Alma Rubens
Born
February 17, 1897
Died
January 22, 1931 (33 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
San Francisco, California, USA
From Wikipedia
Alma Rubens (February 19, 1897 – January 22, 1931) was an American film actress and stage performer. Rubens began her career in the mid 1910s. She quickly rose to stardom in 1916 after appearing opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Half Breed. For the remainder of the decade, she appeared in supporting roles in comedies and drama. In the 1920s. Her first stage opportunity came when a chorus girl in a musical comedy theater troupe became ill. Rubens was chosen to take her place and joined the troupe as a regular performer. There she met Franklyn Farnum who was also a member. He later convinced Rubens to leave the troupe and try her hand at film acting. Her breakthrough performance was in 1916 in the movie Reggie Mixes In. She made six more films in that same year. In 1917 she starred in The Firefly of Tough Luck, which was a big success. She gained fame when she became Douglas Fairbanks's leading lady in The Half Breed (1916), and supported Fairbanks and Bessie Love in the cocaine comedy The Mystery of the Leaping Fish later that same year. In 1918, Alma announced that she was changing the spelling of her last name of Rueben to "Rubens" because it caused too much confusion in the movie industry and in publications. She later told Photoplay magazine, "As a matter of fact my name is not the same [spelling] as the painter's. It's either Reubens or Ruebens-I forget which. I never could spell it. Couldn't remember where the 'e' came. So I let it go Rubens." In 1920, she completed The World and His Wife, opposite Montague Love which further solidified her popularity. In 1924, she starred in The Price She Paid and Cytherea. Rubens developed a drug addiction which eventually ended her career. She died of pneumonia shortly after being arrested on narcotics charge in January 1931. A funeral service was held on January 24 at the Little Church of the Flowers at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Her body was then shipped to Fresno where a second service was held at the Christian Science Church on January 26. She was interred in Ararat Massis Armenian Cemetery in Fresno. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Alma Rubens has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6409 Hollywood Blvd.
Known For

Death Scenes
1989

Show Boat
Julie Dozier
1929

She Goes to War
Rosie
1929

The Masks of the Devil
Countess Zellner
1928

The Heart of Salome
Helene
1927

Marriage License?
Wanda Heriot
1926

Siberia
Sonia Vronsky
1926

The Gilded Butterfly
Linda Haverhill
1926

East Lynne
Lady Isabel
1925

The Winding Stair
Marguerite
1925

Fine Clothes
Paula
1925

The Dancers
Maxine
1925

Is Love Everything?
Virginia Carter
1924

The Price She Paid
Mildred Gower
1924

Cytherea
Savina Grove
1924

The Rejected Woman
Diane Du Prez
1924

Under the Red Robe
Renee de Cocheforet
1923

Enemies of Women
The Duchess de Lille
1923

The Valley of Silent Men
1922

Find the Woman
Sophie Carey
1922

The World and His Wife
Teodora
1920

Humoresque
Gina Berg (formerly Minnie Ginsberg)
1920

A Man's Country
Kate Carewe
1919
Diane of the Green Van
Diane Westfall
1919

The Ghost Flower
1918

The Gown Of Destiny
1917

The Cold Deck
Coralie
1917

Master of His Home
Millicent Drake
1917
An Old Fashioned Young Man
1917

A Woman's Awakening
Cousin Kate (as Alma Rueben)
1917

Truthful Tulliver
Grace Burton
1917

The Americano
Juana de Castalar
1916

The Children Pay
Editha, the Girls' Stepmother
1916

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Girl at the Marriage Market (uncredited)
1916

The Half-Breed
Teresa
1916

The Mystery of the Leaping Fish
Wealthy Gent's Female Confederate
1916

Reggie Mixes In
Lemona Reighley
1916

The Birth of a Nation
Belle of 1861 (uncredited)
1915

The Gangsters and the Girl
1914