Actress. Star of late era silents and early talkies. In 1916, while living in Fort Worth, she was discovered by director D. W. Griffith. She moved to Hollywood and bounced around from studio to studio for several years, making films for Triangle, Fox, Paramount, Universal and Goldwyn, among others. Her break came when director Edwin Carewe recommended her to Douglas Fairbanks, who was casting his 1928 feature, “The Gaucho”. Fairbanks cast her in the film, which was a success, and during the next year she starred in several well received movies, working for Tiffany-Stahl and First National. In 1929 she was involved in a car accident in which her Rolls Royce was struck and overturned while she was crossing an intersection. She broke her back and spent several months recovering. Her screen career never fully recovered. During the next few years she showed up in bit parts, most notably in Morocco, with Gary Cooper.  After a second accident in 1932, in which she broke her back again, this time tobogganing, she returned for only a couple of film appearances before she completely vanished from the screen. She had one failed marriage, in 1928, and remained single for the rest of her life. She passed away in Santa Monica from complications of Parkinson’s Disease. She is buried under her birth name, Elva L. McDowell. (bio by: Sean McKim)