using all the money she had, she made it
to the big city. "I arrived at Grand Central Station with
less money, I guess, than the average commuter brings to town
for his lunch. I had no idea of the value of American money, but
I did know that four dollars a day for one small room was rather
more than I could afford. But I was confident of getting work,
so I began to look around." After months of fruitless searching
for a job and surviving only because of a sympathetic landlady,
she was finally given a part by producer William Brady in the
stage production of "Major Barbara" starring Grace George.
During the run of this play, she was given an invitation by Parker
Reid to make a film test. She went to Fort Lee for the test and
was offered a year's contract. The first feature film listed for
her is William S. Hart's "The Cold Deck" in 1917 and
starred with him once again that year in "The Narrow Trail."
She starred with Charles Ray in "Sudden Jim" and "The
Pinch Hitter" that same year, and her popularity continued
to grow throughout the late 'teens an early twenties making 46
features between 1917 and 1926. It is not known why her career
came to an end, but she is credited with only one more film appearance
in an uncredited part in the 1936 film "Too Many Parents"
starring Frances Farmer. She was very interested in spiritism
and claimed to have had experiences that had made her a believer
in "the world beyond." Breamer died in New York June
7, 1943, at age 40.
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