Mildred Moore

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Biography by AllMovie

American silent-screen actress Mildred Moore was Art Acord's leading lady in the 18-chapter serial The Moon Riders (1920). A former Ziegfeld girl, Moore played the ingenue in an Irene Castle melodrama, The Firing Line (1919), before winning a "beauty and brains" contest held by Photoplay Magazine. Signed by Universal, she appeared opposite the comedy team of Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran and was Hoot Gibson's leading lady in five Western two-reelers before being chosen for the highly anticipated Acord serial. Sadly, Moore's career ended abruptly on September 18, 1920, when she was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine and heroin. In a candid interview with the Los Angeles Examiner, Moore admitted to having been a cocaine addict for years. "Why, some girls spend as much as $100 a week for dope. I couldn't afford that much, but my weekly bill has always been around $20," she told the Examiner. Actor Jay Belasco, who was arrested with Moore, continued to work in films until at least 1936. The arrests of Mildred Moore and Jay Belasco were harbingers of things to come in the "Roaring Twenties," a decade that witnessed the destruction from drug addiction of such popular performers as Juanita Hansen, Barbara La Marr, Alma Rubens, and -- most famously -- matinee-idol Wallace Reid.