Alma Rubens
Alma Rubens
Biography
From Wikipedia Alma Rubens (February 19, 1897 – January 22, 1931) was an American film actress and stage performer. Rubens began her career in the mid 1910s. She quickly rose to stardom in 1916 after appearing opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Half Breed. For the remainder of the decade, she appeared in supporting roles in comedies and drama. In the 1920s. Her first stage opportunity came when a chorus girl in a musical comedy theater troupe became ill. Rubens was chosen to take her place and joined the troupe as a regular performer. There she met Franklyn Farnum who was also a member. He later convinced Rubens to leave the troupe and try her hand at film acting. Her breakthrough performance was in 1916 in the movie Reggie Mixes In. She made six more films in that same year. In 1917 she starred in The Firefly of Tough Luck, which was a big success. She gained fame when she became Douglas Fairbanks's leading lady in The Half Breed (1916), and supported Fairbanks and Bessie Love in the cocaine comedy The Mystery of the Leaping Fish later that same year. In 1918, Alma announced that she was changing the spelling of her last name of Rueben to "Rubens" because it caused too much confusion in the movie industry and in publications. She later told Photoplay magazine, "As a matter of fact my name is not the same [spelling] as the painter's. It's either Reubens or Ruebens-I forget which. I never could spell it. Couldn't remember where the 'e' came. So I let it go Rubens." In 1920, she completed The World and His Wife, opposite Montague Love which further solidified her popularity. In 1924, she starred in The Price She Paid and Cytherea. Rubens developed a drug addiction which eventually ended her career. She died of pneumonia shortly after being arrested on narcotics charge in January 1931. A funeral service was held on January 24 at the Little Church of the Flowers at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Her body was then shipped to Fresno where a second service was held at the Christian Science Church on January 26. She was interred in Ararat Massis Armenian Cemetery in Fresno. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Alma Rubens has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6409 Hollywood Blvd.
Known For
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
38
Gender
Female
Birthday
1897-02-17 (128 years old)
Place of Birth
San Francisco, California, USA
Acting

1929

Show Boat as Julie Dozier

1929

She Goes to War as Rosie

1928

The Masks of the Devil as Countess Zellner

1927

The Heart of Salome as Helene

1926

Marriage License? as Wanda Heriot

1926

Siberia as Sonia Vronsky

1926

The Gilded Butterfly as Linda Haverhill

1925

The Dancers as Maxine

1925

East Lynne as Lady Isabel

1925

Fine Clothes as Paula

1925

The Winding Stair as Marguerite

1924

Cytherea as Savina Grove

1924

Is Love Everything? as Virginia Carter

1924

The Rejected Woman as Diane Du Prez

1924

The Price She Paid as Mildred Gower

1923

Enemies of Women as The Duchess de Lille

1923

Under the Red Robe as Renee de Cocheforet

1922

Find the Woman as Sophie Carey

1922

The Valley of Silent Men as Not available

1920

The World and His Wife as Teodora

1920

Humoresque as Gina Berg (formerly Minnie Ginsberg)

1919

A Man's Country as Kate Carewe

1919

Diane of the Green Van as Diane Westfall

1918

The Ghost Flower as Not available

1917

The Cold Deck as Coralie

1917

An Old Fashioned Young Man as Not available

1917

A Woman's Awakening as Cousin Kate (as Alma Rueben)

1917

Truthful Tulliver as Grace Burton

1917

The Gown Of Destiny as Not available

1917

Master of His Home as Millicent Drake

1916

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages as Girl at the Marriage Market (uncredited)

1916

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish as Wealthy Gent's Female Confederate

1916

The Americano as Juana de Castalar

1916

The Half-Breed as Teresa

1916

The Children Pay as Editha, the Girls' Stepmother

1916

Reggie Mixes In as Lemona Reighley

1915

The Birth of a Nation as Belle of 1861 (uncredited)

1914

The Gangsters and the Girl as Not available