Olive Tell

Olive Tell
File:Olive Tell Who's Who on the Screen.jpg
Born	(1894-09-27)September 27, 1894 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	New York City, New York, U.S.
Years active	1917-1938
Spouse(s)	Henry Hobart (1926-?)

Olive Tell (September 27, 1894 – June 6, 1951) was a stage and screen actress from New York City.

Biography

Tell graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1915. Tell's sister, Alma Tell, was also a stage actress. The sisters began appearing in the Broadway (Manhattan) theaters at about the same time, around 1918. Olive made her New York debut in the drama Husband and Wife. At first she preferred acting in theater and detested her work on screen.

She first appeared in motion pictures during World War I. Her early screen roles were in silent films like Sidney Olcott directed comedy The Silent Master (1917), The Unforeseen (1917), Her Sister (1917), and National Red Cross Pageant (1917). Tell appeared opposite such popular film actors of the era as: Donald Gallaher, Karl Dane, Ann Little, Rod La Rocque, Ethel Barrymore and a young Tallulah Bankhead.

Tell married First National Pictures movie producer, Henry M. Hobart, in 1926. Her first husband was killed in World War I. Hobart and Tell moved to California in 1926 and stayed in Hollywood for twelve years.

Her final screen credits came in the late 1930s. She performed in In His Steps (1936), Polo Joe (1936) with Joe E. Brown, Easy To Take (1936), Under Southern Stars (1937). Tell's final screen appearance was in the George Cukor directed drama Zaza (1939), starring Claudette Colbert.

Olive Tell died in Bellevue Hospital in 1951 after suffering a fractured skull at the Dryden Hotel, 150 East Thirty-Ninth Street, New York City, where she resided. She was fifty-six years old.

Selected Filmography

• National Red Cross Pageant (1917)
• To Hell with the Kaiser! (1918)
• Secret Strings (1918)
• The Trap (1919)
• Clothes (1920)
• Chickie (1925)
• Womanhandled (1925)
• Summer Bachelors (1926)
• Prince of Tempters (1926)
• Slaves of Beauty (1927)
• Sailors' Wives (1928)
• The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929)
• Hearts in Exile (1929)
• The Very Idea (1929)
• Cock o' the Walk (1930)
• Lawful Larceny (1930)
• The Right of Way (1931)
• Ten Cents a Dance (1931)
• Woman Hungry (1931)
• Ladies' Man (1931)
• Devotion (1931)
• Delicious (1931)
• Strictly Personal (1933)
• The Witching Hour (1934)
• The Scarlet Empress (1934)
• Private Scandal (1934)
• Baby Take a Bow (1934)
• Four Hours to Kill! (1935)
• Shanghai (1935)
• Polo Joe (1936)
• Zaza (1939) (uncredited)

References

• Los Angeles Times, "Olive Tell In Stage Return", March 25, 1928, Page C15.
• New York Times, "Olive Tell, Appeared On Stage And Screen", June 9, 1951, Page 19.

External links

• Olive Tell at the Internet Movie Database
• Olive Tell at Find a Grave