Etta Lee (1906-1956), Hollywood silent-film actress of the 1920s and 1930s, was born on Maui and was the sister of kama‘aina Hanalei resident Barbara Ella Deverill (1887-1987), who taught at Makaweli and Hanalei schools for 26 years until her retirement
Etta Lee (1906-1956), Hollywood silent-film actress of the 1920s and 1930s, was born on Maui and was the sister of kama‘aina Hanalei resident Barbara Ella Deverill (1887-1987), who taught at Makaweli and Hanalei schools for 26 years until her retirement in 1952.
Stunningly beautiful, Lee acted in exotic roles in many pictures during a movie career that spanned from 1921 through 1935, opposite such stars as Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and Greta Garbo, with whom she co-starred in the first film production of “Camille.”
In “The Thief of Baghdad,” made in 1924, Lee played the alluring slave of the sand board with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. as the thief and Anna May Wong as the Mongol slave.
Fairbanks was at his swashbuckling best in this film in which movie-goers were further delighted by a marvelous flying horse and flying carpet, a crystal ball and a magical golden apple, evil sultans, a dragon, and an enchanted army.
The gorgeous Wong, who was the first Chinese-American movie star and the first Asian-American to become an international star, went on to enjoy a long career in silent and sound film, television, stage and radio.
In the 1926 version of “Camille,” an adaptation of a story written by the French author Alexandre Dumas, Etta Lee played Mataloti, while Mexican-born American actor Gilbert Roland co-starred as Armand with Norma Talmadge as Camille.
Lee’s other roles included that of Ah Fah in “A Tale of Two Worlds” (1921), Lui Po-Yat in “The Remittance Woman” (1923), and Ah Moy in “The Untamable” (1923).
A charter member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Lee retired from acting following her marriage to radio commentator Frank Brown and resided in Eureka, Calif.
