Theda Bara

Theda Bara ( THEE-də BARR-ə; born Theodosia Burr Goodman; July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress. Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "the Vamp" (short for "vampire", here meaning a seductive woman), later fueling the rising popularity in "vamp" roles based in exoticism and sexual domination. Born to a Jewish family in Cincinnati, Bara was the biggest star of Fox Studios, which concocted a fictitious persona for her as an Egyptian-born woman interested in the occult. She made 43 films between 1914 and 1926. Three of her films were for Pathe, one was for Chadwick Pictures, and 39 were for Fox; most of these were lost in the 1937 Fox vault fire. After leaving Fox in 1919, Bara was unable to recapture her previous success. Following a marriage to Charles Brabin in 1921, she made three more films before retiring from acting in 1926. Bara never appeared in any sound films.