Theda Bara

Theda Bara ( THEE-də BARE-ə; born Theodosia Burr Goodman; July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress. Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp" (short for vampire, here meaning a seductive woman), later fueling the rising popularity in "vamp" roles based in exoticism and sexual domination. Born to a Jewish family in Cincinnati, Bara was the biggest star of Fox Studios, who prompted a fictitious persona for her as an Egyptian-born woman interested in the occult. She made more than 40 films between 1914 and 1926, most of which are now lost, having been destroyed in the 1937 Fox vault fire. She left Fox in 1919 and was unable to recapture her previous success. After her marriage to Charles Brabin in 1921, she made two more films and then retired from acting in 1926; she never appeared in a sound film. ()