Stars that passed in 1920

2020 marks the Centennial Deaths of 4 Silent Movie Stars who died in 1920.

Clarine E. Seymour

 (December 9, 1898 – April 25, 1920) was an American silent film actress.

Brief Career

In 1917, Seymour appeared in Pathé's Mystery of the Double Cross opposite actress Mollie King. Hal Roach saw her performance and offered her a film contract with his Rolin Film Company. Seymour accepted and relocated to Los Angeles to perform as the leading lady in the Toto the Clown (played by Armando Novello) film comedy serials. Throughout 1918, she appeared in the Toto serial and also had a supporting role in the comedy short Just Rambling Along (1918), opposite Stan Laurel. The deal with Roach soon soured after Seymour claimed she was fired for refusing to do her own stunts. She filed suit against the company and was awarded $1,325 (approximately $23,000 today) in damages. While the case was pending, Seymour appeared in comedy shorts for Al Christie's comedy shorts.

In 1918, Seymour met Victor Heerman. Heerman directed a screen test featuring Seymour and one of D.W. Griffith's Artcraft stock company actors Robert Harron. Griffith was pleased with the pairing and with Seymour's knack for light comedy and hired her as member of his stock company. Griffith cast Seymour with Harron, Richard Barthelmess and Carol Dempster in the drama The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919). Although the film was not well received by critics, Seymour's performance was and the public interest in her began to grow. Later that year, she was paired with Robert Harron again in True Heart Susie (1919) which also featured Lillian Gish. Seymour followed with role in Scarlet Days (1919), also opposite Richard Barthelmess and Carol Dempster. In 1920, Griffith cast Seymour in the lead role in The Idol Dancer. The film was not well received by audiences but they were taken by Seymour's performance.Shortly after the film's release, Seymour was featured on the cover of Motion Picture Magazine.

Death

In early 1920 Griffith again cast Seymour, this time in Way Down East. Halfway through filming, on April 21, Seymour fell ill due to "intestinal strangulation". She was taken to Misericordia Hospital in New York City for treatment but her condition did not improve. She underwent emergency surgery but died after developing pneumonia on April 25, 1920.

Seymour is buried in Greenwood Union Cemetery in Rye, New York.

Actress Mary Hay was cast in Seymour's role for Way Down East and her part was reshot. Footage of Seymour in long shots can be seen in the finished film. On September 26, a memorial service for Seymour, Ormer Locklear, Olive Thomas, and Robert Harron (who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days after the premiere of Way Down East) was held at the Robert Brunton Studios. All four had died that year and were eulogized by director William Desmond Taylor. Taylor was murdered less than 18 months later; his killer was never caught. 

Ormer Locklear 

Ormer Leslie "Lock" Locklear (October 28, 1891 – August 2, 1920) was an American daredevil stunt pilot and film actor.

His popular flying circus caught the attention of Hollywood, and he starred in The Great Air Robbery (1919), a screenplay about the mid-air piracy of a US airmail plane. In his next film, The Skywayman, the plane crashed during a climactic dive, when the lighting team supposedly failed to douse the lights on cue, so Locklear was dazzled and flew blindly into the ground, dying instantly with his co-pilot Milton "Skeets" Elliott. The scene remained on the film.

Film Career

The Locklear Flying Circus performed throughout the United States. When they came to the attention of Hollywood, Pickens arranged for Locklear to appear as a stunt man in film work. This opened the way to a movie career in California for Locklear, now considered the foremost "aviation stunt man in the world". Carl Laemmle, head of Universal Pictures, agreed to purchase all of Locklear's future air show dates in July 1919 in order to have him on contract for a proposed two-film series. Locklear was signed to star in The Great Air Robbery, a film depicting pilots flying air mail.

Principal photography for The Great Air Robbery began in July 1919 at DeMille Field 1, Los Angeles, California, owned by producer Cecil B. DeMille. Besides being used as a base for flying, Locklear's Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" aircraft was also mounted on a raised wooden platform at the airfield in order to film closeups. The Great Air Robbery was primarily an opportunity to showcase the aerial stunts that had made Locklear famous. The studio promotion was extensive, with Laemmle declaring the film was "... the most amazing and unbelievable photodrama of all time."The promotional campaign included a premiere at the Superba Theatre in Los Angeles, and a two-month personal appearance tour with Locklear.

Reviews were generally favourable, as The Great Air Robbery was the first of a cycle of postwar films dealing with the exploits of stunt pilots. The New York Times review focused on the exciting elements of the film. "Lieutenant Locklear swings from one airplane to another and crawls out on the tail of a flying machine several thousand feet, presumably, above the earth. The melodrama's use of airplanes for midnight mail deliveries, highway, or rather highair, robberies, and battles between the forces of law and lawlessness adds excitement."

Although The Great Air Robbery was a commercial success, Laemmle did not take up the option for a second film starring Locklear, prompting his $25,000 lawsuit against Universal. Unwilling to go back to the air show circuit, Locklear wanted to continue his Hollywood career, and in April 1920, he was signed to star in The Skywayman (1920).

Principal photography on The Skywayman began on June 11, 1920, with DeMille Field 2 as the main base of operations. Despite Locklear's public claim that new stunts "more daring ever filmed" would be involved, the production would rely heavily on models and less on actual stunt flying. Two stunts, a church steeple being toppled by Locklear's aircraft and an aircraft-to-train transfer were both problematic and nearly ended in disaster.

Personal Life

Locklear married Ruby Graves in 1915. The marriage was largely unhappy as Graves and Locklear had vastly different personalities. They separated in 1919 after Locklear moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film career. Despite the marriage being an unhappy one, Graves refused to grant Locklear a divorce. They remained legally married until Locklear's death.

While separated from Graves, Locklear met widowed silent film actress Viola Dana. They began a relationship and were engaged at the time of Locklear's death. Dana witnessed the plane crash that killed Locklear. She was so traumatized by the event that she refused to fly for the next 25 years. In 1980, Dana recalled her relationship with Locklear and also spoke about his fatal crash in the documentary Hollywood

Death 

The last stunt scheduled for filming for The Skywayman was a nighttime spin, initially to take place in daylight with cameras fitted with red filters to simulate darkness. Locklear, under a lot of pressure, with not only his family life being in upheaval but also learning that studio head William Fox was not going to extend his contract beyond one film, demanded that he be allowed to fly at night. The studio relented, and on August 2, 1920, publicity surrounding the stunt led to a large crowd gathering to witness the filming of the unusual stunt. Large studio arc lights were set up on DeMille Field 2 to illuminate the Curtiss "Jenny", to be doused as the aircraft entered its final spin. The dive towards some oil derricks was to make it appear that the airplane crashed beside the oil well. As arranged, Locklear had forewarned the lighting crew to douse their lights when he got near the derricks so that he could see to pull out of the dive, saying that "When you take the lights off, I'll know where I am and I can come out of it."  After completing a series of aerial maneuvers, Locklear signaled that he would descend.

In front of spectators and film crew, Locklear and his long-time flying partner "Skeets" Elliot crashed heavily into the sludge pool of an oil well, never pulling out of the incipient spin. The crash resulted in a massive explosion and fire, with Locklear and Elliot dying instantly. After the accident, speculation revolved around the five arc lights that had remained fully on, possibly blinding the flight crew.

With the entire film already completed except for the night scene, Fox made the decision to capitalize on the fatal crash by rushing The Skywayman into post-production and release. With notices proclaiming "Every Inch Of Film Showing Locklear's Spectacular (And Fatal) Last Flight. His Death-Defying Feats And A Close Up Of His Spectacular Crash To Earth," the film premiered in Los Angeles on September 5, 1920.The advertising campaign that accompanied the film was very similar to that of Locklear's first feature film, focusing on his earlier exploits and combining model displays and exhibition flights across North America to coincide with the film's release. Upon the film's release, Fox Film Corporation publicly announced that 10% of the profits would go to the families of Locklear and Elliot.

Locklear is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas.

Legacy

Locklear was reputed to be the prototype for the character of Waldo Pepper, played by Robert Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975). Viola Dana was an honored guest at the premiere of the film.

Robert Harron

Robert Emmett "Bobby" Harron (April 12, 1893 – September 5, 1920) was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in over 200 films, he is known for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed films The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

Career

Within a year of working for Biograph, Harron was noticed by newly hired director D.W. Griffith. Harron quickly became a favorite of Griffith and Griffith began to give the 14-year-old increasingly larger film roles. His first film for Griffith was the 1909 short crime drama The Lonely Villa. The teenaged Harron was often cast by Griffith in the role of the "sensitive" and "naïve" boy, who was overwhelmingly sympathetic and appealing to American film-goers in the very early years of American motion pictures and not far removed from Harron's real-life persona; Harron was often described as a quiet and soft-spoken youth. It was these traits that helped garner much public interest in the young actor, especially amongst young female fans. In 1912 alone, Robert Harron appeared in nearly forty films at Biograph.

Harron is probably best recalled for his roles in the three epic Griffith films: 1914's Judith of Bethulia, opposite Blanche Sweet, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, and Dorothy and Lillian Gish; 1915's controversial all-star cast The Birth of a Nation; and 1916's colossal multi-scenario Intolerance opposite such popular stars of the era as Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, Wallace Reid, Harold Lockwood, and Mildred Harris. One of Harron's most popular roles of the era came in 1919 when he starred opposite Lillian Gish in the Griffith directed romantic film True Heart Susie.

Robert Harron's film career continued to flourish throughout the 1910s and he was occasionally paired with leading actresses Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish with romantic plots, often in roles that cemented his "sensitive boy" image. Harron had, in fact, a burgeoning off-screen romantic relationship with Dorothy Gish. By 1920, Harron had grown too old to continue playing the juvenile roles that had launched his career. He began losing leading man roles to Richard Barthelmess. Later that year, D.W. Griffith agreed to loan Harron to Metro Pictures for a four-picture deal. His first film for Metro, also the last film of his career, was the comedy Coincidence.The film was released in 1921, after Harron's death.

Death

In late August 1920, Harron traveled by train from Los Angeles to New York City to attend the premiere of the film Way Down East and a preview of what would become his final film, Coincidence. Harron checked into the Hotel Seymour on September 1 with his friend, screenwriter and director Victor Heerman, with whom he was sharing a room. Harron and Heerman attended the preview for Coincidence later that day. Heerman later said that the preview went poorly as the film was not well received by the audience.

After the premiere, Harron returned to his hotel room alone. At some point, Harron sustained a gunshot wound to the chest after a gun in his possession discharged. According to published reports and Harron's own account, he had the gun in a trunk along with his clothes and other possessions. As he was taking some clothes out of the trunk, the gun fell to the floor, discharged, hitting him in the chest and puncturing his lung. Harron called the hotel desk for assistance and was still conscious when the hotel manager came to his room. Not realizing he was seriously wounded, Harron joked with the manager that he was in a "devil of a fix" having shot himself. He initially refused to let the manager call an ambulance, only wanting to be examined by a local physician in his room. After a physician could not be found, Harron relented and agreed to allow the manager to call an ambulance. When medics arrived and attempted to transport Harron using a stretcher, he insisted to be taken down in a chair. As he had lost a considerable amount of blood, medics had to convince Harron that he needed to be transported on a stretcher.

Harron was transported to Bellevue Hospital Center where he remained conscious but in critical condition. While he was being treated, Harron was arrested for possessing a firearm without a permit under the Sullivan Act and placed in the hospital's prison ward. Shortly after the shooting, rumors arose that the shooting was not accidental and Harron had attempted suicide. There was speculation that Harron was despondent over being passed over for the leading role in Way Down East (Richard Barthelmess was ultimately cast). Several of Harron's friends rejected the suicide theory. Victor Heerman, with whom he often went on double dates and was staying with Harron in the Hotel Seymour, later said that he visited Harron in the hospital and he denied that he had attempted suicide. Harron admitted the gun belonged to him, but claimed that he had brought it with him because he did not want the gun at the family home in Los Angeles. Harron told Heerman that his younger brother Johnnie had become "hard to handle" and he feared leaving the gun at the family home where Johnnie could find it. Harron told Heerman that he wrapped the gun up in a pair of his trousers and placed them in his suitcase. On the night of the shooting, Harron said he had gone to retrieve the trousers from his suitcase to have them pressed when the gun fell out and discharged.Harron also told a priest who visited him in the hospital that the shooting was an accident.

Despite Harron's denial, rumors of attempted suicide persisted. One such rumor was that Harron attempted suicide over the breakup of his relationship with Dorothy Gish. Victor Heerman rejected this theory because Harron, a teetotaler and virgin, was a devout Catholic. Actresses Miriam Cooper and Lillian Gish, both of whom were friends with Harron, agreed with Heerman's reasoning. Cooper and Gish also believed Harron had not tried to kill himself as he was his family's major source of income and had plans to start shooting a new film with Elmer Clifton.

Friends who visited Harron in the hospital were optimistic about his recovery as he appeared to be on the mend. However, on September 5, four days after he was shot, Harron died of his wound. He is interred at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, New York City.

Olive Thomas

Just 5 days after the death of  Robert Harron perhaps the saddest death to hit the film industry in 1920 the death of Olive Thomas

Olive Thomas (born Oliva R. Duffy; October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent-film actress, art model and photo model.

Thomas began her career as an illustrator's model in 1914, and moved on to the Ziegfeld Follies the following year. During her time as a Ziegfeld girl, she also appeared in the more risqué show The Midnight Frolic. In 1916, she began a successful career in silent films and would appear in more than 20 features over the course of her four-year film career. That year she also married actor Jack Pickford, the younger brother of fellow silent-film star Mary Pickford.

On September 10, 1920, Thomas died in Paris five days after ingesting her husband's syphillis medication, mercury bichloride, that brought on acute nephritis. Although her death was ruled accidental, news of her hospitalization and subsequent death were the subject of speculation in the press. Thomas' death has been cited as one of the first heavily publicized Hollywood scandals.

Career

Modeling

In 1914, Thomas entered and subsequently won the "Most Beautiful Girl in New York City" contest held by Howard Chandler Christy, a commercial artist. Winning the contest helped establish her career as an artists' model, and she would later pose for Harrison Fisher, Raphael Kirchner, Penrhyn Stanlaws, and Haskell Coffin. Thomas was featured on many magazine covers, including that of the Saturday Evening Post.

Stage

Fisher wrote a letter of recommendation to Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., resulting in Thomas' being hired for the Ziegfeld Follies. However, Thomas later disputed this, claiming she "walked right up and asked for the job" She made her stage debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1915 on June 21, 1915. Thomas' popularity in the Follies led to her being cast in Ziegfeld's more risqué Midnight Frolic show. The Frolic was staged after hours in the roof garden of the New Amsterdam Theatre. It was primarily a show for famous male patrons who had plenty of money to bestow on the young and beautiful female performers. Thomas received expensive gifts from her admirers; it was rumored that German Ambassador Albrecht von Bernstorff had given her a $10,000 string of pearls.

During her time in The Follies, Thomas began an affair with Florenz Ziegfeld.Ziegfeld, who was married to actress Billie Burke, had affairs with other Ziegfeld girls, including Lillian Lorraine and Marilyn Miller (who would later marry Thomas' widower Jack Pickford). Thomas ended the affair with Ziegfeld after he refused to leave Burke to marry her.

Thomas continued modeling while appearing in the Follies. She became the first "Vargas Girl" after she posed for a portrait painted by Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas. The portrait, titled Memories of Olive, features Thomas nude from the waist up while clutching a rose. The portrait was reportedly commissioned by Florenz Ziegfeld but Vargas later denied this claim. Ziegfeld purchased and hung the portrait in his office at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Vargas, who called Thomas "one of the most beautiful brunettes that Ziegfeld ever glorified," kept a copy of the painting for his personal collection.

Silent films

In July 1916, Thomas signed with the International Film Company. She made her on-screen debut in "Episode 10" of Beatrice Fairfax, a film serial. In 1917, she made her full-length feature debut in A Girl Like That for Paramount Pictures.

That same year, she signed with Triangle Pictures. Shortly after, news broke of her engagement to actor Jack Pickford, whom she had married a year prior. Thomas and Pickford, who was the younger brother of Mary Pickford, kept the marriage secret because Thomas did not want people to think her success in film was due to her association with the Pickfords.Her first film for Triangle, Madcap Madge, was released in June 1917. Thomas' popularity at Triangle grew with performances in Indiscreet Corrine (1917) and Limousine Life (1918). In 1919, she portrayed a French girl who poses as a boy in Toton the Apache. Thomas later said that she felt her work in Toton was "the first real thing I've ever done."She made her final film for Triangle, The Follies Girl, that same year.

After leaving Triangle, Thomas signed with Myron Selznick's Selznick Pictures Company in December 1918 for a salary of $2,500 a week. She hoped for more serious roles, believing that with her husband signed to the same company, she would have more influence. Her first film for Selznick, Upstairs and Down (1919), proved successful and established her image as a "baby vamp". She followed with roles in Love's Prisoner and Out Yonder, both in 1919. In 1920, Thomas played a teenage schoolgirl The Flapper, who yearns for excitement beyond her small Florida town. Thomas was the first actress to portray a lead character who was a flapper and the film was the first of its kind to portray the flapper lifestyle. Frances Marion, who wrote the scenario, was responsible for bringing the term into the American vernacular. The Flapper proved to be popular and became one of Thomas' most successful films. On October 4, 1920, Thomas' final film, Everybody's Sweetheart, was released.

Personal Life

Thomas' first marriage was to Bernard Krug Thomas, a man she met at age 15 while living in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. They married on April 1, 1911, and lived with his parents in McKees Rocks PA the first six months of their marriage. The couple later moved into their own apartment. Krug Thomas worked as a clerk at the Pressed Steel Car Company while Olive took care of the home. In 1913, the couple separated and Olive moved to New York City to pursue a career as a model. She was granted a divorce on September 25, 1915, on the grounds of desertion and cruelty. In 1931, Bernard Krug Thomas gave an interview to The Pittsburg Press, detailing his marriage to Olive, implying that a cause of the demise of their marriage was her ambition, a desire to obtain a life of "luxury", and "improve her station".

In late 1916, Thomas met actor Jack Pickford, brother of one of the most successful silent stars, Mary Pickford, at a beach cafe on the Santa Monica Pier. Both Thomas and Pickford were known for their partying. Screenwriter Frances Marion remarked, "I had seen her often at the Pickford home, for she was engaged to Mary's brother, Jack. Two innocent-looking children, they were the gayest, wildest brats who ever stirred the stardust on Broadway. Both were talented, but they were much more interested in playing the roulette of life than in concentrating on their careers."Thomas eloped with Pickford on October 25, 1916, in New Jersey. None of their family was present, with only actor Thomas Meighan as their witness. Although the couple never had any children of their own, in 1920, they adopted Thomas' six-year-old nephew, the son of one of her brothers, after his mother died.

By most accounts, Thomas was the love of Pickford's life. However, the marriage was tumultuous and filled with highly charged conflict, followed by lavish making up through the exchange of expensive gifts.  Pickford's family did not always approve of Thomas, though most of the family did attend her funeral. In Mary Pickford's 1955 autobiography Sunshine and Shadow, she wrote:

I regret to say that none of us approved of the marriage at that time. Mother [i.e., Charlotte Hennessey] thought Jack was too young, and Lottie and I felt that Olive, being in musical comedy, belonged to an alien world. Ollie had all the rich, eligible men of the social world at her feet. She had been deluged with proposals from her own world of the theater as well. Which was not at all surprising. The beauty of Olive Thomas is legendary. The girl had the loveliest violet-blue eyes I have ever seen. They were fringed with long dark lashes that seemed darker because of the delicate translucent pallor of her skin. I could understand why Florenz Ziegfeld never forgave Jack for taking her away from the Follies. She and Jack were madly in love with one another, but I always thought of them as a couple of children playing together.

Death

For many years, Thomas and Pickford had intended to vacation together. Both were constantly traveling and had little time to spend together. With their marriage on the rocks, the couple decided to take a second honeymoon. In August 1920, the pair headed for Paris, hoping to combine a vacation with some film preparations.

On the night of September 5, 1920, they went out for a night of entertainment and partying at the famous bistros in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris. Returning to their room in the Hotel Ritz around 3 a.m., Pickford either fell asleep or was outside the room. An intoxicated and tired Thomas ingested mercury bichloride liquid solution. It had been prescribed to Pickford to topically treat sores caused by his chronic syphilis.

Thomas had either thought the flask contained drinking water or sleeping pills; accounts vary. The label was in French, which may have added to her confusion. After drinking the liquid she screamed, "Oh, my God!" and Pickford ran to pick her up. She was taken to the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where Pickford and his former brother-in-law Owen Moore remained at her side until she died five days later.

Controversy and death ruling

While Thomas lay in the American Hospital dying, the press began reporting on the various rumors that began to arise about the circumstances of the incident. Some papers reported that Thomas had attempted suicide after having a fight with Pickford over his alleged infidelities, while others said she attempted suicide after discovering Pickford had given her syphilis. There were rumors that Thomas was plagued by a drug addiction, that she and Pickford had been involved in "champagne and cocaine orgies," or that Pickford tricked her into drinking poison in an attempt to murder her to collect her insurance money.  Owen Moore, who accompanied Pickford and Thomas in Paris, denied the rumors, saying that Thomas was not suicidal and that she and Pickford had not fought that evening. Jack Pickford also denied the rumors, stating, "Olive and I were the greatest pals on Earth. Her death is a ghastly mistake."

On September 13, 1920, Pickford gave his account of that night to the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner:

We arrived back at the Ritz hotel at about 3 o'clock in the morning. I had already booked airplane seats for London. We were going Sunday morning. Both of us were tired out. We both had been drinking a little. I insisted that we had better not pack then, but rather get up early before our trip and do it then. I went to bed immediately. She fussed around and wrote a note to her mother. ... She was in the bathroom.

Suddenly she shrieked: 'My God.' I jumped out of bed, rushed toward her and caught her in my arms. She cried to me to find out what was in the bottle. I picked it up and read: 'Poison.' It was a toilet solution and the label was in French. I realized what she had done and sent for the doctor. Meanwhile, I forced her to drink water in order to make her vomit. She screamed, 'O, my God, I'm poisoned.' I forced the whites of eggs down her throat, hoping to offset the poison. The doctor came. He pumped her stomach three times while I held Olive.

Nine o'clock in the morning I got her to the Neuilly Hospital, where Doctors Choate and Wharton took charge of her. They told me she had swallowed bichloride of mercury in an alcoholic solution, which is ten times worse than tablets. She didn't want to die. She took the poison by mistake. We both loved each other since the day we married. The fact that we were separated months at a time made no difference in our affection for each other. She even was conscious enough the day before she died to ask the nurse to come to America with her until she had fully recovered, having no thought she would die.

She kept continually calling for me. I was beside her day and night until her death. The physicians held out hope for her until the last moment, until they found her kidneys paralyzed. Then they lost hope. But the doctors told me she had fought harder than any patient they ever had. She held onto her life as only one case in fifty. She seemed stronger the last two days. She was conscious, and said she would get better and go home to her mother. 'It's all a mistake, darling Jack,' she said. But I knew she was dying.

She was kept alive only by hypodermic injections during the last twelve hours. I was the last one she recognized. I watched her eyes glaze and realized she was dying. I asked her how she was feeling and she answered: 'Pretty weak, but I'll be all right in a little while, don't worry, darling.' Those were her last words. I held her in my arms and she died an hour later. Owen Moore was at her bedside. All stories and rumors of wild parties and cocaine and domestic fights since we left New York are untrue.

After Thomas' death, the police initiated an investigation and an autopsy was performed. Thomas' death was attributed to acute nephritis caused by mercury bichloride absorption. On September 13, 1920, her death was ruled accidental by the Paris physician who conducted her autopsy.

Funeral

Jack Pickford brought Thomas' body back to the United States. Several accounts state that Pickford tried to commit suicide en route but was talked out of it. In her autobiography, Mary Pickford recalls her brother's disclosure that he had made such an attempt during the return trip:

Jack crossed the ocean with Ollie's body. It wasn't until several years later that he confessed to Mother how one night during the voyage back he put on his trousers and jacket over his pajamas, went up on deck, and was climbing over the rail when something inside him said: "You can't do this to your mother and sisters. It would be a cowardly act. You must live and face the future."

On September 29, 1920, an Episcopal funeral service for Thomas was held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City. According to The New York Times, police escorts were needed at the event, for the entire church was crowded with “hundreds” of fellow actors, other invited attendees, as well as a horde of curious onlookers. Several women are reported to have fainted during the ceremony, and several men had their hats crushed in the rush to view the casket. Thomas is interred in a crypt at the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

Estate

Thomas did not leave a will upon her death. Her estate, which was later valued at $27,644, was split between her mother, her two brothers, and husband Jack Pickford. Adjusted for inflation, that amount would be the equivalent to $354,892.92 in 2019. Pickford later relinquished his right to a portion of the money, choosing instead to give his share to Thomas' mother.

On November 22, 1920, the bulk of Thomas' personal property was auctioned off in an estate sale, which netted approximately $30,000. Lewis Selznick bought Thomas' town car for an undisclosed sum.  Mabel Normand bought a 20-piece toilet set, a 14 karat gold cigarette case, and three pieces of jewelry, including a sapphire pin.

The Crypt of Olive Thomas at Woodlawn Cemetery Bronx NY