Sylvia Breamer
(sometimes spelled "Bremer")
Selected films of this star available for viewing:
The Pinch
Hitter (1917)
The Narrow Trail (1917)
Up in Mabel's Room (1926)
Sylvia Breamer was born in Australia June 9, 1903.
Her father was an officer in the British navy. Her father died
while she was still young, and she went to live with an aunt on
a sheep farm in Australia. One source mentions that her mother
was vehemently opposed to her daughter becoming an actress, but
there is no mention of her mother's whereabouts at this time.
When a traveling show came to town, she was so enamored with the
troupe, she left the town with them. Not satisfied with the parts
she was given, she joined a company of barnstormers in Sydney
who were on their way to do a tour of New Zealand. She advanced
as an actress appearing on the stage in Sydney and Melbourne.
Feeling that she had done all she could in Australia, she decided
to head for New York. Using all the money she had, she made it
to the big city. "I arrived at Grand Central Station with
less money, I guess, than the average commuter brings to town
for his lunch. I had no idea of the value of American money,
but I did know that four dollars a day for one small room was
rather more than I could afford. But I was confident of getting
work, so I began to look around." After months of fruitless
searching for a job and surviving only because of a sympathetic
landlady, she was finally given a part by producer William Brady
in the stage production of "Major Barbara" starring
Grace George. During the run of this play, she was given an invitation
by Parker Reid to make a film test. She went to Fort Lee for
the test and was offered a year's contract. The first feature
film listed for her is William S. Hart's "The Cold Deck"
in 1917 and starred with him once again that year in "The
Narrow Trail." She starred with Charles Ray in "Sudden
Jim" and "The Pinch Hitter" that same year, and
her popularity continued to grow throughout the late 'teens an
early twenties making 46 features between 1917 and 1926. It is
not known why her career came to an end, but she is credited with
only one more film appearance in an uncredited part in the 1936
film "Too Many Parents" starring Frances Farmer. She
was very interested in spiritism and claimed to have had experiences
that had made her a believer in "the world beyond."
Breamer died in New York June 7, 1943, at age 40.
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