Flora Finch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Flora Finch (17 June 1867 – 4 January 1940) was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company.
Finch was born into a music hall and travelling theatrical family in London and was taken to the United States as a young child. She kept up the family tradition and worked in theatre and the vaudeville circuit right up until her 30s.
She had her first film roles at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company starting in 1908. There she worked with Fatty Arbuckle, Mack Sennett (with whom she was romantically involved for a short time) and Charlie Chaplin amongst others.
Starting in 1910 at Vitagraph, she was paired with John Bunny for the first of 160 very popular shorts made between 1910 and 1915. These shorts, known as "Bunnygraphs", "Bunnyfinches", and "Bunnyfinchgraphs", established Finch and Bunny as the first popular comedy team in films. The duo became a short-lived trio, when Mabel Normand arrived at the studio.
After Bunny's death in 1915 she continued to make comedy shorts, but with less success. She started her own production company, "Flora Finch Productions", but was never able to regain her popularity. One of her best-known roles in the later silent years was Aunt Susan in Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary (1927). She found film work in the sound era, but only in small supporting parts. The Scarlet Letter (1934) gave her one of her more substantial roles in sound films, and she had a cameo in one of Laurel and Hardy's best-known films Way Out West (1937). Her last film was The Women (1939).
Acting
Movie
Way Out West
as Maw (uncredited)
1937
Movie
The Women
as Woman Window Tapper (uncredited)
1939
Movie
Orphans of the Storm
as A Starving Peasant (uncredited)
1921
Movie
The Cat and the Canary
as Susan
1927
Movie
Those Awful Hats
as Woman with largest hat
1909
Movie
Show Boat
1936
Movie
A Cure for Pokeritis
as Mrs. Sharpe
1912
Movie
A Night at the Movies
as Movie Patron (uncredited)
1937
Movie
The Scarlet Letter
as Faith Bartle, the Gossip
1934
Movie
What Drink Did
1909
Movie
When Knighthood Was in Flower
as French Countess (uncredited)
1922
Movie
Her Crowning Glory
as The Governess
1911
Movie
Quality Street
as Mary Willoughby
1927
Movie
Monsieur Beaucaire
as Duchesse de Montmorency
1924
Movie
Captain Salvation
as Mrs. Snifty
1927
Movie
Say It with Songs
as Radio station beauty expert
1929
Movie
The Midnight Girl
as Landlady
1925
Movie
The Matrimonial Bed
as Vosin
1930
Movie
A Kiss for Cinderella
as Second Customer
1925
Movie
Postal Inspector
as The Ugly Fraud (uncredited)
1936
Movie
Hearts and Diamonds
as Miss Rachel Whipple
1914
Movie
A Lady and Her Maid
1913
Movie
Women Are Trouble
as Society Woman
1936
Movie
The Pickpocket
as Patrick's Suffragette Wife
1913