Pauline Curley on AllMovie

A graduate of the Children's Professional School in New York City, Massachusetts-born Pauline Curley reportedly made her screen debut at age ten in a couple of one-reelers produced in 1913 by Wray Physioc. After appearing on Broadway in Polygamy (1914-1915) and touring with A Daddy by Express, Curley became a leading lady for Harold Lockwood at Metro, acted opposite Douglas Fairbanks in Bound in Morocco (1918), and was the focal point of all the skullduggery in two Vitagraph serials with Antonio Moreno, The Invisible Hand (1920) and The Veiled Mystery (1920). But despite her obvious appeal and a breezy personality, Curley somehow missed stardom and became instead the favorite leading lady of low-budget cowboy heroes. In Western after dusty Western, often filmed under the most strenuous conditions in backwoods California hamlets, the actress gamely played romantic scenes with such forgotten cowboy stars as Leo Maloney, Bill Patton, Fred Church, and Kit Carson. Due to their longer shelf-life, several of these obscure, independently produced oaters are available today, including The Desert Secret (1924), in which Curley picturesquely drives her touring car right into an incredibly cheap-looking saloon set, thus permanently ending a furious brawl between Bill Patton and the pug-ugly Lew Meehan. A true pioneer of independent Westerns, the actress retired at the advent of sound.