May McAvoy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
May McAvoy (September 8, 1899 – April 26, 1984) was an American actress who worked mainly during the silent film era. Some of her major roles are Laura Pennington in The Enchanted Cottage, Esther in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, and Mary Dale in The Jazz Singer.
McAvoy appeared in her first film, entitled Hate, in 1917. After appearing in more than three dozen films, she co-starred with Ramón Novarro and Francis X. Bushman in director Fred Niblo's 1925 production of Ben-Hur, released by MGM. The feature-length film was one of the most lavish and spectacular productions of the silent movie era.
Although her voice was not heard in The Jazz Singer, McAvoy did speak in several other films, including the second "all-talkie" released by Warner Brothers, The Terror, which was directed by Roy Del Ruth and co-starred Conrad Nagel.
For years a rumor circulated that McAvoy retired from the screen at the transition to sound films because of a lisp or speech impediment. In truth, she married the treasurer of United Artists, who asked her not to work.
Later, she returned to films and played small roles during the 1940s and 1950s, making her final film appearance in a small part in the 1959 version of Ben-Hur.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 0.691 |
| Birthday | 1899-09-06 |
| Place of Birth | New York City, New York, USA |
| Also Known As |
1927
The Jazz Singer
6.115/257
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first...
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The Jazz Singer
1941
Love Crazy
6.8/39
Circumstance, an old flame and a mother-in-law drive a happily married couple to the verge of divorce and insanity.
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Love Crazy
1925
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
7.303/114
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy,...
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Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1940
Third Finger, Left Hand
7/13
Magazine editor Margot Merrick pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from male colleagues. Unfortunately, things don't go to plan when Jef...
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Third Finger, Left Hand
1944
Two Girls and a Sailor
5.8/11
A sailor helps two sisters start up a service canteen. The sailor soon becomes taken with gorgeous sister Jean, unaware that her sibling Patsy is also...
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Two Girls and a Sailor
1922
A Homespun Vamp
8/1
The story of Meg Mackenzie, the orphaned niece of two stingy Scotsmen, Donald and Duncan Craig. She's kept busy taking care of their home in the count...
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A Homespun Vamp
1922
Clarence
9/1
Clarence Smith is an ex-soldier who is hired for odd jobs by Mr. Wheeler primarily because he has overheard a family argument. And the Wheeler househo...
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Clarence
1923
Hollywood
9/3
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtim...
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Hollywood
1925
Lady Windermere's Fan
6.809/47
A society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.
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Lady Windermere's Fan
1924
The Bedroom Window
9/1
William C. DeMille, Cecil B. DeMille's talented director brother, teamed with his favorite collaborator, scenarist Clara Beranger, for the 7-reel sile...
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The Bedroom Window
1926
The Fire Brigade
5/3
Terry O'Neill is the youngest of a family of Irish firefighters. He falls in love with Helen Corwin, but complications ensue when Terry learns that he...
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The Fire Brigade
1927
Irish Hearts
10/1
Sheila, a feisty Irish girl, loves Emmett, a somewhat shady Irish boy. When Emmett goes to America, Sheila and her father follow and join him. However...
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Irish Hearts
1924
Three Women
4.2/5
A frivolous middle aged socialite is suddenly put upon to have her daughter live with her. Her conniving paramour dumps her for the daughter, leaving...
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Three Women
1950
The Yellow Cab Man
6.857/7
Pirdy is accident prone. He has been denied insurance from every company in town because he is always getting hit or hurt in some way. On the day that...
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The Yellow Cab Man
1925
The Mad Whirl
6.625/4
A teenager with permissive parents gets too caught up in wild parties and the fast life.
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The Mad Whirl
1922
A Trip to Paramountown
7.75/4
Documentary short film depicting the filmmaking activity at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, featuring dozens of stars captured candidly and at wor...
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A Trip to Paramountown
1918
I'll Say So
0/0
Hearing that the United States has just declared war on Germany, Bill Durham hurries to a recruiting station to enlist, but because he has flat feet,...
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I'll Say So
1921
Morals
10/1
Reared in a Turkish harem and threatened with marriage to a man she does not love, Carlotta escapes to London with an English adventurer. When he is k...
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Morals
1923
Only 38
9/1
The death of her clergyman husband causes Mrs. Stanley, young mother of teenage twins, to change her style of life.
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Only 38
2000
Gareth Hughes
0/0
Documentary about the Welsh silent movie actor.
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Gareth Hughes
1918
A Perfect Lady
0/0
Dancer Lucille Le Jambon (whose real name is Lucy Higgins) loses her job when the morals committee of Sycamore, Kansas, headed by the self-righteous D...
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A Perfect Lady
1952
The Bad and the Beautiful
7.274/307
Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of vari...
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The Bad and the Beautiful
1921
A Private Scandal
7/1
A French orphan girl is adopted into the home of wealthy Americans. There she becomes romantically involved with a farm worker and at the same time en...
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A Private Scandal
1920
The Devil's Garden
7/1
William Dale, a servant for Lord Barradine, marries Mavis, a maid. Dale wants to move up in life, and with Lord Barradine's influence, becomes distric...
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The Devil's Garden
1940
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
5.8/4
An MGM short promoting the studio's impact on fashion through film through their chief of costume design, Adrian; in rural America, a mother and daugh...
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Hollywood: Style Center of the World
1923
Her Reputation
9/1
Discovering that he has only a brief time to live Louisiana plantation owner Andres Miro makes arrangements to marry his young ward, Jacqueline Lanier...
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Her Reputation
1940
Two Girls on Broadway
7/6
Eddie Kerns sells his song to a Broadway producer and also lands a job dancing in the musical. He sends for his dance partner-fiancée Molly Mahoney wh...
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Two Girls on Broadway
1959
Ben-Hur
7.893/3222
In ancient Judea, a Jewish aristocrat opposing Roman occupation of his homeland reunites with his childhood friend, now a Roman commander — setting in...
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Ben-Hur
1926
My Old Dutch
7/1
The story that inspired Albert Chevalier to write his immortal Costermonger song, 'My Old Dutch', is the story this picture tells of London's quaint a...
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My Old Dutch
1920
The Truth About Husbands
7/1
With an eye towards social climbing wealthy Dustan Renshaw breaks his engagement with Janet Preece to wed socialite Leslie Brown. Moving abroad after...
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The Truth About Husbands
1926
The Savage
9/1
Rivalry between two behavioral scientists gets out of hand...
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The Savage
1927
A Reno Divorce
9/1
An attractive heiress, Carla (May McAvoy), and David (Ralph Graves), a successful artist, fall in love following an automobile accident. and are marri...
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A Reno Divorce
1928
The Little Snob
8/1
May Banks (May McAvoy) is a working-class girl who gets ideas above her station in life when her father, Colonel Banks (Aleck B. Francis), a Coney Isl...
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The Little Snob
1940
Phantom Raiders
6.1/16
In this second Carter mystery, a mysterious rash of cargo ships sinking in Panama leads insurers Llewellyns of London to hire vacationer Nick Carter a...
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Phantom Raiders
1944
Movie Pests
6.1/10
This Pete Smith Specialty short takes a humorous look at the inconsiderate pests whose annoying habits make enjoying a movie impossible.
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Movie Pests
1926
The Road to Glory
6.5/2
May McAvoy is a woman who is blinded in an auto accident and relies on prayer to regain her sight.
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The Road to Glory
1919
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
6.333/3
Mrs. Wiggs, a loving mother whose husband has abandoned her, supports her many children and lives in hope of her husband's return.
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Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
1941
Ringside Maisie
5.6/5
Young undefeated boxer Terry Dolan, who's been lying to his invalid mother about his career, confides to Maisie that he hates and is terrified by boxi...
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Ringside Maisie
1919
The Way of a Woman
8/1
A 1919 film directed by Robert Z. Leonard.
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The Way of a Woman
1924
The Enchanted Cottage
7.2/8
The Enchanted Cottage stars Richard Barthelmess as Oliver, a physically and emotionally wounded World War I veteran who comes home to a fiancée who pr...
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The Enchanted Cottage
1940
Dulcy
6.4/5
A dizzy young woman aranges to turn her inventor-boyfriend's vacation into a chance meeting with a possible investor who happens to be her brother's f...
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Dulcy
1942
Born to Sing
5.4/5
A group of children put on a show in order to prove that a down and out musician was the real composer of a Broadway show's songs.
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Born to Sing
1948
Luxury Liner
5.833/6
Capt. Jeremy Bradford has a particularly exciting luxury liner cruise in store when he's charged with transporting a troupe of opera singers to Rio de...
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Luxury Liner
1928
The Lion and the Mouse
9/1
Judge Ross, on the Federal Bench, rules in favor of a large company in litigation before him, unaware that a smaller company in which he owns consider...
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The Lion and the Mouse
1928
Caught in the Fog
9/1
Wealthy Bob visits his mother's Florida houseboat in order to remove her jewelry and stumbles upon a bobbed-hair bandit and her male accomplice, who m...
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Caught in the Fog
1928
The Terror
7.5/2
Guests at an old English manor house are stalked by a mysterious killer known only as "The Terror".
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The Terror
1929
Stolen Kisses
6.333/3
A crotchety old coot wants his son and daughter-in-law to have kids so he can have grandchildren, but so far they haven't done so. In a somewhat ham-h...
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Stolen Kisses
1929
No Defense
10/1
No Defense is a 1929 romantic drama directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Monte Blue. It was a silent film with part talking and sound-effects by the V...
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No Defense
1921
Sentimental Tommy
7/2
Grizel is the daughter of the Painted Lady, who believes that her lover will one day return. Grizel is ostracized by the other children of the town. T...
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Sentimental Tommy
1919
The Woman Under Oath
6.5/2
After a forward introduces the question of whether women are temperamentally suited for jury duty, Jim O'Neil, a young shipping clerk, is found holdin...
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The Woman Under Oath
1950
Mystery Street
6.8/68
When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with...
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Mystery Street
1927
Slightly Used
8/1
Cynthia Martin’s father insists she marry before her two younger sisters Helen and Grace. So, she invents a husband for herself called Major Smith. Tr...
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Slightly Used
1941
Whispers
8/2
In this John Nesbitt's Passing Parade short we see how gossip can be used to spread propaganda or to ruin a person's reputation.
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Whispers
1941
Main Street on the March!
6.077/13
This Best Short Subject Academy Award winning film begins in the spring of 1940, just before the Nazi occupation of the Benelux countries, and ends im...
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Main Street on the March!
1942
Mr. Blabbermouth!
5.091/11
Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, America was rife with rumors about the size of Japan's armed forces and how well-equipped they were to wage...
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Mr. Blabbermouth!
1924
Tarnish
8/1
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Tarnish
1926
The Passionate Quest
9/1
The Passionate Quest is a 1926 American drama film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and written by Marian Constance Blackton. It is based on the 1924 no...
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The Passionate Quest
1927
If I Were Single
9/1
Rich girl Joan Whitney does her flirtatious best to break up the marriage of May and Ted Howard and almost succeeds, but not before May Howard has a l...
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If I Were Single
1922
Kick In
9/1
After serving time in Sing Sing, Chic Hewes wants to go straight, but when he refuses to be a stool pigeon for the cops, they hound him mercilessly. H...
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Kick In
1941
Sucker List
7/5
In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, a man and his racketeer buddies devise a scheme to bilk those already seemingly desperate for money of wh...
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Sucker List
1942
Rio Rita
6.028/19
Doc and Wishey run into some Nazi-agents, who want to smuggle bombs into the USA from a Mexican border hotel.
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Rio Rita
1922
The Top of New York
10/1
Hilda lives in a tenement apartment with her aunt, Mrs. Brady, and her crippled younger brother Micky, and works in a department store where her boss...
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The Top of New York
1941
1-2-3-Go!
6.6/5
While playing baseball, Mickey runs into the street to catch a fly ball and is struck by a car. When the gang visit him in the hospital they are appal...
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1-2-3-Go!
1924
West of the Water Tower
10/1
Young marrieds Guy & Bee are ostracized by their supposed friends in town when Bee discovers she is expecting but the legitimacy of their union is cal...
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West of the Water Tower
1925
Tessie
9/1
Cigar counter girl Tessie tips off her mechanic boyfriend that a wealthy women is going to buy a car, and he leaves Tessie for Mrs. Welles.
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Tessie
1927
Matinee Ladies
9/1
Law student Bob Ward, short on money, takes a job as a "dancing companion" at a roadhouse, where most of his clients are women looking for a little ex...
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Matinee Ladies
1954
Executive Suite
7.071/63
When the head of a large manufacturing firm dies suddenly from a stroke, his vice-presidents vie to see who will replace him.
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Executive Suite
1918
To Hell with the Kaiser!
0/0
A farce in which the German Kaiser and the Crown Prince are defeated and made sport of by a plucky American girl and several American prisoners of war...
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To Hell with the Kaiser!
1920
The Forbidden Valley
8/1
A feud has been raging between the Lee and Mitchell families, in the forbidden valley of the Kentucky hills. The lone survivors are Ben Lee, his grand...
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The Forbidden Valley
1921
A Virginia Courtship
10/1
Colonel Fairfax, who lives on a Virginia plantation with his adopted daughter, Prudence, has remained faithful to the memory of his former fiancée, Co...
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A Virginia Courtship
1920
The House of the Tolling Bell
9/1
According to the will of old Anthony Cole, his heir must live for one year in the spooky residence known as "the house of the tolling bell." The dread...
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The House of the Tolling Bell
1920
The Sporting Duchess
8/1
Very jealous of the Duke of Desborough's prize race horse "Clipstone," Major Roland Mostyn schemes to destroy his rival and thus obtain possession of...
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The Sporting Duchess
1922
Through a Glass Window
9/1
Mrs. Martin lives in New York's East Side with her son, Dan, who sells papers, and her daughter, Jenny, who works in a local doughnut shop. During the...
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Through a Glass Window
1923
Grumpy
8/1
Andrew Bullivant, a retired lawyer known as "Grumpy" for his irascibility, calls on all his experience and powers of deduction to expose Chamberlin Ja...
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Grumpy
1947
The Romance of Rosy Ridge
6.667/6
A mysterious Civil War veteran courts a Missouri farmer's daughter amid postwar unrest.
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The Romance of Rosy Ridge
1920
My Husband's Other Wife
10/1
Popular actress Adelaide Hedlar, cherishes her career and ambitions more than a home and children, much to the chagrin of her husband, Dr. Mark Ridgew...
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My Husband's Other Wife
1957
The Wings of Eagles
6.333/72
The story of Frank W. "Spig" Wead - a Navy-flyer turned screenwriter.
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