Alice Joyce | |
|---|---|
 Joyce in Photoplay (1917) | |
| Born | Alice Joyce October 1, 1890 Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | October 9, 1955 (aged 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1910–1930 |
| Spouses | James B. Regan
(m. 1920; div. 1932) |
| Children | 2 |
Alice Joyce Brown (née Joyce; October 1, 1890 – October 9, 1955) was an American actress who appeared in more than 200 films during the 1910s and 1920s. She is known for her roles in the 1923 film The Green Goddess and its 1930 remake of the same name.[1][2][3][4]
Alice Joyce was born in Kansas City, Missouri,[5] to John Edward and Vallie Olive McIntyre Joyce. She had a brother, Francis "Frank" Joyce, who was 2 years younger and who later became an entertainment manager. Her father was a smelter of Irish and French ancestry and her mother a Welsh seamstress. Educated at a convent in Maryland, she ran away to New York while still a teenager.[4]
By 1900, her parents' marriage fell apart, and her father took custody of Alice and Frank and moved to Falls Church, Virginia, where Joyce spent most of her childhood. According to the 1910 Census, her mother remarried in 1900 to Leon Faber, and they resided in the Bronx, New York, along with Alice and Frank, where she was employed as a photographer's model and appeared in illustrated songs.
She once said that film producer D.W. Griffith had told her that she reminded him of a cow.[5] Despite this unflattering comment, Joyce was a well-respected actress of the silent film era. Though Griffith did not show any interest in her, she found work modelling for both artists and photographers. One film historian ranks her among the top models of 1910, in the company of Mabel Normand and Anna Nilsson. She posed for some of the better known artists of the day, including Harrison Fisher, Charles Dana Gibson, and Neysa McMein.[4]
Joyce was married three times, the first time in 1914 to actor Tom Moore with whom she had a daughter, Alice Joyce Moore. They divorced in 1920. The same year, she married James B. Regan, son of the managing director of the old Knickerbocker Hotel; her second daughter was born during this union. They divorced in 1932, shortly after which the actress declared bankruptcy, and then she married for a third time.
Her last marriage came in 1933 in Virginia City, Nevada to film director Clarence Brown; they separated in 1942 and divorced in 1945.[6] The actress retained Brown's name.[7] During their separation, she sued him for reparation on cruelty charges.[8]
Joyce was known as "The Madonna of the Screen" for her striking features and presence. She made her last movie in 1930, after which she and ex-husband Tom Moore worked a late vaudeville circuit for a time. She declared voluntary bankruptcy in 1933.[9] Joyce was active in women's organizations in the San Fernando Valley in her later years. She did book reviews and made sketches for friends.[citation needed]
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