Actress, Film Producer. A star of the silent film era, she was best known for playing the character roles of suffragettes, guests, book agents, mothers, stenographers, widows, grandmothers, maids, aunts, principals, factory workers, passengers, and school teachers. She will be best remembered for her many early short films called Bunnygraphs, Bunnyfinches, and Bunnyfinchgraphs, which she starred alongside the rotund comic actor John Bunny, from 1910 to 1915. The film shorts made them one of the most popular cinema comedy teams of that time, although they reportedly hated each other. She will also be best remembered for playing the role of 'Ophelia St. Clare' in the silent film classic, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1910). The film which was directed by J. Stuart Blackton, which was based on the Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel of the same name, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and which was written for the screen by Eugene Mullin and Rollin S. Sturgeon, and which also starred Florence Turner, Mary Fuller, and Edwin R. Phillips, tells a story about the incidents that are those preceding and leading up to the Civil War in 1861 and the Declaration of Emancipation. The central figure in the drama is Uncle Tom, a slave in the possession of the Shelbys of Kentucky. Tom is a peculiarly extraordinary character, possessing all the virtues and none of the bad qualities of his race, a possession brought about by a gradual realization, absorption, and the practice of Christian principles through a close study of the Bible. To the Shelbys, he is an invaluable asset, because of his honesty and trustworthiness. Mr. Shelby, although the owner of vast estates, has become greatly involved in debt, as is often the case with the aristocracy. His notes have come into the hands of a slave trader named Haley, who presses Shelby for money long overdue. While visiting Shelby on one of his periodic "duns," he agrees to purchase "Uncle Tom" and Harry, a child of a quadroon, and Eliza, Mrs. Shelby's maid. It is a hard bargain, but a necessity, which is apt to drive to extremes, succumbs and the deal is made. Eliza overhears the transaction, and, loving her child with all her heart, decides to flee with him to the Ohio side of the river. She escapes from the house during the night, goes to "Uncle Tom's" cabin and tells him and his wife, "Aunt Chloe," all about her trouble, and also that Tom has been sold to the slave dealer, and advises him to get away while there is yet time. Tom, feeling it his bounden duty to live up to the tenets of his sale as well as his own conscience, refuses, but blesses Eliza and wishes her Godspeed. When Haley discovers the flight of Eliza he is frantic, and, calling into service some of Shelby's slaves and the ever-ready bloodhounds, he starts in pursuit of his prey. Eliza has made her way with her dear Harry clasped to her bosom to the banks of the Ohio River in a driving snowstorm, with the piercing cold winds carrying the baying of the bloodhounds to her ears as they follow mercilessly in her tracks. The ferryboats are not running, and the boatmen who usually ply their traffic across the river are afraid to encounter the fierce storm and the ice floes at the risk of their produce and their own lives. Spurred on by mother love and courage born of liberty and protection of the helpless, Eliza unhesitatingly jumps down the river's bank onto a large cake of floating ice, which rafts her down the stream, then from one piece of ice to another she leaps like a deer until she reaches the Ohio side of the river, where she is assisted up the bank and seeks shelter for herself and child. Haley and his negro aides are baffled by the capture of their quarry. Haley is furious, the negroes delighted, and while Haley goes to the tavern to appease his wrath the darkies show their pleasure in fits of laughter and return to the Shelby place to report Eliza's escape. Haley, after a night of it in company with Marks, the lawyer, and Tom Rorer, a human bloodhound, goes back to take possession of "Uncle Tom," by the sale of whom he hopes to make up the loss of Harry. Uncle Tom, after a last farewell to his wife and little pickaninnies, and a hearty goodbye from young "Mars" George Shelby, who promises he will purchase "Tom" himself someday, gets into Haley's wagon, shackled hand, and foot, with a sad heart but Christian resignation, bids farewell forever to his old Kentucky home. Haley, with Uncle Tom and his other slaves, boards the steamboat and starts down the Mississippi for Louisiana. On the boat going home from a visit to Vermont is Mr. Augustine St. Clare with his little daughter, Eva, a beautiful child of delicate temperament, and a maiden aunt named "Miss Ophelia." On the way down the river, poor Tom makes himself helpful and cheerfully obliging to everybody, lending a hand with the freight and saying a kind and courteous word whenever spoken to. Whenever he can find the time he reads in his laboring way his Bible, which is a source of great comfort to him. Eva is especially attracted to Tom. He has his pocket stored with odd toys of his own manufacture, which furnishes her great amusement during the long and tedious progress of the boat. One day Eva falls overboard. Uncle Tom with unhesitating courage jumps into the river and brings her safely back to the boat. This cements her attachment to Tom. She begs her father to buy him for her own. The father, always ready to satisfy her every wish, makes a deal with Haley, and Tom is purchased for Eva, who makes him her companion and attendant. "Miss Ophelia," although a northerner, is shocked at the readiness with which Eva associates and confides in Tom, but as she learns afterward it is not misplaced and well deserved. The St. Clares arrive at their home in New Orleans. Tom is initiated as a member of the household, and while officially the coachman he is personally the bodyguard of Eva and he is her confidant fides achates. We can see the sensitive nature and constitution of the child gradually succumb to the climatic changes and the rackings of the severe cough and cold which has settled upon her lungs. Her father decides to move the family and household to his country home where he hopes Eva will improve and get well. It is here we are introduced to "Topsy," a coal-black little negress whom St. Clare buys for "Miss Ophelia" to call her own and bring up in the way she would have her go. From this time on to the close of the film "Topsy" is a noticeable and amusing person. For two years Uncle Tom's life with the St. Clares is an uninterrupted dream, excepting the thoughts of his separation from his dear old wife and his children. After two years little Eva's illness becomes so bad she appears to be undergoing a process of translation and looks more like a vision of immortality in the midst of mortal things. Often she talks with Uncle Tom about Heaven with an understanding that makes Tom think, and everybody else for that matter, that she is not long for this world. These suppositions are well-founded, for it is not long before Eva is seen on her bed surrounded by her parents, Aunt Ophelia, Uncle Tom, and the servants of the family. She bids each one goodbye, giving each some little keepsake, then peacefully passes away to join the other angels in Heaven. The sorrow following the death of little Eva has scarcely passed when the house of St. Clare is again thrown into mourning by the death of Mr. St. Clare, who was stabbed while trying to stop a quarrel between two men. Mr. St. Clare had promised Uncle Tom his freedom, in anticipation of which he is inspired with new hope and great ambition to work for the liberation of his wife and children, but all this is doomed by his master's untimely end, and all the servants of the St. Clare place are sold to speculators and other masters. Tom is sold to Legree, who is brutal in the extreme, and treats poor Tom with little less consideration than a dog. Legree has established as his mistress Cassie, a quadroon slave, whom he treats as badly as he dares, for she has a strong influence over him and despises him with a heartiness that she cannot hide. One day, working in the cotton field, Cassie meets Uncle Tom and is impressed by his generosity and gentleness of spirit and his all-abiding faith in God. At the same time Legree bought Tom he bid on a young mulatto girl named Emmeline, whom he also introduced into his household to displace Cassie, whom he tries to relegate again to the cotton-picking rank of slaves. Emmeline likes Cassie, abhors Legree, and keeps as far from him as possible. Tom is subjected to every sort of indignation and uncomplainingly does his duty. It is not until he is asked to flog a poor slave girl that he refuses to obey his master, and is himself unmercifully whipped by Legree and two of his slaves. Cassie finds life with Legree unbearable and hates him with an indescribable intensity. She plans to accomplish escape for herself and Emmeline and asks Uncle Tom to go with them, but he refuses to leave while others suffer for no more reason than himself. Cassie plays upon Legree's superstition and fear, for, in reality, he is an arrant coward, and she makes him believe there are ghosts in the garret of his house, and when she and Emmeline take flight and he pursues them with bloodhounds and slaves, the women retrace their steps, after passing through the swamp to throw the dogs off the trail, and return to the garret, where they remain for three days and make good their escape when a favorable opportunity presents itself after Legree has given them up as gone. Legree, filled with rage, for want of a better excuse, accuses Uncle Tom of knowing something about Cassies escape and being party to it. Tom denies that he had any hand in it, and refuses to reveal his knowledge of it. Legree vents his spite and cussedness by administering a severe beating to Tom and felling him with a savage blow. Young Shelby, who promised Tom at the time his father sold him to Haley that he would repurchase him as soon as he could, now comes to Legree's place to buy him back. Too late! Poor Tom has gone to his eternal freedom to dwell with his Master, who makes no distinction in color, creed, or class and prepareth a place for all those who love Him and keep His Commandments, and of whom Tom was a faithful disciple. She was born as Flora Brooks into a music hall and travelling theatrical family in London, England, on June 17, 1867, and was later taken to the United States. She played on the vaudeville stage in New York from at least 1901. She appeared on Broadway in New York City, New York, in the stage productions of such plays as, 'Angelica' in "The Bad Boy And His Teddy Bears" (December 23, 1907, to January 18, 1908), and as 'Miss Finney' in "We've Got To Have Money" (August 20, 1923, to October 1923). During this time she made the transition to film beginning with silent pictures and eventually sound pictures. She made her first films in New York and New Jersey before she first came to Los Angeles, California, in 1926. She made her actual film debut playing the role of 'Mrs. Harcourt' in the short film drama, "The Helping Hand" (1908). The film was directed and written by D.W. Griffith, and also starred Linda Arvidson, Anita Hendrie, Harry Solter, and Arthur V. Johnson. Besides, playing the role of 'Mrs. Harcourt' in the short film drama, "The Helping Hand" (1908), and playing the role of 'Ophelia St. Clare' in the silent film classic, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1910), her many other film credits include, "Mrs. Jones Entertains" (1909), "Mr. Jones Has A Card Party" (1909), "Those Awful Hats" (1909), "A Wreath In Time" (1909), "His Wife's Mother" (1909), "Jones And His New Neighbors" (1909), "Schneider's Anti-Noise Crusade" (1909), "A Sound Sleeper" (1909), "Jones And The Lady Book Agent" (1909), "What Drink Did" (1909), "Her First Biscuits" (1909), "The Way Of Man" (1909), "All On Account Of The Milk" (1910), "Caught In His Own Trap" (1910), "Muggsy's First Sweetheart" (1910), "Davy Jones And Captain Bragg" (1910), "The Troublesome Baby" (1910), "The Misses Finch And Their Nephew Billy" (1911), "The Midnight Marauder" (1911), "The New Stenographer" (1911), "Captain Barnacle's Courtship" (1911), "The Wooing Of Winifred" (1911), "The Derelict Reporter" (1911), "Tim Mahoney, The Scab" (1911), "The Sleep Walker" (1911), "Two Overcoats" (1911), "In Northern Forests" (1911), "The Woes Of Mrs. Nag" (1911), "Treasure Trove" (1911), "The Strategy Of Anne" (1911), "Intrepid Davy" (1911), "Her Crowning Glory" (1911), "Her Hero" (1911), "Selecting His Heiress" (1911), "The Gossip" (1911), "The Politician's Dream" (1911), "The Ventriloquist's Trunk" (1911), "In The Clutches Of A Vapor Bath" (1911), "The First Violin" (1912), "Umbrellas To Mend" (1912), "Bunny And The Twins" (1912), "A Cure For Pokeritis" (1912), "Stenographers Wanted" (1912), "Irene's Infatuation" (1912), "The First Woman Jury In America" (1912), "The Old Silver Watch" (1912), "Her Forgotten Dancing Shoes" (1912), "The Governor Who Had A Heart" (1912), "The Suit Of Armor" (1912), "The Jocilar Winds Of Fate" (1912), "How He Papered The Room" (1912), "The Red Ink Tragedy" (1912), "Thou Shalt Not Covet" (1912), "Leap Year Proposals" (1912), "Professor Optimo" (1912), "Diamond Cut Diamond" (1912), "Pandora's Box" (1912), "The Pseudo Sultan" (1912), "The Church Across The Way" (1912), "The Troublesome Step-Daughters" (1912), "Her Old Sweetheart" (1912), "The Foster Child" (1912), "A Persistent Lover" (1912), "Martha's Rebellion" (1912), "The Awakening Of Jones" (1912), "Suing Susan" (1912), "Saving An Audience" (1912), "Captain Barnacle's Legacy" (1912), "Bunny's Suicide" (1912), "A Vitagraph Romance" (1912), "Bachelor Buttons" (1912), "She Cried" (1912), "Mammoth Life-Savers" (1912), "An Elephant On Their Hands" (1912), "Bunny All At Sea" (1912), "An Expensive Shine" (1912), "The Hand Bag" (1912), "The Professor And The Lady" (1912), "Lord Browning And Cinderella" (1912), "The Unusual Honeymoon" (1912), "The Servant Problems" or "How Mr. Bullington Ran The House" (1912), "In The Flat Above" (1912), "Doctor Bridget" (1912), "Freckles" (1912), "Planting The Spring Garden" (1912), "Mr. Bolter's Niece" (1913), "Three Black Bags" (1913), "The Little Minister" (1913), "When Mary Grew Up" (1913), "And His Wife Came Back" (1913), "The Classmate's Frolic" (1913), "Stenographer Troubles" (1913), "A Trap To Catch A Burglar" (1913), "The Locket" or "When She Was Twenty" (1913), "Suspicious Henry" (1913), "Hubby Buys A Baby" (1913), "The Way Out" (1913), "His Honor, The Mayor" (1913), "The Dog House Builders" (1913), "The Wonderful Statue" (1913), "Love Laughs At Locksmiths" or "Love Finds A Way" (1913), "He Answered The Ad" (1913), "Cutey And The Chorus Girls" (1913), "The Fortune" (1913), "There's Music In The Hair" (1913), "Two's Company, Three's A Crowd" (1913), "Bingles Mends The Clock" (1913), "Cupid's Hired Man" (1913), "Mr. Horatio Sparkins" (1913), "Vampire Of The Desert" (1913), "His Life For His Emperor" (1913), "Bunny's Birthday Surprise" (1913), "A Lady And Her Maid" (1913), "Bunny As A Reporter" (1913), "Bunny's Dilemma" (1913), "No Sweets" (1913), "One Good Joke Deserves Another" (1913), "Love's Quarantine" (1913), "A Millinery Bomb" (1913), "Hubby's Toothache" (1913), "The Pickpocket" (1913), "A Gentleman Of Fashion" (1913), "When The Press Speaks" (1913), "Bingles' Nightmares" or, "If It Had Only Been True" (1913), "Those Troublesome Tresses" (1913), "The Feudists" (1913), "Which Way Did He Go?" (1913), "When Women Go On The Warpath" or, "Why Jonesville Went Dry" (1913), "John Tobin's Sweetheart" (1913), "The Autocrat Of Flapjack Junction" (1913), "Father's Hatband" (1913), "Fatty's Affair Of Honor" (1913), "Mary Jane" (1913), "The Schemers" (1913), "The Girl At The Lunch Counter" (1913), "The Game And The Bonnet" (1913), "The Misadventures Of A Mighty Monarch" (1914), "Bunny's Mistake" (1914), "Cutey's Vacation" (1914), "Love's Old Dream" (1914), "Bunny's Birthday" (1914), "A Change In Baggage Checks" (1914), "Bunny's Scheme" (1914), "The Chicken Inspector" (1914), "Tangled Tangoists" (1914), "Bunco Bill's Visit" (1914), "The Old Fire Horse And The New Fire Chief" (1914), "Mr. Bunny In Disguise" (1914), "Bunny Buys A Harem" (1914), "Bunny's Swell Affair" (1914), "Cutey's Wife" (1914), "Mr. Bunnyhug Buys A Hat For His Bride" (1914), "Mr. Bingle's Melodrama" (1914), "Father's Flirtation" (1914), "The Old Maid's Baby" (1914), "A Train Of Incidents" (1914), "The Vases Of Hymen" (1914), "Private Bunny" (1914), "The Locked House" (1914), "David Garrick" (1914), "The New Stenographer" (1914), "Polishing Up" (1914), "Such A Hunter" (1914), "Hearts And Diamonds" (1914), "Bunny Backslides" (1914), "The Rocky Road Of Love" (1914), "Fixing Their Dads" (1914), "Mary Jane Entertains" (1914), "Bunny's Little Brother" (1914), "A Strand Of Blond Hair" (1914), "Sweeney's Christmas Bird" (1914), "The New Secretary" (1915), "The Smoking Out Of Bella Butts" (1915), "War" (1915), "Two And Two" (1915), "The Lady Of Shalott" (1915), "They Loved Him So" (1915), "Mr. Jarr's Magnetic Friend" (1915), "Whose Husband?" (1915), "Strictly Neutral" (1915), "The Starring Of Flora Finchurch" (1915), "A Mistake In Typesetting" (1915), "A Pair Of Queens" (1915), "Some Duel" (1915), "Pat Hogan, Deceased" (1915), "Heavy Villains" (1915), "Between Two Fires" (1915), "The Conquest Of Constantia" (1915), "Hughey Of The Circus" (1915), "Wheen Hooligan And Dooligan Ran For Mayor" (1916), "A Night Out" (1916), "Hughey, The Process Server" (1916), "Prudence, The Pirate" (1916), "The Brown Derby" (1916), "War Prides" (1917, She acted in the film and was also a producer on the film), "Guess What" (1917, She acted in the film and was also a producer on the film), "Flora The School Teacher" (1917), "Flora The Manicure Girl" (1917), "Flora The Life-Saver" (1917), "Flora The International Spy" (1917, She acted in the film and also was a producer on the film), "Flora The Dressmaker" (1917), "Flora Joins The Chorus" (1917), "Flora In The Movies" (1917), "The Great Adventure" (1917), "Boodle And Bandits" (1918), "Oh Boy!" (1919), "The Immovable Guest" (1919), "Dawn" (1919), "Birthright" (1920), "The She-Male Sleuth" (1920), "Lessons In Love" (1921), "Orphans Of The Storm" (1921), "When Knighthood Was In Flower" (1922), "Man Wanted" (1922), "Orphan Sally" (1922), "A Social Error" (1922), "Luck" (1923), "Roulette" (1924), "Monsieur Beaucaire" (1924), "The Early Bird" (1925), "The Midnight Girl" (1925), "Men And Women" (1925), "The Adventurous Sex" (1925), "The Wrongdoers" (1925), "The Live Wire" (1925), "His Buddy's Wife" (1925), "A Kiss For Cinderella" (1925), "Lover's Island" (1925), "Fifth Avenue" (1926), "The Brown Derby" (1926), "Oh, Baby!" (1926), "Morning Judge" (1926), "The Berth Mark" (1926), "Another Bottle Doctor" (1926), "Her Indiscretion" (1927), "Are Brunettes Safe?" (1927), "Captain Salvation" (1927), "The Cat And The Canary" (1927), "Rose Of The Golden West" (1927), "Quality Street" (1927), "The Wife's Relations" (1928), "Five And Ten Cent Annie" (1928), "The Haunted House" (1928), "The Faker" (1929), "Come Across" (1929), "Say It With Songs" (1929), "The Matrimonial Bed" (1930), "Sweet Kitty Bellairs" (1930), "The Bride's Mistake" (1931), "Play Girl" (1932), "The Scarlet Letter" (1934), "The Painted Veil" (1934), "Moonlight Murder" (1936), "Show Boat" (1936), "San Francisco" (1936), "Women Are Trouble" (1936), "Postal Inspector" (1936), "No Place Like Rome" (1936), "Mama Steps Out" (1937), "When Love Is Young" (1937), "Way Out West" (1937), "London By Night" (1937), "Bad Guy" (1937), "A Night At The Movies" (1937), "Stablemates" (1938), and "Dodge City" (1939). Her last film role was playing 'Woman Window Tapper' in the comedy film drama, "The Women" (1939). The film which was directed by George Cukor, which was based on the play by Clare Boothe Luce and which was written for the screen by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, and which also starred Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell. She retired from acting shortly thereafter. During her impressive acting career, she usually starred in films that were made through the Vitagraph Studios Film Company and the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company usually playing alongside the likes of Fatty Arbuckle, Mack Sennett, and Charlie Chaplin, among many others. Her later films were made through Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Studios. She passed away from a sudden infection at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Hollywood, California, on January 4, 1940, at the age of 72. Her funeral service was held through Pierce Brothers Mortuary and she was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. She was married to Harold March who predeceased her in death. On an interesting note, she was known for her unusual physique, she was extraordinarily tall and skinny for a woman of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, accentuated by an elongated face and a long "swan" neck. She went onto become one of the first stars to form an eponymous production company -- The Flora Finch Film Corporation. She placed advertisements in film industry trade publications announcing her new company with the screaming banner, "FLORA FINCH!! IN ALL HER SCRAWNY, SKINNY MAJESTY!" The ad included a photograph of her head pasted onto an artist's rendering of her body, which included pipe-cleaner-like arms and legs, and a neck that was twice as long as her real neck. The actress once said, "I have never in all my days had a pie thrown at me, and that in itself is a distinction few actors in old comedies can claim." Her honors include having a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame at 6673 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, California.