The Jeanne Eagels reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Jeanne Eagels

Jeanne Eagels, born June 26, 1890 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States – died October 3, 1929 in New York City, was an actress.

Born Amelia Jeannine Eagles, before she was two years old, her family moved to Kansas City, Missouri where she grew up. It was there, that she began her acting career, appearing in a variety of small venues at a very young age. Her talents were such that by the time she was 17, she had left her native Kansas City and was performing on Broadway. As Jeanne Eagels, she played the lead in the William Somerset Maugham's drama Rain for a year then went on the road with the show for almost two years. Her acting career blossomed, and in 1914 she appeared in her first motion picture role. By 1916 the New York drama critics were hailing her as one of the great up and coming young stars of the silver screen. Between 1916 and 1917 she made three films for Thanhouser Film Corporation.

Beset by personal problems, evidenced by violent mood swings, she spent the latter half of 1920 in Europe, to rest and recuperate from the stress of her life. For a time, she seemed to be better but in the ensuing years she was in and out of hospitals and sanitariums on numerous occasions.

She had a relationship with John Gilbert, the biggest silent film star of the day but in 1925 she married Edward Harris Coy, a former Yale University football star. The marriage was a stormy one and they divorced in 1928, at a time whem her personal problems had become nearly impossible for theater producers to handle. Her constant late appearances for performances and even a failure to appear at all, led to the Actors' Equity Association barring her from performing for a year and a half and imposing a stiff fine. Nevertheless, the ban did not stop her from working in film, and she would be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in the 1929 release of The Letter. However, drug and alcohol abuse contributed to her troubled life and she did not live long enough to find out whether or not she won.

In New York City, on October 3, 1929, Jeanne Eagels died suddenly at a hospital near her Park Avenue apartment. Three different medical practitioners gave three different causes for her death, all of which were one way or another related to her severe alcohol and drug abuse.

In her hometown of Kansas City, thousands of mourning fans were at the train station when her coffin was returned for interment in the local Calvary Cemetery.

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