
Acting
Clara Bow
Also Known As: Clara Gordon Bow, The 'It' Girl
Birth Date
July 29, 1905
Death Date
September 27, 1965
(passed away at 60)
Place of Birth
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Popularity
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Biography
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.
Photos







Hoopla
Lou
1933

The Plastic Age
Cynthia Day
1925

Wings
Mary Preston
1927

The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Self (archive footage)
1995

Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
Self (archive footage)
2007

Hodgepodge
Self (archive footage, as Mary Preston)
2025

Wine
Angela Warriner
1924

The House That Shadows Built
(archive footage)
1931

The Best Bad Man
Peggy Swain
1925

Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
archive footage
1986

Kid Boots
Clara McCoy
1926

The Casting Couch
1995

Mantrap
Alverna
1926

The Muppets Go to the Movies
Mary Preston (archive footage) (uncredited)
1981

Get Your Man
Nancy Worthington
1927

It
Betty Lou Spence
1927

Hula
Hula Calhoun
1927

Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
2010

Children of Divorce
Kitty Flanders
1927

Three Week Ends
Gladys O'Brien
1928