Kathleen Key


Kathleen Key was an American actress who achieved a brief period of fame during the silent era. She is best remembered for playing Tirzah in the 1925 film Ben-Hur.

Early life and career

Born in Buffalo, New York, Key made her debut in the Australian film The Jackeroo of Coolabong, playing a lead role. From that point on to the end of the 1920s, Kathleen Key, sometimes credited as Kathleen Keys, starred in several films, but never really reached stardom, and was never given much credit for the roles she had, although there were some exceptions.
In 1922, she was featured in Omar Khayyam and played a vampire in Where's My Wandering Boy Tonight. The same year she signed to play with Charles Buck Jones in Vamoos for Fox Film.
Key spent a year in Australia as a leading woman in productions of Snow Baker around this time. Prior to making Vamoos, Kathleen starred with John Gilbert in St. Elmo, also for Fox. She was cast as an "innocent young thing" rather than playing her frequent vampire part.
In 1923, as her career slowly progressed, she was selected one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars. In 1929, Key appeared in The Phantom of the North, which appeared to be her last film. However, she made three, very small and uncredited roles in 1930, 1935, and 1936, as a dance hall girl in Klondike Annie. After these minuscule appearances, Key retired from film altogether.

Personal life

In the early 1930s, Key had a well-known love affair with silent-film actor Buster Keaton, who was married at the time. As told in Marion Meade's biography of Keaton, the actor attempted to call off the relationship, but Key flew into a jealous rage and ransacked his MGM dressing room, which caused her to be virtually blacklisted afterward by the movie industry. Sidney Skolsky, a Daily News columnist, sent Keaton a joking telegram, reading: "Congratulations. Hear you are off Key." It was also reported that the dressing-room fracas was sparked by Keaton refusing to give Key a monetary loan.

Death

After her retirement in 1936, Keys spent the rest of her days in moderate comfort at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills, California, where she died at the age of 51, from undisclosed causes, in 1954. Her interment was located at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Filmography