Jackie Saunders

Active - 1914 - 1924  |   Born - Oct 6, 1892   |   Died - Jul 14, 1954   |   Genres - Drama, Western, Adventure

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Biography by AllMovie

A former artist's model and chorus girl, blonde Jackie Saunders was, like so many of her contemporaries, discovered by D.W. Griffith. She didn't remain with Griffith and the Biograph company for long, however, instead signing a contract with the Balboa company of Long Beach, CA. The little company embarked on a heavy advertising campaign and by 1914 she was widely known as the "Maid of Long Beach" or the "Little Sunbeam," the latter from her starring role in a three-reel melodrama of that title. She became an important box-office draw with The Will O' the Wisp (1914), in which her evil stepfather sells her to a scoundrel, and some reviewers compared her favorably to Mary Pickford. Saunders' career was of course not hurt by the fact that she was "sleeping with the boss," so to speak, having married H.M. Horkheimer, one of the founders of Balboa. Not surprisingly, her career declined along with the fortunes of the company and she was playing bit parts at Warner Bros. around the advent of sound.