Priscilla Bonner

Handsome rather than beautiful, blonde American silent screen actress Priscilla Bonner is remembered for four films: The Red Kimono (1925), an exploitation melodrama from the fertile mind of Mrs. Wallace Reid (aka Dorothy Davenport), It (1927), and two comedies opposite baby-faced Harry Langdon: The Strong Man (1926) and Long Pants (1927). All four are available today and Bonner emerges as a remarkably sensitive actress. But she regretted having accepted lower billing as Clara Bow's drab roommate in It, the result of which, she always maintained, was a loss of stardom. Bonner, who married in 1928 and subsequently retired, lived long enough to offer her unbridled opinions to biographers of Langdon, Capra, and good friend Preston Sturges. Film historian Anthony Slide brought Bonner back to the limelight in his 1994 documentary Silent Feminist, in which she elaborated on her work with Mrs. Reid. Priscilla Bonner was the sister of film actress Marjorie Bonner.

~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide