The Mary Pickford Corporation - Early Life

Early Life

Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario. Her father, John Charles Smith, was the son of English Methodist immigrants, and worked a variety of odd jobs. Her mother, Charlotte Hennessy, was of Irish Catholic descent. She had two younger siblings, Jack and Lottie Pickford, who would also become actors. To please the relatives, Pickford's mother baptized her in both the Methodist and Catholic churches. Pickford later claimed that her middle name was changed to "Marie" during one of these baptisms.) Pickford's alcoholic father left his family in 1895. He died three years later of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Hennessy, who had worked as a seamstress throughout the separation, began taking in boarders. One of these lodgers was a theatrical stage manager, and at his suggestion, the seven-year-old Pickford was given two small roles, one of a boy and the other a girl, ( in a stock company production of The Silver King at Toronto's Princess Theatre. She subsequently acted in many melodramas with Toronto's Valentine Company, finally playing the major child role in their version of "The Silver King" and capping her short career with the starring role of Little Eva in their production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the most popular play of the 19th century.