Julia Faye Maloney[1] (September 24, 1892[2] – April 6, 1966), known professionally as Julia Faye, was an American actress of silent and sound films.[3] She was known for her appearances in more than 30 Cecil B. DeMille productions. Her various roles ranged from maids and ingénues to vamps and queens.
She was "famed throughout Hollywood for her perfect legs" until her performance in Cecil B. DeMille's The Volga Boatman (1926) established her as "one of Hollywood's popular leading ladies."[4]
Faye's father died sometime before 1901,[12] when her widowed mother married Cyrus Demetrios Covell (1862–1941)[13] in Indiana. Faye took her stepfather's name and listed him as her father.
She had lived in St. Louis, Missouri, prior to coming to Hollywood in 1915, to visit friends. She visited one of the film studios and was introduced to actor and director Christy Cabanne. The two reminisced about St. Louis and discovered that they had lived next door to one another there. Cabanne persuaded Faye's reluctant mother to allow her to be in motion pictures.[14]
Career
Triangle, Fine Arts, and Keystone (1915–1916)
Publicity photo of Julia Faye from The Blue Book of the Screen by Ruth Wing, 1923
Faye made her debut in silent films with bit roles in Martyrs of the Alamo and The Lamb, both directed by Christy Cabanne for Triangle Film Corporation in 1915.[15] Her first credited and important role was as Dorothea opposite DeWolf Hopper's Don Quixote in the 1915 Fine Arts adaptation of the famous Miguel de Cervantes novel. Neil G. Caward, a reviewer for the film journal Motography, wrote, in his review of Don Quixote, that "both Fay Tincher as Dulcinea and Julia Faye as Dorothea add much enjoyment to the picture."[16] Faye's growing popularity increased with her appearances in several Keystone comedies, including A Movie Star, His Auto Ruination, His Last Laugh, Bucking Society, The Surf Girl, and A Lover's Might, all released in 1916. She also worked for D. W. Griffith, who gave her a minor role in Intolerance (1916).
Her next film, It Pays To Advertise (1919), was a Paramount Pictures release adapted by Elmer Harris from the play of the same name by Rol Cooper Megrue and Walter Hackett. It was directed by Donald Crisp. Faye was among the actors with Lois Wilson depicting the leading lady.[19]
When DeMille resigned as director general of Famous Players–Lasky, in January 1925, he became the production head of Cinema Corporation of America. He planned to direct two or three films per year and supervise the making of between ten and twenty more. Faye came along with him as did Joy, Rod La Rocque, Florence Vidor, Mary Astor, and Vera Reynolds.[22]
The Volga Boatman (1926) was directed by DeMille and named for the noted Russian folk song. William Boyd, Elinor Fair, and Faye have primary roles in a production DeMille called "his greatest achievement in picture making."[23] Faye's depiction of a "tiger woman" was esteemed as the most captivating of her career to this point.[24] Before this role she had been known for "silken siren roles". Theodore Kosloff played opposite her as a stupid blacksmith.[25]
Faye played Martha in The King of Kings (1927). Christ, portrayed by H.B. Warner, first appears through another's perception. A blind child searches for the Lord and DeMille turns the camera gradually down to the child's eyes; his recovery of sight is shown by darkness slowly turning into blurred light, with Christ gradually coming into focus from the child's point-of-view. Thus the viewer sees Christ initially like the blind child whose sight is restored.[26] Faye traveled to New York City for personal appearances in association with The King of Kings and to address a sales convention in Chicago, Illinois.[27]
Faye won critical acclaim for her leading performance in the 60-minute silent comedy Turkish Delight (1927),[28] directed by Paul Sloane for DeMille Pictures Corporation. She was featured as Velma in the 1927 DeMille-produced film adaptation of the play Chicago; she has the distinction of being the first actress to portray Velma on-screen.
Faye married Harold Leroy Wallick on August 2, 1913, in Manhattan.[29] Wallick predeceased her, and she is listed as a widow in the 1930 census.[30][31]
Faye first met Cecil B. DeMille in 1917 and became one of his mistresses. In 1920, Faye resided at 2450 Glendower Avenue in Los Feliz.[32] She later bought a Colonial Revival-style mansion at 2338 Observatory Avenue, also in Los Feliz.[33]
Faye married screenwriter[34] Walter Anthony Merrill on October 24, 1935, in Los Angeles.[35] In April 1936, she announced that she had obtained a Nevada divorce from Merrill. [34]
Faye began writing a memoir, Flicker Faces, in the mid-1940s. Although it remains unpublished, some excerpts from the memoir are included in author Scott Eyman's 2010 biography of DeMille, Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille.
For her contributions to the American film industry, Faye was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6500 Hollywood Boulevard.[37] Her memoir, preserved in The Cecil B. DeMille Archives at Brigham Young University, has yet to be published.
^The Film Daily. Wid's Films and Film Folk Incorporated. 1966. p. 184. Hollywood—Julia Faye Merrill, 72, a beauty of silent films whose acting career continued until 1956, died Wednesday at her home in Pacific Palisades, following an illness of several months.
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