Silent movie icon's father was native of Mayo
By Tom Gillespie
THE only daughter of a Ballinrobe emigrant to America became an icon in Hollywood’s silent movies era in the 1920s.
One of her iconic roles was as Christine Daaé in the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera, opposite acting legend Lon Chaney.
Bernard Joyce, in his contribution to the Ballinrobe Historical Society, wrote that when John Philbin left Cloonliffen, Ballinrobe, in 1900 for the USA he probably had never heard of Hollywood, let alone did he realise he was to spend most of his life there.
John married within two years of arriving in America and in 1903 his daughter Mary was born in Chicago. She was an only child, and was named after her mother, Mary.
Philbin began her acting career after winning a beauty contest sponsored by Universal Pictures in Chicago. After she moved to California, Erich von Stroheim signed her to a contract with Universal, deeming her a ‘Universal Super Jewel’.
She made her screen debut in 1921, and the following year was honoured at the first WAMPAS Baby Stars awards, a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States, which annually honoured young women whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom.
During the 1920s, Philbin starred in a number of high-profile films, most notably in D.W. Griffith's 1928 film Drums of Love.
In 1927, she appeared in the horror film Surrender, though her most celebrated role was in the Universal horror film The Phantom of the Opera. Philbin's ethereal screen presence was noted in a 1924 edition of Motion Picture Classic, in which she was referred to as ‘one of the astonishing anomalies of motion pictures’.
Philbin played a few parts during the early talkie era and most notably dubbed her own voice when The Phantom of the Opera was given sound and re-released. She retired from the screen in 1930 and devoted her life to caring for her ageing parents.
Philbin spent the remainder of her life after leaving the film industry as a recluse, living in the same home in Huntington Beach, California. She never married and rarely made public appearances.
One rare public appearance by Philbin occurred in her later years at the Los Angeles opening of the Andred Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera.
She died of pneumonia at age 90 in 1993 and was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in east Los Angeles.
When Mary was on a film set her parents were also present, guarding her from the Hollywood 'wolves'. In 1921 Mary appeared in six movies, including Danger Ahead and The Blazing Trail. The following year Mary starred in Foolish Wives, the most expensive film production to that date.
In 1923 Mary met the love of her life, Paul Kohner, a studio executive and a member of the Jewish faith. As a conflict of religion arose they kept their relationship secret.
Mary's career really took off in 1923 with Where is West and Temple of Venus, among others, with Paul Kohner sometimes as producer, allowing her more time to be with him.
The following year she starred in The Rose of Paris, which led her to be cast in what would be her best remembered and most famous role, that of Christine alongside one the greats of early Hollywood, Lon Chaney, in The Phantom of the Opera in 1925.
By now Mary was gracing magazine covers and endorsing products and in 1926 Paul proposed marriage to her. At this stage, her parents had divorced, her father remarried and Mary had grown closer to her mother.
A family meeting was called regarding the marriage proposal and when Paul admitted he was a staunch Jew, Mary was given an ultimatum by her mother - marry Paul and she would be disowned. Mary relented, gave Paul back the engagement ring and lost her sweetheart (she never married).
With the advent of 'talkies' Mary's movie career began to decline, as did a lot of other silent film stars as some just couldn't make the change. Mary's final film was After the Fog - a 'talkie' - in 1929.
Mary abandoned her life in films, Hollywood forgot her and she became a virtual recluse. In the 1960s it was discovered she was living in the same house she had bought for her parents decades earlier.
During her self-imposed exile she was an avid churchgoer and visited friends. In 1988 she made her first public appearance since 1931 at a memorial service for Rudolph Valentino.
It was about this time she received the news of Paul's death and the discovery of letters she had sent him during their courtship. She then revealed she had kept all of Paul's letters he had written to her all those years ago.
She made two more public appearances soon afterwards before disappearing back to her private life.
During her time in Hollywood Mary made 31 films.
Leonidas Frank ‘Lon’ Chaney was an American stage and film actor, make-up artist, director and screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterisations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his ground-breaking artistry with makeup.