MARY PICKFORD
Mary Pickford, whose long blonde hair and sunny disposition earned her the nickname "America's Sweetheart," was a star of the silent film era.
As a child she performed on the stage in Canada.
She made her Broadway debut in 1907 and started her film career in 1909.
She quickly became a lead player, starring in such films as Hearts Adrift, Pollyanna and Coquette, for which she won an Academy Award.
Her popularity was immense, rivaled only by the likes of Charlie Chaplin.
Her marriage to film star Douglas Fairbanks became international news.

GLORIA SWANSON
American actress Gloria Swanson is best remembered for her performance in Sunset Boulevard, in which she played the role of the faded movie star Norma Desmond.
Swanson's career began at age 14.
She obtained work as an extra when she was on a tour of the Chicago-based Essanay studio.
She moved to Hollywood in 1916 and acted in a series of Mack Sennett slapstick comedies before she started working in films directed by Cecil B. De Mille.
Swanson's name became synonymous with the elegance and richness of his productions and she became the epitome of Hollywood glamour in the 1920s.

MAE WEST
At the age of 7, actress and playwright Mae West began a tapdance routine, at 8 she joined a theatre company and by age 14 had entered the vaudeville circuit.
She made her Broadway debut in 1911 and by the early 1920s had started writing plays.
Ms. West's most successful play was Diamond Lil, with which she toured the country.
She arrived in Hollywood in 1932 to star in pictures such as She Done Him Wrong and My Little Chickadee with W.C.Fields and Sextette.
During World War II the British air force put Mae West's name in the dictionary by naming an inflatable life jacket after her.

MARILYN MONROE
Film star and Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Baker to unwed parents in Los Angeles.
Despite her attempt to be a serious actress, she was praised first as a "dumb blond" and later as a "sex goddess".
Marilyn was plagued by depression and her three marriages - to baseball player Joe DiMaggio, seaman James Daugherty and playwright Arthur Miller all ended in divorce.
She died from an overdose of sleeping pills on August 5, 1962.

GRETA GARBO
Swedish actress Greta Garbo was brought to Hollywood by Swedish director Mauritz Stiller, who found her "supersensual, spiritual and mystic" and cast her in his 1924 film The Atonement of Gosta Berling.