From Wikipedia
Nita Naldi (November 13, 1894 – February 17, 1961) was an
American silent film actress. She was usually cast in the role of the
"femme fatale"/"vamp", a persona first popularized by
actress Theda Bara.
Naldi was asked to perform in a short film with Scottish
comedian Johnny Dooley (no relation). She quit the film after realizing that
Dooley had romantic intentions with another woman. She was then offered a role
in A Divorce of Convenience with Owen Moore. After those two films, she had
small roles in several independent films before being selected for Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde with John Barrymore. The role in the film would give Naldi much
prestige. During the production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Barrymore and Naldi
became friends, and stayed friends for many years, with Barrymore lovingly
calling her the Dumb Duse.
Naldi was selected by Spanish author Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
for the role of Dona Sol in film version of his novel, Blood and Sand (1922).
Naldi was signed by Famous Players-Lasky for the role, and it became her first
pairing with screen idol Rudolph Valentino; the film was a major success, for
it gave Naldi the image of a vamp, which would follow her for the rest of her
life. Naldi and Valentino were never romantic, and she would be one of the few
to befriend his wife Natacha Rambova though that friendship would sour when the
Valentinos divorced.
Thanks to the financial reverses caused by her retirement
from films, as well as the Depression, Naldi filed bankruptcy in 1932. She went
back to the stage with Queer People and The Firebird in 1933. The press had
been critical of her weight since 1924, but reviews to her appearances in both
plays were especially harsh this time around—so harsh in fact that Naldi filed
suit against one paper in 1934 for $500,000. The suit was dismissed in 1938.
In 1942, Naldi was considered for For Whom the Bell Tolls
but did not receive the part. She never made another film. That same year she
began appearing in a revue in New York with Mae Murray reciting the 1897 poem
"A Fool There Was" in full kitsch.
In 1952, she had a notable role in the play In Any Language,
co-starring the legendary stage actress Uta Hagen. In 1955, she coached Carol
Channing how to vamp, for Channing's new musical The Vamp. Channing would be
nominated for Best Actress in a Musical for that role.
Naldi spent her final years in New York City. where she died
of a heart attack in her apartment little over three months after her 66th
birthday. She was buried in the family plot at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New
York.
For her contribution to the film industry, Nita Naldi was
honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6316 Hollywood Blvd.
