
Clara Bow
Actor
- Born
- July 29, 1905 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
- Died
- September 27, 1965 (age 60)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clara Gordon Bow (July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom in silent films during the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" after 1927. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.
Read moreShow less
Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including hits such as Mantrap (1926), It (1927), and Wings (1927). She was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost two-to-one, a "safe return". At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929).
Two years after marrying actor Rex Bell in 1931, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada. Her final film, Hoop-La, was released in 1933. In September 1965, Bow died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
Known for
Acting76
- 2025Hodgepodge as Self (archive footage, as Mary Preston)
- 2012Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess
- 2011Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films as Herself (archive footage)
- 2010Sigrid Holmquist as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage)
- 2010Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
- 2007Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema as Self (archive footage)
- 2002Edith Head: The Paramount Years as (archive footage)
- 1999Clara Bow: Discovering the "It" Girl as Self / Various Roles (archive footage)
- 1995The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies as Self (archive footage)











