A WAMPAS Baby Star of 1923, Universal's bright blonde-bobbed comedienne slaved in two-reel Westerns before gaining stardom in flapper comedies opposite Reginald Denny. Best remembered today as the heroine in the Grand Guignol comedy-drama The Cat and the Canary (1927), La Plante also portrayed Magnolia in the first (1929) version of Show Boat; but she was dubbed rather badly in it and has long been considered a victim of talkies. Divorced from director William Seiter and married a second time, to producer Irving Asher, La Plante returned to the screen intermittently in secondary roles, none really worth her while. "I can't sit through those old movies of mine and I don't understand how anyone else can," this most modest of screen veterans stated shortly before her death.
by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
