~Lucille Ricksen~
Born: August 22, 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, USA Died: March 13, 1925 (age 14) in Los Angeles, California, USA
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A child model who had entered films with the old Essanay company in Chicago in the late 1910s, beautiful
but ultimately tragic Lucille Ricksen arrived in Hollywood in 1920, courtesy of producer Samuel Goldwyn
who starred her in The Adventures of Edgar Pomeroy (1920), a series of two-reelers based on Booth
Tarkington stories. She signed a personal contract with director Marshall Neilan who cast her as a flapper
in Strangers Banquet (1922) and hailed her as "one of the screen's best young actresses." The film was a
major success and Ricksen continued to play girls much older than her tenders years -- even if her
mother, Ingeborg Ericksen, did insist on subtracting a year or two from her real age. Signing with
producer Thomas H. Ince, Ricksen was voted a 1923 WAMPAS Baby Star and put through her paces in
film after film opposite the likes of Jack Pickford and Sydney Chaplin -- apparently with little regard for
her health. She looked visibly ill in Galloping Fish (1924), a comedy with Chaplin, and by Christmas of
1924 it had become dreadfully clear that she wouldn't recover. Ricksen's mother tirelessly stayed by her
bedside night and day and in late February, her strength gone, the middle-aged woman collapsed on top
of her dying daughter, felled by a fatal heart attack. Ricksen survived her mother by less than two weeks.
The official reports blamed tuberculosis but there was speculation of a botched abortion. Lucille's older
brother, Marshall Ricksen (1907-1975), also appeared in films as a child.
Biography by Hans J. Wollstein, AllMovie.com
The Denial (1925) ... The Daughter
Idle Tongues (1924) ... Faith Copeland
The Painted Lady (1924) ... Alice Smith
Vanity's Price (1924) ... Sylvia, Teddy's fiancee
Behind the Curtain (1924) ... Sylvia Bailey
Young Ideas (1924) ... Eloise Lowden
Those Who Dance (1924) ... Ruth Kane
The Hill Billy (1924) ... Emmy Lou Spence
The Galloping Fish (1924) ... Hyla Wetherill
The Judgment of the Storm (1924) ... Mary Heath
The Rendezvous (1923) ... Vera
Human Wreckage (1923) ... Ginger
The Showdown (Short) (1923)
The Radio-Active Bomb (Short) (1923)
The Secret Code (Short) (1923)
Trimmed in Scarlet (1923) ... Faith Ebbing (as Lucille Rickson)
Under Secret Orders (Short) (1923)
The Social Buccaneer (1923) ... Lucille Vail
The Strangers' Banquet (1922) ... Flapper
Forsaking All Others (1922) ... May Wharton
The Girl Who Ran Wild (1922) ... Clytie
Remembrance (1922) ... Child
The Married Flapper (1922) ... Carolyn Carter
The Old Nest (1921) ... Kate at 9
Edgar, the Detective (Short) (1921)
Edgar's Feast Day (Short) (1921)
Edgar's Country Cousin (Short) (1921)
Edgar, the Explorer (Short) (1920) ... Alice Littlefield
Edgar's Little Saw (Short) (1920)
Edgar Camps Out (Short) (1920)
Edgar's Sunday Courtship (Short) (1920)
Edgar Takes the Cake (Short) (1920)
Edgar's Jonah Day (Short) (1920)
Edgar's Hamlet (Short) (1920) ... Alice
Edgar and the Teacher's Pet (Short) (1920) ... Alice Littlefield



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