Olga Petrova

Not to be confused with Olga Petrova (footballer).

Olga Petrova
Petrova, c. 1917
Born	Ellen Constance Muriel Harding (1884-05-10)May 10, 1884 England (probably Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire)
Died	November 30, 1977(1977-11-30) (aged 93) Clearwater, Florida, U.S.
Other names	Madame Petrova
Occupation(s)	Actress, screenwriter, playwright
Years active	1911–1928
Spouse(s)	Louis Willoughby (1939-1968; his death) Dr. John Dillon Stewart (physician) (1913-1938; his death)

Olga Petrova (born Muriel Harding; 10 May 1884 – 30 November 1977) was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright.

The Eternal Question (1916)

Olga Petrova autographed drawing by Manuel Rosenberg, 1921

Origins

In adulthood, Olga Petrova insisted that she had been born in Warsaw, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, and throughout her life she spoke with an appropriate accent, even in private. However, it was widely accepted later in her career that she was in reality Muriel Harding, born in England (but not in London, as sometimes stated erroneously). It is probable that her birth name was Ellen Constance Muriel Harding, born in Portsea, Hampshire, the daughter of Ellen and Herbert Harding, who was a municipal tax collector. The family moved shortly after her birth to Tuebrook, Liverpool, where she grew up and where her younger siblings were born.

Career

Harding left home after feeling stifled by her father's strict rules. According to her memoir she became a governess, but soon moved to London for a career on the stage. She probably chose the name and persona of Madame Olga Petrova herself, though later publicity suggested that the name was chosen by a producer, to reflect the penchant at the time for elegant Russian stars such as Anna Pavlova. In any event, Petrova began to present herself as a glamorous Russian or Polish actress. She made her first notable appearance under that name at the London Pavilion in April 1911, and her success led to her being quickly signed up for the Folies-Bergere cabaret in New York.

She first performed in New York in mid-1911, and later that year took a leading role in the musical comedy The Quaker Girl on Broadway before returning to vaudeville. She insisted on, and gained, top billing on a show at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, where she was described in Variety in 1912 as "one of the cleverest, classiest, and most attractive of turns". In 1913, she met local physician John Dillon Stewart in Indianapolis, Indiana, and they married cthat year in Kansas City. Stewart moved his practice to New York City to be near her primary base of operations.

Petrova returned to theatre performance in 1914, and was offered a film contract, appearing first in The Tigress, directed by Alice Guy-Blaché, and then in a succession of silent films through 1917. She disliked playing weak female characters, and spending time idle when making films. She set up her own film company, and wrote for a number of periodicals. She starred in a number of films for Solax Studios and Metro Pictures, where she was usually given the role of a femme fatale. During her seven years in film, Petrova appeared in more than two dozen films and wrote the script for several others. Most of her films are now lost, including what she considered her best pictures, those directed by Maurice Tourneur. The Library of Congress Silent Feature Film Database indicates three of her films survive: The Vampire (1915), Extravagance (1916) and The Waiting Soul (1918).

She was a skilled self-publicist, and was described as "an extraordinarily strong and determined female," and as "highly eccentric". Both on stage and on screen, Petrova became noted for her insistence on portraying independent and free-thinking women with strong personalities. She said in 1918: "The only women I want to play are women who do things. I want to encourage women to do things  – to take their rightful place in life." She also wrote that she preferred to play "the woman of today: a modern, quick thinking and wholly human woman".

She left the film industry in 1918 but continued to act in Broadway productions, including many performances at the prestigious Palace Theatre. During the 1920s, she wrote three plays, in which she starred; Hurricane dealt with birth control and What Do We Know? with spiritualism, both controversial subjects. She toured the U.S. with a theater troupe, before returning to vaudeville successfully in 1923. She also interviewed a number of prominent film stars on paid assignment for Shadowland magazine, Motion Picture Magazine, and Photoplay Journal, including Marion Davies, Mary Pickford, Theda Bara, Alla Nazimova, Norma Talmadge, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Rudolf Valentino.

Later life and death

She made several visits to Saranac Lake, New York at the height of her fame at the request of theatrical agent William Morris. In the summer of 1921, she turned the first shovel of earth for a housing project sponsored by the chamber of commerce at a lot on Lake Street donated by Walter Jenkins. The Petrova School and Petrova Avenue bear her name.

She retired to live in the south of France in the late 1920s. At the start of World War II, she returned to the U.S., and settled in Clearwater, Florida, with her second husband, Louis Willoughby. In 1942, she published her autobiography Butter with My Bread.

Olga Petrova died in 1977 in Clearwater, Florida, aged 93. She had no children.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Publications

• The White Peacock: A Play in Three Acts (Boston: Four Seas Company, 1922)
• Hurricane: Four Episodes in the Story of a Life (Boston: Four Seas Company, 1924)
• What Do We Know?: A Drama in Three Acts (Boston: Four Seas Company, 1930)
• Butter with My Bread (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1942)

Filmography

Daughter of Destiny (1917)

Olga Petrova presents a Knox Riding Hat, 1915

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1912	Departure of a Grand Old Man	Sofia Tolstaya	Short
1914	The Tigress	Stella	Lost film
1915	The Heart of a Painted Woman	Martha Redmond	Lost film
1915	The Vampire	Jeanne Lefarge
1915	The Bludgeon		Incomplete film
1915	My Madonna	Lucille	Lost film
1916	What Will People Say?	Persis Cabot	Lost film
1916	The Soul Market	Elaine Elton	Lost film Credited as Olya Petrova
1916	Playing With Fire	Jean Serian	Lost film Credited as Mme. Petrova
1916	The Scarlet Woman	Thora Davis	Lost film Credited as Madame Petrova
1916	The Eternal Question	Bianca	Lost film
1916	Extravagance	Norma Russell	Credited as Mme. Olga Petrova
1916	The Black Butterfly	Sonia Smirnov/Marie, the convent girl	Lost film Credited as Mme. Petrova Also writer
1917	Bridges Burned	Mary O'Brien	Lost film Credited as Madame Petrova Also writer
1917	The Secret of Eve	Eve, in the Garden of Eden/ Hagar, the Gypsy Woman/ Eve, the Quakeress/ Eve, the Wife of Brandon	Lost film Credited as Mme. Olga Petrova
1917	The Waiting Soul	Grace Vaughan	Credited as Madame Olga Petrova
1917	The Soul of a Magdalen	Heloise Broulette	Lost film Credited as Mme. Petrova
1917	The Undying Flame	The Princess / Grace Leslie	Lost film Credited as Madame Olga Petrova
1917	Law of the Land	Margaret Harding	Lost film
1917	To the Death	Bianca Sylva	Lost film Credited as Mme. Olga Petrova Also writer
1917	The Silence Sellers	Laura Sutphen	Lost film Credited as Mme. Petrova
1917	Exile	Claudia Perez	Lost film Credited as Mme. Olga Petrova
1917	More Truth Than Poetry	Elaine Esmond/Vera Maitland	Lost film Credited as Mme. Olga Petrova Also writer
1917	Daughter of Destiny	Marion Ashley	Lost film Credited as Madame Olga Petrova Also writer and producer
1918	The Light Within	Laurel Carlisle, M. D.	Lost film Credited as Madame Olga Petrova
1918	The Life Mask	Anita Courtland	Lost film Credited as Madame Olga Petrova
1918	Tempered Steel	Lucille Caruthers	Lost film Credited as Madame Olga Petrova
1918	The Panther Woman	Patience Sparhawk	Lost film
1928	Kira Kiralina	Kira's Mother	Lost film

External links

• Olga Petrova at the Internet Broadway Database
• Olga Petrova at IMDb
• Olga Petrova at the Women Film Pioneers Project
• Images of Olga Petrova, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• portrait gallery(University of Washington, Sayre collection)
• Paramount performer slide
• Olga Petrova(kinotv)