Mary Fuller
Mary Claire Fuller (October 5, 1888 – December 9, 1973) was an American actress active in both stage and silent films. She also was a screenwriter and had several films produced. An early major star, by 1917 she could no longer obtain roles in film or on stage. A later effort to revive her career in Hollywood failed in the 1920s after talkies began to dominate film. After suffering a nervous breakdown, she was admitted to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC in 1947 and lived there until her death.
For the sculptor, see Mary Fuller (sculptor).
Mary Fuller
December 9, 1973 (aged 85)
Claire Fuller
Actress, screenwriter
1907–1917
Early life[edit]
Born in Washington, D.C. in 1888, to Nora Swing and attorney Miles Fuller, she spent her childhood on a farm. As a child, she was interested in music, writing and art. Her father died in 1902,[1] and by 1906, she was working in the theater under the name Claire Fuller. She worked briefly with the Lyceum Stock Company in Toledo, Ohio.
Later life[edit]
After the demise of the first stage of her film career, Fuller apparently suffered a nervous breakdown following a failed affair with a married opera singer. She retired from the film business, and went to live with her mother in Washington, D.C.[6] In her early years, Fuller had talked about a constant feeling of loneliness that film stardom never filled. In 1926, she returned to Hollywood and unsuccessfully attempted to resume her screen career, which was more difficult since "talkies" had replaced silent films.
The death of her mother in 1940 brought a second nervous breakdown. After her sister cared for her, she arranged for Fuller to be admitted to Washington's St. Elizabeths Hospital on July 1, 1947. She lived there for 26 years, until her death. When Fuller died, the hospital was unable to locate any relatives, and she was buried in an unmarked grave in Congressional Cemetery.[7][3] In the 2010s, a memorial bench was installed on the site of her grave, bearing a "Hollywood Star of Fame" and the inscription "A Personality of Eloquent Silence."[8]