Alice Terry

American actress Alice Terry began her successful film career at age 14 as an extra billed under her original name, Alice Taafe. Between 1916 and 1919, she worked for D.W. Griffith's Triangle studios; films from this period included Not My Sister and Old Wives for New. In 1920, she won a small part in director Rex Ingram's Shore Acres. An extraordinary beauty, known for intelligence, sophistication, and dignity, she caught Ingram's eye and after playing a major supporting role (billed as "Alice Terry") in his feature Hearts Are Trumps, his heart as well. They married in 1921 and remained together until Ingram's death in 1950. The year of their wedding, Ingram starred her in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse opposite an as yet unknown Rudolph Valentino. Blonde and icy Terry (though a natural redhead, Terry always appeared onscreen in blonde wigs) and dark and fiery Valentino's onscreen chemistry was dynamite and the romantic adventure made both of them stars. Later that year, the two co-starred for the last time in Ingram's The Conquering Power. Terry would star in nine more of Ingram's features before the decade's end. In 1922, Terry appeared in her husband's The Prisoner of Zenda opposite handsome Ramon Novarro. He became her favorite leading man and they appeared in four more films together. Terry also occasionally appeared in films directed by others including The Great Divide (1924) and Confessions of a Queen (1925). In the mid-'20s, Ingram and Terry moved to Nice, France, where they started their own studio. Following the advent of sound, both Terry and Ingram, despite considerable protestation, chose to retire. She did make a film in 1935, Asilo Naval. When WWII began, the two returned to the U.S. Terry never remarried following Ingram's death.

~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide