Silent Era Bad Boy Hottie Jack Pickford

"Pickford can be regarded as one of the first, if not the first, Hollywood celebrity to suffer what today we might call “trial by press” or “trial be media.” The fact that he was still making films nearly a decade after the suspicious death of his wife should be an indicator that such events were treated vastly differently ninety years ago to how they are now, and that Jack and his career survived the scandal relatively unscathed."

"He died from Chronic Polyneuritis, which is an auto imminue disease that causes dizzy spells and muscle issues. There is not cure for it — not even to this day. After 3 years of this disease, it spread to his brain which ultimately killed him. He was 36 years old. There were two doctors and two nurses at his bedside during his passing.

His nurses said he passed with a smile on his face.

The most famous and used rumor on his death is that he died from syphillis. There has been no record to ever surface about this being true. The rumor was started back in the early 1920’s by Florenz Ziegfeld, who started it because he was angry at Jack for Olive Thomas’ death and his early relationship to Marilyn Miller. Florenz apologized for making up such a thing, seeing how much it upset Marilyn."

Big sister Mary died an alcoholic recluse.

Interesting find OP

Wonderful three-part article about him, dispelling many long-enduring myths (such as, Olive died from drinking his Syphilis medicine) and featuring gorgeous photos of him.

Excerpt:

Did he sometimes behave immaturely and irresponsibly? Shocking! Who would expect such a thing from a handsome and world-famous, fawned over 21 year-old with today’s equivalent of millions of dollars burning big holes in the pockets of his Saville Row suits. Jack, as his mother Charlotte so succinctly put it, “is a good boy but inclined to wildness sometimes.” And was Jack a drunk? No, he was an alcoholic and, yes, there is a distinction. Professional drinkers like W.C. Fields and John Barrymore abhorred drunks. Jack was not a drunk. As William Bakewell told Scott Eyman “Jack was always pleasant and always loaded.” Anita Loos concurred, saying, “He was the only lush I ever knew who was good company.”

There is a podcast called " You Must Remember This"- excellent podcast about old movies stars and Jack and his wife are discussed in one episode.

This why I love DL- an obscure, interesting topic that we can still relate to today. Thank you OP.

^ Thanks! I'll check that out.

Hunky.

Nobody has jack to say about Jack?

"The final 5 years of Jack Pickford’s life are a mystery to most. The years that were filled with car crashes, hospital visits, drunken episodes and chronic illness."

In one of his silent films, "Mile-a-Minute Kendall," his other older sister Lottie plays a gold digger trying to seduce him. :-/

Where are his nudes?

"By the time the Biograph company arrived in California, the actors and actresses had virtually adopted Jack .... They would give him liquor after work, or even take the fourteen-year-old TO LOS ANGELES WHOREHOUSES. The first time at least, Jack was scared to go, for he HAD NO PUBIC HAIR and was afraid of being laughed at. One of the actors grabbed a makeup kit and OUTFITTED THE BOY WITH A MERKIN, a pubic wig, and off they went."

Scary, handsome pic of Jack.

THIS is who young RDJ should have played, not Chaplin.

Jack and vintage DL fave William Haines make googoo eyes at each other in the 1926 college football flick BROWN OF HARVARD.

Mrs. Pickford was a godawful stage mother to Mary, at least. Was she the same with all of her children?

^ Probably not, considering how much off screen shenanigans Jack and Lottie got up to, and all the money Mary Pickford had to pay off cops and reporters to keep it out of the public.

Mary Pickford was Allan Carr's first choice to play Rizzo in Grease, but then he decided she didn't look old enough.

Both Marilyn Miller and Olive Thomas are interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

He does not look well in that pic at r14.

He was hot!

Seems to me, he lived his life like a candle in the wind.

Wasn't Mary Pickford born Gladys Smith?

Any leaked jerk off phone vids?

Wow, R14. Big hands, big ears, big nose.

He looks like Pete Davidson.

^ Wow, he does a little bit.

Yes, Mary Pickford was born Gladys Smith. So her brother is Jack Smith by birth. I wonder if they all had their names legally changed.

What a beautiful boy.

He did NOT have syphilis.

He did have a BDF.

This would be an awesome movie. Why has it not been made?

Nicholas Hoult would be perfect to star.

Hands off, Ryan Murphy! You ruin everything!