Louise Dresser

Louise Dresser (October 17, 1878 – April 24, 1965) was an American actress.

Born Louise Josephine Kerlinin Evansville, Indiana. Her father was a train conductor who died when she was 15 years old.

Dresser took her professional last name as a tribute to her good friend, songwriter Paul Dresser, who was a popular songwriter of the turn of the 20th century.

She had acted on the stage, being a Vaudeville singer at age 15. Her first film was The Glory of Clementina (1922), and her first starring role was in The City that Never Sleeps (1924).

She portrayed Empress Elizabeth in Paramount Pictures's The Scarlet Empress (1934). Dresser's last film was Maid of Salem (1937). On television, she appeared in an episode spotlighting Buster Keaton on Ralph Edwards's program, This is Your Life. She had known Keaton since he was a small boy with his parents in vaudeville.

During the first presentations of the Academy Awards in 1929 Dresser was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for A Ship Comes In.

Dresser was married twice. First, to singer/songwriter, Jack Norworth, whom she divorced and then to Jack Gardner, until his death in 1950. Dresser died in Woodland Hills, California, after surgery for an intestinal ailment, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Dresser died without issue.

Silent

• The Glory of Clementina (1922)
• Burning Sands (1922)
• Enter Madame (1922)
• The Fog (1923)
• Prodigal Daughters (1923)
• Salomy Jane (1923)
• Ruggles of Red Gap (1923)
• Woman-Proof (1923)
• To the Ladies (1923)
• The Next Corner (1924)
• What Shall I Do? (1924)
• The City That Never Sleeps(1924)
• Cheap Kisses (1924)
• Enticement (1925)
• Percy (1925)
• The Goose Woman (1925)
• The Eagle (1925)
• Fifth Avenue (1926)
• The Blind Goddess (1926)
• Padlocked (1926)
• Broken Hearts of Hollywood (1926)
• Gigolo (1926)
• Everybody's Acting (1926)
• The Third Degree (1926)
• White Flannels (1927)
• Mr. Wu (1927)
• A Ship Comes In (1928)
• The Garden of Eden (1928)

Sound

• Mother Knows Best (1928) Fox's first full talkie
• The Air Circus (1928)
• Not Quite Decent (1929)
• Madonna of Avenue A (1929)
• Mammy (1930)
• The Three Sisters (1930)
• This Mad World (1930)
• Lightnin' (1930)
• Caught (1931)
• Stepping Sisters (1932)
• State Fair (1933)
• Song of the Eagle (1933)
• Doctor Bull (1933)
• Cradle Song (1933)
• David Harum (1934)
• The Scarlet Empress (1934)
• The World Moves On (1934
• Servants' Entrance (1934)
• A Girl of the Limberlost (1934)
• Hollywood on Parade (1934)*short
• Maid of Salem (1937)