Gretchen Hartman

Gretchen Hartman (born Grace Barrett; August 28, 1897 – January 27, 1979) was an American stage and film actress. She is credited on 67 movies, nearly all silent.[citation needed ]

Hartman was born Grace Barrett in Chicago, the daughter of actress Agnes A. Hartman.

Hartman debuted on stage at the Bush Temple Theatre in Chicago portraying Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Her New York debut was in the same play, presented at the Majestic Theatre. She starred in Broadway plays as a child, starting her career at age nine. She started working in the theater under the name Greta Arbin before making her film debut. Her major roles were in: The Law and the Man (1906-1907), Uncle Tom's Cabin (1907), Mary Jane's Pa (1908–1909), and Sweethearts (1913–1914). She created the role of Mary Jane in Mary Jane's Pa.

Hartman started her film career with roles in short films beginning in 1911, when she starred as Rosalie in the film For the Flag of France. A popular figure in the silent film era, her best known films are Colomba (1915), from the novel by Prosper Mérimée, The Purple Lady (1916), with her husband, Victor Hugo's Les Miserábles (1917), The Bandbox (1919), Bride 13 (1920 serial), His Brothers Keeper (1921), and While Justice Waits (1922).

In 1915, she made a version of the popular novel East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood. In 1917–18, Hartman acted in three films for Fox studios under the name Sonia Markova, returning to the name Gretchen Hartman soon after. Besides Sonia Markova, she also used the stage name Greta Hartman.[citation needed ]

Hartman married actor Alan Hale Sr., and they had a son, Alan Hale Jr. Hartman died on January 27, 1979, at the age of 81, and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, next to her husband.