Seena Owen
Date of birth: 1894-11-13
Place of birth: Spokane, Washington, USA
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Signe Auen
Biography
From Wikipedia Seena Owen (November 14, 1894 – August 15, 1966) was a Danish-American silent film actress. Born Signe Auen at Spokane, Washington, the youngest of three children raised by Jens Christensen and Karen (née Sorensen) Auen. Her father and mother came from Denmark in the late 1880s and settled in Minnesota where they married in 1888. Within a short period of time they relocated to Portland and then Spokane, where her father became proprietor of the Columbia Pharmacy. Her first important film was A Yankee From the West (1915) under the name Signe Auen at the age of 21. She was later convinced to change her name and settled on Seena Owen, the phonetic spelling of her real name. In 1916 she performed in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance. The same year she married George Walsh whom she had met on the set of Intolerance. The marriage lasted until their divorce in 1924. A regular player for the rest of the silent era, Owen appeared in films such as Maurice Tourneur's Victory in 1919 where she was photographed to great effect by Tourneur's cameraman, Rene Guissart. In 1920, she appeared in "The Gift Supreme" with Lon Chaney, who appeared with her in Victory. She co-starred with Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron in the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928), as the mad Queen who whips Swanson in one scene. With the arrival of sound in movies, Owen's weak voice became a problem and forced her to retire from the silver screen in 1933. After her retirement, she worked on a number of films in the 1930s/40s as a screenwriter including two starring Dorothy Lamour: Aloma of the South Seas and Rainbow Island, both in 1941. The former was written in part with her sister, Lillie Hayward, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Seena Owen died on August 15, 1966 at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, aged 71, and was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Movie Credits
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916-09-04
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven wit
For Woman's Favor
1924-08-01
A modern love story is the framework for a costume love story, based on Boccaccio's "The Falcon."
The Fox Woman
1915-07-15
According to Japanese legend, the Fox Woman was not possessed of a soul. To exist, she was obliged t
Queen Kelly
1932-10-18
A prince betrothed to a mad queen falls in love with an orphan girl from a convent.
The Flame of the Yukon
1926-08-30
George Fowler, a young man from the states, arrives at the Mias saloon, and the proprietor, "Blak Ja
The Hunted Woman
1925-03-22
Joanne Gray goes North to find out whether her husband is dead or alive and to attempt to obtain the
The Sheriff's Son
1919-03-30
Sheriff's son Royal Beaudry is thought a coward, even by the young woman he has his heart set on. Bu
Sooner or Later
1920-02-01
When newlywed Robert Ellis suspects that his missing wife is having a clandestine affair, he appeals
A Yankee from the West
1915-08-19
Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In Addertown he secures a position a
The Craven
1915-01-23
Bud Walton, the village blacksmith, is big and strong physically, but he has not the courage to put
Lavender and Old Lace
1921-06-01
Mary Ainslie has been waiting 30 years for her fiancé, a sea captain, to return. She has kept a ligh
One of the Finest
1919-06-01
Traffic cop Larry Hayes takes care of four-year-old Mary Jane, the daughter of Gus Andrews, a crimin
I Am the Man
1924-12-15
A jealous politician tries to force a woman to marry him by framing her father for a crime.
Victory
1919-12-07
Adaptation of Joseph Conrad novel about lust and violence on a South Seas Island.
The Rush Hour
1927-12-12
Margie Dolan dreams of endless pleasure and adventures abroad, while her sweetheart, Dan Morley, is
The Better Way
1914-12-22
Sunbeam's father is sent to prison, and on his release promises to remain honest. He secures a job a
An Old-Fashioned Girl
1915-02-02
Abigail, the pretty daughter of a village school teacher, and Jared Guild are lovers. Bertha comes f
The Lamb
1915-11-06
Gerald, the somewhat frail son of a wealthy New York family, is bested at the beach by Bill, a strap
Unseeing Eyes
1923-11-18
The sister of a silver mine owner hires a renegade pilot to fly her to her brother's rescue.
The Blue Danube
1928-03-11
Marguerite, the beauty of an Austrian village, loves the poverty-stricken Baron Erich von Statzen, a
The Fall of Babylon
1919-07-21
After the relatively low box office takings of 'Intolerance', D. W. Griffith would revisit his epic
The Gift Supreme
1920-03-30
Bradford Vinton falls in love with a girl singer from the slums, but his father makes plans to break
Shipwrecked
1926-05-09
Larry O'Neil, a ship's cook, finds and befriends stowaway Lois Austin, who is a fugitive from a murd
Back Pay
1922-01-08
Hester Bevins is a simple country girl who yearns for adventure. Though she has a handsome young man
The Cheater Reformed
1921-01-02
Thomas Edinburgh is secretly in love with Carol, wife of the Reverend Luther McCall, and produces ev
The Face in the Fog
1922-10-07
Boston Blackie Dawson gets some jewels that belonged to the imperial family of Russia. A gang of ter
The Great Well
1924-03-01
In India a major tries to cash in on a dry oil well but shoots himself when the oil returns.
Martha's Vindication
1916-02-20
A 1916 film directed by Chester M. Franklin.
A Woman's Awakening
1917-03-24
A 1917 film directed by Chester Withey.
Madame Bo-Peep
1917-05-26
A 1917 filmd riected by Chester Withey.
Madame Bo-Peep
1917-05-26
A 1917 filmd riected by Chester Withey.
Riders of Vengeance
1919-06-09
Harry's bride is murdered at their wedding along with Harry's mother and father, and the good-hearte
Faint Perfume
1925-06-08
After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, takin
The Marriage Playground
1929-12-12
A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorce
Branding Broadway
1918-12-15
Drunk and disorderly cowpoke Robert Sands is banished from an Arizona frontier town and hops on a fr
Officer Thirteen
1932-11-26
A motorcycle policeman's partner is deliberately run off the road and killed by a member of a syndic
The Life Line
1919-10-05
Jack Hearne, known as the Romany Rye, prefers living with the gypsies rather than claiming the right
A Man And His Money
1919-03-16
Inheriting a fortune allows Harry Lathrop to indulge in extravagant spending and wild wine parties w
The Woman God Changed
1921-07-03
In a jealous rage dancer Anna Janssen shoots her common-law husband Alastair De Vries in a cafe when
Breed of Men
1919-02-02
Boss rider "Careless" Carmody is made sheriff of an Arizona frontier town by Chicago swindler Prenti
Man-Made Women
1928-09-09
The man who loved her showed her how to hold the man she loved. A novel picture story packed with dr
The Leavenworth Case
1923-11-04
Eleanor Leavenworth (Seena Owen) is about to be arrested for the murder of her rich bachelor uncle,
The Go-Getter
1923-04-08
Bill Peck is discharged from an army hospital and goes in search of a job. Cappy Ricks hires Bill, b
A Flight for a Fortune
1914-10-25