Claire Adams
Date of birth: 1898-09-24
Place of birth: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Clare Adams , Peggy Adams, Clara Adams, Beryl Vere Nassau Adams
Biography
From Wikipedia Claire Adams (September 24, 1898 – September 25, 1978) was a Canadian silent film actress and benefactor. She was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as the daughter of Stanley Wells Adams, a Welsh-born accountant, and his Canadian wife, Lillian Adams (née Kennedy). Educated in Canada and England, Claire Adams worked briefly as a nurse with the Red Cross during World War I. In 1920 Adams signed a five-year contract with Benjamin Bowles Hampton, a Hollywood producer and her future husband. She later moved to California where she acted in more than forty silent films, including melodramas, comedies and westerns. Described as "patricianly beautiful", Adams worked with many of Hollywood's leading actors, including Adolphe Menjou, Tom Mix, Wallace Beery, and Lon Chaney. In 1923 she was Rin Tin Tin's leading lady in Where the North Begins, which was a huge success and is often credited with saving Warner Bros. from bankruptcy. She later maintained that Rin Tin Tin was her "favourite leading man". Her best known film was The Big Parade, the second largest grossing silent film in cinematic history. It was directed by King Vidor and Adams starred alongside John Gilbert. Perhaps her most memorable role came in 1920 as Barbara, the artist who helps humanize the crippled crime boss played by Lon Chaney in The Penalty. She married film producer Benjamin B. Hampton in Hollywood on September 18, 1924. They had no children. He died in 1932 leaving her very wealthy. Later that year Adams met Scobie Mackinnon, the second son of L.K.S. Mackinnon, at a party in London and three weeks later they married on April 1 in Mayfair. They remained childless. After a protracted honeymoon, in March 1938, Mackinnon brought Adams to Victoria, Australia. On his death in 1974, Scobie Mackinnon's estate was worth A$2,111, 729, which was left entirely to Adams. She died on September 25, 1978, in Windsor, Victoria and was cremated.
Movie Credits
The Big Parade
1925-11-05
The story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to figh
The Penalty
1920-08-15
Blizzard, deranged from a childhood operation in which both his legs were needlessly amputated after
Oh, You Tony!
1924-09-21
This silent Western features Tom Mix as a rancher who goes to Washington to affect better conditions
Stepping Fast
1923-05-13
Mix is Grant Malvern, a rancher who befriends scientist Quentin Durant (Tom S. Guise) after rescuing
Do and Dare
1922-10-01
When Henry Boone hears his grandfather's stories of his youth as a pioneer and scout, he is gripped
The Devil's Cargo
1925-02-02
John Joyce arrives in Sacramento with his sister, Martha, and aunt to become the editor of a newspap
Romance and Brass Tacks
1918-09-29
Second release in James Montgomery Flagg's 'Sweethearts and Wives' series of short comedies.
The Mysterious Rider
1921-10-23
Hell Bent Wade is the victim of an attack in which is wife is killed and daughter kidnapped. A coupl
The Brass Bowl
1924-11-06
After arriving unexpectedly at his country home, Dan Maitland discovers a young woman attempting to
When Romance Rides
1922-03-16
Lucy Bostil, daughter of a Colorado ranch owner, is led by a dog to his master, Lin Slone, who is ex
Golden Dreams
1922-06-11
Oil is discovered on the Countess de Elberca's estate in a mythical Spanish American country. Merced
The Fast Set
1924-10-20
Daddies
1924-02-09
A group of confirmed bachelors finds their informal "anti-matrimony club" turned into a home for ado
Brass Commandments
1923-01-28
"Flash" Lanning returns to Bozzam City from the East to put an end to cattle rustling. Gloria Hallow
Chris and His Wonderful Lamp
1917-07-14
A young man buys an Aladdin’s lamp at an auction and employs the genie to help him see his love.
Married Alive
1927-07-17
James Duxbury (Lou Tellegen) is an exponent of polygamy, which may not be legal but certainly provid
The Sea Wolf
1926-07-26
Captain "Wolf" Larsen, the absolute master of a seal schooner, is a mystic and philosopher, though h
Barnaby Lee
1917-08-10
Pirate melodrama.
Yellow Fingers
1926-03-21
Ralph Ince stars as Brute Shane, a South Pacific trader who has adopted native girl Saina (Olive Bro
Men and Women
1925-03-23
Will Prescott (Richard Dix) is a bank cashier whose assistant, Ned Seabury (Neil Hamilton), has made
The Great Lover
1920-11-15
Ethel Warren returns from studying in Europe to make her debut in New York with the opera company in
What a Mother-in-Law!
1934-09-07
Comedy Story
Where the North Begins
1923-07-01
A German Shepherd puppy is "adopted" by a wolf pack in the snowy and frozen Great North and raised b
The Girl in the Limousine
1924-07-20
Tony and Freddie, who have been rivals all their lives, vie for the hand in marriage of their childh
Riders of the Dawn
1920-05-01
A young soldier returns from the war to find his western homeland despoiled by conflict between the
Just Tony
1922-08-19
A cowboy seeks revenge against the man who shot him in a bar-room brawl. While searching for him, he
The Night Hawk
1924-02-17
Our Western star begins this actioner rather improbably, as a New York City gangster. But soon enoug
Five Stars
2009-03-13
This unique collection of some of Andrew Blake's most memorable scenes stars five of the most recogn
The Invisible Bond
1919-11-23
Seductress Leila Templeton lures Harleth Crossley into a supposed assignation at his wife Marcia’s d
Souls for Sables
1925-01-01
A lonely wife becomes obsessed with furs and keeps bad company in an effort to obtain more.
Revenge Is Sweet
1912-07-16
A short comedy in which the newest employee is teased by the office girls, but he retaliates by putt
Legally Dead
1923-07-30
A man faces being hanged for a crime he didn't commit
The End of the Road
1919-02-16
Childhood friends Mary Lee and Vera receive two different versions of the 'birds and the bees' from
Heart's Haven
1922-08-08
A fine cast brings depth to this melodrama of a crippled boy, an unhappy marriage, an injured young
The Man Of The Forest
1921-06-01
Ailing ranch owner Al Auchincloss (Harry Lorraine) sends for his two nieces, Helen and Bo Raynor (Cl
The Killer
1921-01-30
Claire Adams as a girl forced to marry the man she suspects killed her father. When she refuses, she
Honor Among Men
1924-09-08
Prince Kaloney, while attempting to incite the people of Messina to reinstate their deposed king, is
The Key to Power
1920-01-01
The Dwelling Place of Light
1920-09-12
After her boss sexually harasses her and has an affair with her sister, stenographer Janet Butler qu
The Kiss Barrier
1925-05-31
Aviator Richard March, is shot down over France, though not badly hurt in the crash, he steals a kis
The Painted Flapper
1924-10-15
A socially-ambitious mother is pushing her younger daughter into a life-style that will satisfy the