Olive Tell

American actress

George Willis Kreh

(m. 1923; died 1923)

Henry Hobart

(m. 1926)

RelativesAlma Tell (sister)

Olive Tell (September 27, 1894 – June 8, 1951)^[1] was a stage and screen actress from New York City.

Biography

Tell was educated in several cities in Europe.^[2] She and her younger actress sister Alma graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1915.^[3] The sisters began appearing in Broadway theaters around 1918. Olive made her New York debut in the drama Husband and Wife. At first, she preferred acting in theater and detested her work on screen.

She first appeared in motion pictures during World War I. Her early screen roles were in silent films, including The Silent Master (1917), The Unforeseen (1917), Her Sister (1917), and National Red Cross Pageant (1917). Tell appeared with popular film actors of the era such as Donald Gallaher, Karl Dane, Ann Little, Rod La Rocque, Ethel Barrymore and a young Tallulah Bankhead.

Her first husband was killed in World War I. Tell married George Willis Kreh in April 1923; he died four months later; she married First National Pictures movie producer Henry Morgan Hobart in 1926.^[4] Hobart and Tell moved to California in 1926 and stayed in Hollywood for 12 years.

Her final screen credits came in the late 1930s. She performed in In His Steps (1936), Polo Joe (1936) with Joe E. Brown, Easy to Take (1936), and Under Southern Stars (1937). Tell's final screen appearance was in the drama Zaza (1939), directed by George Cukor.

Olive Tell died in Bellevue Hospital in 1951 after suffering a fractured skull at the Dryden Hotel, 150 East Thirty-Ninth Street, New York City, where she resided.^[5] She was 56 years old.

Partial filmography

The Silent Master (1917) - Miss Virginia Arlen
The Unforseen (1917) - Margaret Fielding
Her Sister (1917) - Eleanor Alderson
National Red Cross Pageant (1917) - Louvain - Flemish episode
The Girl and the Judge (1918) - Winifred Stanton
To Hell with the Kaiser! (1918) - Alice Monroe
Secret Strings (1918) - Janet Newell
The Trap (1919) - Jean Carson - the Schoolteacher Heroine
Love Without Question (1920) based on the novel "The Abandoned Room" by Charles Wadsworth Camp^[6] - Katherine
A Woman's Business (1920) - Barbara
Wings of Pride (1920) - Olive Muir
Clothes (1920) - Olivia Sherwood
The Wrong Woman (1920) - Viola Sherwin
Worlds Apart (1921) - Elinor Ashe
Chickie (1925) - Ila Moore
Womanhandled (1925) - Lucy Chatham
Prince of Tempters (1926) - Duchess of Chatsfield
Summer Bachelors (1926) - Mrs. Preston Smith
Slaves of Beauty (1927) - Anastasia Jones
Sailors' Wives (1928) - Careth Lindsey
Soft Living (1928) - Mrs. Rodney S. Bowen
The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929) - Mrs. Gertrude Rice
Hearts in Exile (1929) - Annna Reskova
The Very Idea (1929) - Marion Green
Cock o' the Walk (1930) - Rosa Vallejo
Lawful Larceny (1930) - Vivan Hepburn
The Right of Way (1931) - Kathleen
Ten Cents a Dance (1931) - Mrs. Carlton
Woman Hungry (1931) - Betty Temple
Ladies' Man (1931) - Mrs. Fendley
Devotion (1931) - Mrs. Trent
Delicious (1931) - Mrs. Van Bergh
False Faces (1932) - Mrs. Day (uncredited)
Strictly Personal (1933) - Mrs. Castleton
The Witching Hour (1934) - Mrs. Helen Thorne
The Scarlet Empress (1934) - Princess Johanna Elizabeth
Private Scandal (1934) - Deborah Lane
Baby Take a Bow (1934) - Mrs. Carson
Four Hours to Kill! (1935) - Mrs. Madison
Shanghai (1935) - Mrs. Hilton
Brilliant Marriage (1936) - Mrs. Jane Taylor
Yours for the Asking (1936) - Society Woman (uncredited)
In His Steps (1936) - Elaine Brewster
Polo Joe (1936) - Mrs. Hilton
Easy to Take (1936) - Announcer (uncredited)
Zaza (1939) - Jeanne Liseron (uncredited) (final film role)

References

^ Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 737. ISBN 9780786479924. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
^ "How Olive Tell Began Career on the Stage". The Boston Globe. Massachusetts, Boston. October 9, 1921. p. 46. Retrieved 24 July 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Credit to American Academy of Dramatic Arts". The Musical Leader. 36 (3): 52. July 18, 1918. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
^ "Milestones: Jan. 3, 1927". Time. 1927-01-03. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
^ Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 737. ISBN 9780786479924. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
^ Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era. Midnight Marquee Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.

Los Angeles Times, "Olive Tell In Stage Return", March 25, 1928, Page C15.
New York Times, "Olive Tell, Appeared On Stage And Screen", June 9, 1951, Page 19.