Katherine MacDonald on AllMovie

Silent-screen actress Katherine MacDonald was a star of large ego and small talent, whose much-admired hourglass figure earned her the nickname "The American Beauty." At the peak of her popularity, MacDonald starred as Lady Jane in the second screen version of the old David Belasco success The Squaw Man (1918). Lavishly produced, the old Victorian stage play had more in its favor than MacDonald's much-vaunted beauty, but she was the entire show in potboilers such as The Beauty Market (1919), The Beautiful Liar (1921), and Chastity (1923). All in all, Katherine MacDonald was better known from the gossip columns, where her rumored affair with Woodrow Wilson became the talk of the town. MacDonald was the sister of screen actress Mary MacLaren, with whom she kept up a very public feud.