Profile of Aileen Pringle on Famous Like Me

Aileen Pringle (July 23, 1895 – December 16, 1989) was a highly successful and popular stage and film actress during the silent film era.

Born Aileen Bisbee into an extremly prominent and wealthy San Francisco, California family and educated in Europe, Aileen Pringle began her acting career shortly after her 1916 marriage to Charles McKenzie Pringle, the son of a wealthy titled British Jamaican landowner and a member of the Privy and Legislative Councils of Jamaica. Pringle's first roles were only modestly successful, and she continued to build her career until the early 1920s when she was personally selected by her friend, the extraordinarily popular romance novelist Elinor Glyn to star in the film adaptation of her novel Three Weeks opposite matinee idol Conrad Nagel in 1924. The role catapulted Pringle into leading-lady status and her career began to build momentum.

One small set-back occured on November 15, 1924 when Aileen Pringle was among a select group of Hollywood elites who boarded a yacht in San Pedro, California called The Oneida owned by newspaper scion and billionaire William Randolph Hearst. The event was to be a birthday party organized by Hearst for film producer and directer Thomas Ince. Other prominent guests aboard The Oneida included columnist Louella Parsons, actor Charlie Chaplin, actress Marion Davies (who was also Hearst's mistress), and actresses Seena Owen, and Julanne Johnson. At dinner that Sunday night, the group enthusiastically celebrated Ince's 42nd birthday. Early Monday morning, Ince was taken from the yacht by water taxi and brought ashore, accompanied by Dr. Goodman a licensed, though non-practicing, physician. By Tuesday night, Thomas Ince was dead. Although the mysterious death of Thomas Ince was ruled to have been caused by a gastro-intestinal illness, the press frenzy that followed turned the event into a Hollywood legend; with various enigmatic and lurid stories being proffered by gossips. Including an infamous story of how Hearst accidently shooting Ince while aiming for Chaplin, who he believed to be having an affair with Marion Davies.

Pringle's acting career continued to soar throughout the early 1920s. However, she was allegedly disliked by many of her co-workers for her apparently haughty and dismissive behavior. At one point she allegedly threatened actor Conrad Nagel with physical violence after he was instructed in a scene to carry her. Pringle's apparent disdain for her profession began to hurt her career, and by the late 1920s her roles became fewer and fewer. Although disliked by Hollywood insiders, Aileen Pringle was often dubbed by the press as the "Darling of the Intelligentsia" and hobnobbed and corresponded with such literary wits as H L Mencken, who became a life-long friend of the actress.

After her 1926 divorce from Charles McKenzie Pringle, Aileen Pringle further focused on her acting career. But, with the advent of talkies, the studios began heavily promoting a new crop of starlets and Pringle's career faded. During the sound era, she continued to take small parts in major films and even uncredited roles. In 1944 Pringle married author James M. Cain, but the union only lasted two years and ended in a bitter divorce. By the late 1940s, Pringle retired from the screen and lived in wealthy retirement in New York City, New York, USA where she passed away in 1989.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Aileen Pringle was awarded a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6723 Hollywood Blvd., in Los Angeles, California.

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