People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph: Silent Era image collection.

Phyllis Haver

Born 6 January 1899 in Douglass, Kansas, USA, as Phyllis Maude Haver.
Died 19 November 1960 in Sharon, Connecticut, USA, of suicide by an overdose of barbiturates.

Married William Seeman, 1929; divorced 1945.

Phyllis Haver moved with her family to Los Angeles from Kansas when she was a young girl. While still a teenager, Phyllis interviewed for work at Keystone Film Company and was selected to be one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties and was soon appearing in Keystone/Triangle comedies in supporting roles, often appearing in a bathing suit. Work for Mack Sennett continued through his corporate business changes into the early 1920s.

By 1922, Haver had left Sennett to begin a slow professional climb as an independent actor at the major studios. She appearing in features as a supporting cast member and in westerns as the principal love interest. Notably, Phyllis appeared in The Balloonatic (1923) with Buster Keaton. Haver worked for Goldwyn Pictures Corporation (1923), Universal Pictures Corporation (1923), Selznick Pictures Corporation (1923), Fox Film Corporation (1923 and 1926), The William S. Hart Company (1924), B.P. Schulberg Productions, Incorporated (1924), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation (1924), First National Pictures, Incorporated (1924-1925), Columbia Pictures Corporation (1924-1925), Famous Players-Lasky Corporation (1924-1925, 1927), Perfection Pictures (1925), Christie Film Company, Incorporated (1926), Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated (1926), Metropolitan Pictures Corporation of California (1927) and Excellent Pictures Corporation (1927).

In 1927 Phyllis began working (possibly as a contract player) for DeMille Pictures Corporation, where she earned several leading roles including her tremendous turn originating the film character Roxie Hart in Chicago (1927). She appeared in The Way of All Flesh (1927), The Fighting Eagle (1927), The Battle of the Sexes (1928) and Thunder (1929) with Lon Chaney.

Phyllis retired from motion picture work after appearing in a small role in She Couldn’t Say No (1930). Her retirement may have been due to her recent marriage to a New York millionaire.

References: Website-IMDb; Website-Wikipedia.