Olga Petrova

Olga Petrova
Olga Petrova circa 1917
Born	Muriel Harding May 10, 1884 UK
Died	November 30, 1977 (aged 93) Clearwater, Florida, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, screenwriter, playwright
Years active	1911–1928
Spouse(s)	Louis Willoughby (19??-1968; his death) Dr. John Stewart Dillon (physician) (19??-19??; divorced)

Olga Petrova (May 10, 1884 – November 30, 1977) was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright.^[1]

Life and career

Born Muriel Harding in England, she moved to the United States and became a star of vaudeville using the stage name Olga Petrova. Petrova starred in a number of films for Solax Studios and was Metro Pictures first diva, usually given the role of a femme fatale. During her seven years in film, Petrova appeared in more than two dozen films and wrote the script for several others. Most of her films are now lost.

Petrova left the film industry in 1918 but continued to act in Broadway productions. During the 1920s, she wrote three plays and toured the country with a theater troupe. In 1942, she published her autobiography, Butter With My Bread. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She made several visits to Saranac Lake, New York at the height of her fame, at the request of theatrical agent William Morris. In the summer of 1921, she turned the first shovel of earth for a housing project sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, at a lot on Lake Street donated by Walter Jenkins.

The Petrova School on Petrova Avenue bears the name of this famous visitor to Saranac Lake, New York.

Olga Petrova died in 1977 in Clearwater, Florida, aged 93. She had no children.

Filmography

The Eternal Question (1916)

Daughter of Destiny (1917)

• Departure of a Grand Old Man (1912)
• The Tigress (1914)
• The Heart of a Painted Woman (1915)
• The Vampire (1915)
• The Bludgeon (1915)
• My Madonna (1915)
• What Will People Say? (1916)
• The Soul Market (1916)
• Playing With Fire (1916)
• The Scarlet Woman (1916)
• The Eternal Question (1916)
• Extravagance (1916 MetroPictures)
• The Black Butterfly (1916 MetroPictures)
• Bridges Burned (1917 MetroPictures)
• The Secret of Eve (1917 MetroPictures)
• The Waiting Soul (1917 MetroPictures)
• The Soul of Magdalen (1917 MetroPictures)
• The Undying Flame (1917 Paramount)
• Law of the Land (1917 Paramount)
• To the Death (1917 MetroPictures)
• The Silence Sellers (1917 MetroPictures)
• Exile (1917 Paramount)
• More Truth Than Poetry (1917 MetroPictures)
• Daughter of Destiny (1917 FirstNational) also produced and wrote
• The Light Within (1918 FirstNational)
• The Life Mask (1918 FirstNational)
• Tempered Steel (1918 FirstNational)
• The Panther Woman (1918 FirstNational)
• Kira Kiralina (1928)

References

Olga Petrova presents a Knox Riding Hat, 1915

1. The Green Book Magazine, Volume 15 p.716 c.1916 Unsolvable Petrova by Alan Dale

External links

• Olga Petrova at the Internet Broadway Database
• Olga Petrova at the Internet Movie Database
• Olga Petrova at the Women Film Pioneers Project
• Images of Olga Petrova, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• portrait gallery(University of Washington, Sayre collection)
• Paramount performer slide