Aileen Pringle

Aileen Pringle (born Aileen Bisbee; July 23, 1895 – December 16, 1989)^[1] was an American stage and film actress during the silent film era.

Biography

Early life

Pringle was born into a prominent and wealthy San Francisco family and educated in Europe. She began her acting career shortly after her 1916 marriage to Charles McKenzie Pringle, the son of a wealthy titled British Jamaican landowner and a member of the Privy and Legislative Councils of Jamaica.^[2]

Career rise

Many of Pringle's early roles were only modestly successful, and she continued to build her career until the early 1920s. One of Pringle's first high-profile roles was in the Rudolph Valentino film Stolen Moments (1920). She was selected by friend and romance novelist Elinor Glyn to star in the 1924 film adaptation of her novel Three Weeks with matinee idol Conrad Nagel.^[3] The role catapulted Pringle into leading-lady status and her career began to build momentum.^[4]

Later career

Pringle's acting career continued throughout the early 1920s; however, she allegedly was disliked by many of her co-workers due to haughty and dismissive behavior. She was prone to make witty, sometimes caustic, comments on Hollywood and her fellow actors. During a romantic scene in Three Weeks, in which actor Conrad Nagel carried her in his arms to the bedroom, lip readers saw her say: "If you drop me, you bastard, I'll break your neck".^[5] Pringle's apparent disdain for her profession began to hurt her career^[6] and by the late 1920s her roles became fewer.

During the late silent and early period of talking pictures, Pringle co-starred in a series of light films with actor Lew Cody, including Adam and Evil (1927), Tea for Three (1927), Wickedness Preferred (1928), The Baby Cyclone (1928), Beau Broadway (1928), A Single Man (1929), and By Appointment Only (1933). Of Pringle's performance in Adam and Evil, Mourdant Hall in the August 9, 1927 edition of The New York Times wrote, “Evelyn Trevelyn, the Eve of this tale, is alluded to by Ralph Spence is (sic) one of the titles as a “spare rib.” She is impersonated by Aileen Pringle and therefore is an asset to the scenes.”

Although disliked by some Hollywood insiders, Aileen Pringle often was dubbed by the press as the "Darling of the Intelligentsia" because of her close friendship with such literary figures as Carl Van Vechten, Joseph Hergesheimer, Rupert Hughes, and H. L. Mencken who became a lifelong friend of the actress.^[7] She brokered the meeting of Mencken and Valentino,^[8] of which Mencken wrote an account, some weeks after Valentino had died. Mencken does not name her but describes her as "discreet as she is charming." Ralph Barton, American artist, was also a devoted friend and used her as the model for Dorothy in his illustrations for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos.^[9] Another admirer was George Gershwin who met her in Hollywood and wrote much of the Second Rhapsody at her Santa Monica, California, home.^[10] Her wit, keen intellect and sparkling personality made her a sought-after companion.^[7]

After her 1926 divorce from Charles Pringle, Aileen Pringle further focused on her acting career, including Dream of Love (1928) with Joan Crawford and Wall Street (1929) co-starring Ralph Ince, brother of Thomas Ince. However, with the advent of sound film and the resulting influx of actors from the theater,^[11] the studios heavily began promoting a new crop of starlets and Pringle's career faded.

During the sound era, she continued to take small parts in major films and even uncredited roles. In 1944 Pringle married the author James M. Cain, but the union lasted only two years and ended in divorce.^[12] By the late 1940s, Pringle retired from the screen and lived a wealthy retirement in New York City, where she died in 1989 at the age of 94.^[13]

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Aileen Pringle was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6723 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, California.^[14]

Filmography

References

Notes

1. ^ The New York Times obituary notice 18 Dec. 1989
2. ^ De Witt Bodeen. Films in Review Vol. XXX No. 8, Oct. 1979, p. 468 ISSN 0015-1688
3. ^ Elinor Glyn. Romantic Adventure. Ivor Nicholson and Watson Ltd., London 1936, p. 300
4. ^ De Witt Bodeen. Films in Review Vol. XXX No. 8, Oct. 1979, p. 468. ISSN 0015-1688
5. ^ Richard Griffith and Arthur Mayer. The Movies. Simon and Schuster, 1970 ISBN 067120680X
6. ^ Aileen Pringle Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
7. ^ Marion Elizabeth Rogers. Mencken: The American Iconoclast. Oxford University Press. 2005 ISBN 0-19-507238-3
8. ^ Allan R. Ellenberger. The Valentino Mystique: The Death and Afterlife of the Silent Film Idol, McFarlan & Co., North Carolina, 2005
9. ^ Anita Loos. A Girl Like I, New York: The Viking Press, 1966, pp. 120, 275
10. ^ Robert Kimball and Alfred Simon. The Gershwins, New York: Atheneum, 1973. pp. 133-135.
11. ^ "Studio Stock Cut Down by M-G-M Talk Invasion". Variety. 94 (7): 71. New York City: Variety, Inc. 1929-02-27. Retrieved 14 May 2025.
12. ^ The Voice of James M. Cain: A Biography by David Madden, published by Globe Pequot 2020, ISBN 1493048120
13. ^ "Films In Review", March 1990, Vol. XLI, No. 3. Article on Aileen Pringle by Stuart Oderman. ISSN 0015-1688
14. ^ walkoffame.com

Bibliography

• Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Babylon, San Francisco California: Straight Arrow Books, 1975. ISBN 0-87932-086-9
• "Films In Review", October 1979, Vol.XXX No.8. Article on Aileen Pringle by De Witt Bodeen. ISSN 0015-1688.
• "Films In Review", March 1990, Vol.XLI No.3. Article on Aileen Pringle by Stuart Oderman. ISSN 0015-1688
• Rodgers, Marion Elizabeth (2005) Mencken: The American Iconoclast. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507238-3
• Bruce Kellner. The Last Dandy: Ralph Barton, American Artist, 1891-1931. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8262-0774-X

External links

• Aileen Pringle at IMDb
• Aileen Pringle at Silent Ladies & Gents
• Aileen Pringle Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
• Aileen Pringle at Virtual History