Profile of Athole Shearer on Famous Like Me

Athole Shearer (November 20, 1900 - March 17, 1985) was an actress most noted as the sister of motion picture star Norma Shearer and film sound engineer Douglas Shearer.

Shearer was born in Montreal, Quebec. As a teenager, her divorced mother moved the two girls to New York City and then to Hollywood and in 1920 she obtained her first minor film roll. In 1923, Athole Shearer married John Ward with whom she would have a son. Divorced, in 1928 she married again, this time to noted film director Howard Hawks (1896-1977). They divorced twelve years later in 1940 at a turbulent time for Hawks who had been fired by studio owner Howard Hughes as the director of the film The Outlaw.

Athole Shearer suffered from bipolar disorder that went unrecognized for years resulting in her suffering numerous problems. Although she was the most attractive of the two Shearer sisters, her film career was limited to a few bit parts because of her personal difficulties. She spent many years in mental institutions until her illness was properly diagnosed.

Athole Shearer died in 1985 in Los Angeles, California and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Filmography

• The Restless Sex (1920)
• Way Down East (1920)
• The Flapper (1920)

See also: Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood

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