Biography for
Mae Murray More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

10 May 1889, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA

Date of Death

23 March 1965, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart ailment)

Birth Name

Marie Adrienne Koenig

Nickname

The Gardenia of the Screen
The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips

Height

5' 2" (1.57 m)

Mini Biography

Dubbed "The Girl with the Bee Stung Lips", silent screen actress Mae Murray began her career on stage partnered with ballroom dancing extraordinaire Vernon Castle in the 1906 Broadway show "About Town." Born the daughter of émigrés, she began studying dance at a young age. Two years later she joined the "Ziegfeld Follies" chorus line and moved up to headliner status by 1915. She played the top clubs in Paris and in America in an act that accentuated her dancing prowess. Other smooth dance partners would follow, including Clifton Webb, Rudolph Valentino and John Gilbert. The strikingly exotic beauty with the frizzy blonde hair moved to films with To Have and to Hold (1916) starring Wallace Reid and quickly became a top star for MGM, pairing up with the legendary Valentino in two films. Many of her films, containing dance sequences designed especially for her, were written and produced by her third husband, Robert Z. Leonard. Her most acclaimed film was The Merry Widow (1925) opposite matinée idol Gilbert. Married and divorced four times, Mae's movie career faded with the advent of sound, her voice being not particularly suited to talkies. Her marriage to last husband, Prince David Mdvani, also hastened her downfall when he took control over her business affairs and ill-advisedly got her to quit MGM. They divorced and she lost her son in a nasty custody battle. She grew more eccentric over the years and was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy, living in abject poverty for the better part of her later life. She managed to co-write an autobiography in 1959 entitled "The Self-Enchanted" and ended her days in the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, CA. Although forgotten for the most part, in retrospect, Mae was a popular and vibrant lady in her heyday, becoming of the few Ziegfeld star-dancers to succeed in transferring from the stage footlights to big-screen stardom.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Prince David Modivani	(28 June 1926 - 11 February 1934) (divorced) 1 child
Robert Z. Leonard	(18 August 1918 - 26 May 1925) (divorced)
Jay O Brien'	(1916 - 1917)
William M. Schwenker Jr.	(1908 - 1909)

Trivia

Rudolph Valentino was best man at her 1926 marriage to Prince David Mdivani; Pola Negri was matron of honor.

Sister-in-law of Pola Negri and Barbara Hutton.

One son: Koran David Mdivani, born February 1927, by Prince David Mdivani. Mae also has two granddaughters, Pamela and Cynthia.

Spoke often about discovering Rudolph Valentino and giving him a role in her 1919 movie, "The Delicious Little Devil".

Mae fought for custody of his son for two years. When she finally was given custody, she was unable to care for him due to financial and personal problems. In 1940, he was adopted by his foster family and his name was changed to Daniel Michael Cunning.

She was arrested for vagrancy in NYC when she was found sleeping on a park bench.

Salary

Peacock Alley (1922)

$10,000/week

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