Mildred Harris

Harris was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on November 29, 1901. Her parents were telegraph operator Harry Harris and Anna Parsons Foote. Harris made her first screen appearance at age 10 in the 1912 Francis Ford- and Thomas H. Ince-directed Western short The Post Telegrapher. She followed the film with various juvenile roles, often appearing opposite child actor Paul Willis. In 1914, she was hired by The Oz Film Manufacturing Company to portray Fluff in The Magic Cloak of Oz and Button-Bright in His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. In 1916, at age 15, she appeared as a harem girl in Griffith's film Intolerance. In the 1920s, Harris transitioned from child actress to leading roles with Conrad Nagel, Charley Chase, Milton Sills, Lionel Barrymore, Rod La Rocque and the Moore brothers, Owen and Tom. She appeared in Frank Capra's 1928 silent drama The Power of the Press with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Jobyna Ralston, and the same year, she starred in Universal Pictures first sound film Melody of Love with Walter Pidgeon.

She found the transition to sound films difficult, and her career slowed dramatically. She performed in vaudeville and burlesque, and at one point, she toured with comedian Phil Silvers. She was critically praised for her performance in the 1930 film adaptation of the Broadway musical No, No Nanette. In the 1936 Three Stooges comedy Movie Maniacs, she portrayed a film starlet who is startled by Curly Howard when he strikes a match on the sole of her foot.

Harris continued to work in film in the early 1940s, largely through the kindness of Cecil B. DeMille, who cast her in bit parts in 1942's Reap the Wild Wind (starring Paulette Goddard, who like Harris, was once married to Charlie Chaplin), and 1944's The Story of Dr. Wassell. Her last film appearance was in the posthumously released 1945 film Having a Wonderful Crime.