Bara, Theda

orig. Theodosia Goodman

born July 20, 1885?, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

died April 7, 1955, Los Angeles, Calif.

U.S. film actress.

She had a brief stage career before going to Hollywood. Her first major picture, A Fool There Was (1915), was accompanied by a publicity campaign, billing her as the daughter of a Middle Eastern potentate, that made her an instant success. Establishing a sultry, exotic persona, she became the prototype of the screen "vamp." She made more than 40 films within a few years, but her popularity soon declined, and she retired in the 1920s.

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▪ American actress

original name  Theodosia Burr Goodman 

born July 20, 1885?, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

died April 7, 1955, Los Angeles, Calif.

 American silent-film star who was the first screen vamp who lured men to destruction. Her films set the vogue for sophisticated sexual themes in motion pictures and made her an international symbol of daring new freedom.

      Theodosia Goodman attended the University of Cincinnati in 1903–05. In New York City she tried briefly for a stage career under the name Theodosia de Coppet before she began her movie career in 1915 with William Fox (Fox, William), who built his motion-picture empire on her films. A Fool There Was (1915), her first important picture, was released with an intense publicity campaign that made her an overnight success. She was billed as the daughter of an Eastern potentate, her name an anagram for “Arab Death.”

 Theda Bara made more than 40 motion pictures within three years, mostly costume spectacles in which she played an irresistible, heartless woman who lived only for sensual pleasure. Among these films were Romeo and Juliet (1916), Under Two Flags (1916), Camille (1917), DuBarry (1917), Cleopatra (1917), Salome (1918), and Kathleen Mavourneen (1919). By the end of World War I, her popularity had declined. After an unsuccessful appearance on Broadway and an attempted Hollywood comeback, she retired from the screen in the late 1920s.

Additional Reading

Ronald Genini, Theda Bara: A Biography of the Silent Screen Vamp, with a Filmography (1996); and Eve Golden, Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara (1996), trace her life and career.

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