An Elegant and Intelligent Beauty: The Hollywood Film Career of Nola Luxford

Abstract

New Zealand-born Nola Luxford (1895-1994) was not a leading lady or a star in Hollywood but she was a working actress in both the twenties and thirties. Between 1932 and 1935, for instance, she had credited roles in five early talkies and uncredited ones in several others. However, in this article, I wish to concentrate on Nota's silent film career as that is when we can claim she was New Zealand's most successful actress in Hollywood. During the 1920s, she had credited roles in 11 silent films and in many of these she was first or second female lead. She worked as an extra in another 22.

By Hollywood standards, Nola was one of thou-sands of working actors hoping fervently for that elusive break that would spell stardom and success. She never got it. Despite that-and indeed because of it - I believe Nota's silent film career has a certain interest. For a start, from a New Zealand perspective, she is one of the few who went to Hollywood in its early years to become moderately successful there. The American film industry is clearly the most powerful in the world, and the most difficult to crack, and has been so since the First World War.