Charlotte Pierce


Charlotte Pierce was an American actress in silent films.

Early life

Charlotte Elaine Pierce was born in Girard, Illinois, and raised in Salina, Kansas, the daughter of Schuyler Rensselaer Pierce and Faye Ransom Pierce. Her father was an engineer involved in construction.

Career

Pierce was a dancer and dance teacher as a young woman. She was helped into movies by actress Cathrine Curtis and by screenwriter Elinor Glyn.
Pierce appeared in the silent films beginning in her teen years, as "an ingenue of the Pickford type", including roles in Peaceful Valley, The Man of the Forest, The Barnstormer, Gas, Oil and Water, The Woman He Married, Colleen of the Pines, A Tailor-Made Man, The Veiled Woman, The Lavender Bath Lady, The Super-Sex, Thru the Flames, The [Courtship of Miles Standish |The Courtship of Miles Standish], Sky's the Limit, The Wildcat, Queen of Spades, West of Mojave, The Sheep Trail, and The Fighting Gob.

Personal life

Charlotte Pierce married actor and musician William Virgil Mays in 1922. They divorced in 1923. In 1926, she married a second time, to Salvino J. "Solly" Baiano, a talent scout, casting director, violinist, and tennis champion. They had a daughter, Lonnie, and a son, Michael. Both of their children acted in films. Michael Baiano married singer Jaye P. Morgan in 1954. Charlotte Pierce Baiano was widowed when Solly Baiano died in 1992, and she died in Los Angeles, November 23, 1996, aged 92 years. Her grave is with her husband's, in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Selected filmography