Flora Finch
AKA: Flora Brooks
Birthday: 1867-06-16
Died: 1940-01-04
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).
Filmography
Character: Faith Bartle, the Gossip
Character: Second Wife, Mrs. Craig
Character: Miranda, Simon's Sweetheart
Character: Mrs. Marie Haslem
Character: The Plumber's Best Girl
Character: Woman with largest hat
Character: Markham's African Sister
Character: Mrs. Smith-Jones
Character: Headmistress of the School
Character: Miss Rachel Whipple
Character: Helen's Step-Mother
Character: Patrick's Suffragette Wife
Character: Mme. Frangiapani
Character: Jeanne - the Dishart's Servant
Character: A Starving Peasant (uncredited)
Character: Mrs. John Bunny, alias Vivian Astor
Character: Second Customer
Character: French Countess (uncredited)
Character: Movie Patron (uncredited)
Character: Maw (uncredited)
Character: Old Maid in Hall
Character: Woman Window Tapper (uncredited)
Character: Flora Winslow - a Widow
Character: Radio station beauty expert
Character: Mary Willoughby
Character: The Ugly Fraud (uncredited)
Character: Lucille Montgomery
Character: Principal of Miss Flint's Seminary
Character: The Director of the School
Character: Mrs. Evelyn Jones
Character: Madame Legrand
Character: Miss Amanda De Rosville
Character: Factory Worker
Character: The Chosen Stenographer
Character: Miss Susan - a Spinster
Character: Singer at Beulah's
Character: Mary McGregor, His Wife
Character: Agatha Calthorpe
Character: Mrs. Pettygrew
Character: The Judge's Wife
Character: Euphemia Jones
Character: The Widow Hathaway
Character: Ivy Skinner - the Lady of Shalott
Character: The Lady Book Agent
Character: Miss Penelope Budd
Character: Actress on Stage
Character: The Grandmother
Character: Mrs. Maggie Gallagher
Character: Duchesse de Montmorency
Character: Serena Slim - The Slender Sleuth
Character: Annette Kershaw
Character: Flora the Old Maid
Character: Stella Triplight
Character: Edith - The Widow