Clara Bow
Known for: Acting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Clara Gordon Bow (July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom in silent films during the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" after 1927. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol. Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including hits such as Mantrap (1926), It (1927), and Wings (1927). She was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost two-to-one, a "safe return". At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929). Two years after marrying actor Rex Bell in 1931, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada. Her final film, Hoop-La, was released in 1933. In September 1965, Bow died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
Filmography
Film
Wings
Mary Preston
1927
Film
Hoopla
Lou
1933
Film
Hodgepodge
Self (archive footage, as Mary Preston)
2025
Film
Three Week Ends
Gladys O'Brien
1928
Film
Edith Head: The Paramount Years
(archive footage)
2002
Film
Call Her Savage
Nasa Springer
1932
Film
Kid Boots
Clara McCoy
1926
Film
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Self (archive footage)
1995
Film
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
(archive footage) (uncredited)
1988
Film
Hula
Hula Calhoun
1927
Film
Clara Bow: Discovering the "It" Girl
Self / Various Roles (archive footage)
1999
Film
The Casting Couch
1995
Film
Wine
Angela Warriner
1924
Film
Ladies of the Mob
Yvonne
1928
Film
Paramount on Parade
Herself
1930
Film
Betty Boop: Queen of the Cartoons
Self (archive footage)
1995
Film
Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
2010
Film
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
archive footage
1986
Film
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
Self (archive footage)
2007
Film
The House That Shadows Built
(archive footage)
1931
Film
This Woman
Aline Sturdevant
1924
Film
Rough House Rosie
Rosie O'Reilly
1927
Film
The Wild Party
Stella Ames
1929
Film
It
Betty Lou Spence
1927
Film
Children of Divorce
Kitty Flanders
1927
Film
Mantrap
Alverna
1926
Film
Down to the Sea in Ships
'Dot' Morgan
1922
Film
The Plastic Age
Cynthia Day
1925
Film
My Lady's Lips
Lola Lombard
1925
Film
The Film Parade
(archive footage) (uncredited)
1933
Film
Helen's Babies
Alice Mayton
1924
Film
Black Oxen
Janet Ogelthorpe
1923
Film
Her Wedding Night
Norma Martin
1930
Film
Eve's Lover
Rena D'Arcy
1925
Film
Free to Love
Marie Anthony
1925
Film
Get Your Man
Nancy Worthington
1927
Film
The Scarlet West
Miriam
1925
Film
No Limit
Helen 'Bunny' O'Day
1931
Film
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Herself (archive footage)
2011
Film
Two Can Play
Dorothy Hammis
1926
Film
Dancing Mothers
Kittens Westcourt
1926
Film
The Lawful Cheater
Molly Burns
1925
Film
The Pill Pounder
1923
Film
The Saturday Night Kid
Mayme Barry
1929
Film
Fascinating Youth
Clara Bow
1926
Film
Dangerous Curves
Pat Delaney
1929
Film
Shadow of the Law
Mary Brophy
1926
Film
Love Among the Millionaires
Pepper Whipple
1930
Film
Enemies of Women
Dancing Girl (uncredited)
1923
Film
Enemies of Women
Girl Dancing on Table
1923
Film
Red Hair
Bubbles McCoy
1928
Film
Yesterday and Today
(archive footage)
1953
Film
Capital Punishment
Delia Tate
1925
Film
Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess
2012
Film
My Lady of Whims
Prudence Severn
1925
Film
Parisian Love
Marie
1925
Film
The Daring Years
Mary
1923
Film
Poisoned Paradise
Margot LeBlanc
1924
Film
The Fleet's In
Trixie Deane
1928
Film
Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner
Clara Bow
1949
Film
Empty Hearts
Rosalie
1924
Film
Daughters of Pleasure
Lila Millas
1924
Film
Grit
Orchid McGonigle
1924
Film
Sigrid Holmquist
Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage)
2010
Film
The Runaway
Cynthia Meade
1926
Film
Beyond the Rainbow
Virginia Gardener
1922
Film
The Ancient Mariner
Doris
1925
Film
The Primrose Path
Marilyn Merrill
1925
Film
The Best Bad Man
Peggy Swain
1925
Film
Kiss Me Again
Grizette
1925
Film
The Keeper of the Bees
Lolly Cameron
1925
Film
Kick In
Molly Hewes
1931
Film
Black Lightning
Martha Larned
1924
Film
Maytime
Alice Tremaine
1923
Film
The Adventurous Sex
The Girl
1925
Film
True to the Navy
Ruby Nolan
1930