Background and career
Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), baptised as Gladys Marie Smith, known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian American film actress and producer. A pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood career spanning five decades, Pickford was one of the most popular actresses of the silent film era. Beginning her film career in 1909, Pickford became Hollywood's first millionaire by 1916, and, at the height of her career, had complete creative control of her films and was one of the most recognizable women in the world. Due to her popularity, unprecedented international fame, and success as an actress and businesswoman, she was known as the "Queen of the Movies". She was a significant figure in the development of film acting and is credited with having defined the ingénue type in cinema, a persona that also earned her the nickname "America's Sweetheart".
In 1919, she co-founded United Artists alongside Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith, and was also one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. She was awarded the second Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound film role in Coquette (1929) and received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976 in consideration of her contributions to American cinema. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Pickford as the 24th-greatest female star of Classical Hollywood Cinema.
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in 1892, at 211 (later 561) University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, at Victoria Hospital, renamed the Hospital for Sick Children in 1951. Her father, John Charles Smith, was the son of English Methodist immigrants, and worked a variety of odd jobs. Her mother, Charlotte Hennessey, was of Irish Catholic descent and worked for a time as a seamstress. Pickford had two younger siblings, both actors. Charlotte was billed as "Lottie Pickford" (born 1893), and John Charles Jr. was billed as "Jack Pickford" (born 1896). To please her husband's relatives, Pickford's mother baptized her children as Methodists, the religion of their father. John Charles Sr. was an alcoholic. He died on February 11, 1898, from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with Niagara Steamship. Her father's death when Mary was five, was accompanied by her mother's screams, a traumatic event Mary would relive throughout her life. It traumatized young Mary so much that she did not attend school and did not learn to read as a child.
The house was situated in a poor district of Toronto known as "The Ward" where disease was prevalent. When Gladys was four years old, her household was under infectious quarantine as a public health measure. Their devoutly Catholic maternal grandmother (Catherine Faeley Hennessey) asked a visiting Roman Catholic priest to baptize the children. Pickford was at this time baptized as Gladys Marie Smith. Gladys attended McCaul School on University Avenue.
How Mary Pickford makes money
In 1919, she co-founded United Artists alongside Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. Belasco hired her for the part at US$25 per week, but was unhappy with her name for the stage.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (2023-07-06), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
