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Nita Naldi

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Nita Naldi
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Nita Naldi

Nita Naldi (April 1, 1897 - February 17, 1961) was one of the most successful silent film actresses of the Roaring Twenties.





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Early life

Born Anita Donna Dooley in New York City into a working class Irish-Italian family, Nita began her professional career in the Ziegfeld Follies, changing her decidedly Irish sounding surname to the more exotic Naldi as an homage to a childhood friend with the surname Rinaldi.



Career rise

Discovered in 1919 by actor John Barrymore, Nita soon took Hollywood by storm. With her sultry, exotic looks, she was immediately snapped up for a Paramount Pictures contract. 


She appeared in her first film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1920 at Barrymore's request. Initially, Nita was often cast in the role of the vamp; A sort of paean to earlier Hollywood starlet and rival Theda Bara. It was an onscreen persona that Naldi would capitalize on during her years in the film industry.


Her most memorable role came when she was teamed with Italian screen idol Rudolph Valentino in the enormous 1922 hit Blood and Sand. The pairing of the overtly seductive duo was so appealing to the public that Naldi was Valentino's co-star in three more films: 1924's The Hooded Falcon and A Sainted Devil, and Cobra in 1925. Naldi was often even referred by to by the press as the "Female Valentino". Naldi would become close friends with Valentino and would star alongside Valentino's wife, Natacha Rambova in Rambova's penned 1925 drama What Price Beauty?. While the film would be critically panned, it is noteworthy for being actress Myrna Loy's first screen appearance. 


At her career's peak, Naldi appeared in the collossal 1923 epic film The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Nita Naldi appeared in one of legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock's first directorial efforts, 1926's The Mountain Eagle. She is often credited, mistakenly, as appearing in Hitchcock's The Pleasure Garden.


Naldi would spend the mid-1920s appearing opposite such popular actors as of the era as: Leatrice Joy, Conrad Nagel, Maurice Costello, Rod La Rocque, Dorothy Gish, Norma Shearer and Bebe Daniels. She would make her last appearance onscreen in the 1929 Austrian film Pratermizzi opposite Czech actress Anny Ondra.



Travel abroad

In the late 1920's, she travelled to Europe and made several films before returning to America and appearing on Broadway in the 1933 productions of The Firebird and Queer People. Like so many other silent film stars however, the advent of the talkies saw Naldi's career wane. By the end of the 1920's, with America entering the Great Depression, her vamp persona seemed passé to American film-goers. Nita eventually retired and married J. Searle Barclay in 1929, the couple remained married until his death on January 30, 1945. Naldi never remarried nor had children.



Later life

She occasionally came out of retirement to appear in minor parts in films, television, and the stage - most notably her role in the 1952 play In Any Language, co-starring the legendary stage actress Uta Hagen.


Nita Naldi died of a heart attack in her New York City apartment at the age of 63 and was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens County, New York, USA.


For her contribution to the film industry, Nita Naldi was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6316 Hollywood Blvd.



Nita Naldi filmography




Nita Naldi with Rudolph Valentino in Cobra.

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Nita Naldi with Rudolph Valentino in Cobra.









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