Actress. While she never enjoyed the popularity of her older sister, the legendary actress Mary Pickford, or her younger brother Jack Pickford, she nevertheless had a modest amount of fame in her own right. Like her siblings, she also got her start in acting by playing juvenile roles in stage plays upon the urging of their mother Charlotte. However, she primarily served as Mary's understudy and dresser instead of getting prominent roles herself. They moved from stage acting to screen acting in 1909 when they were signed by Biograph Studios. For the next few years she appeared in numerous shorts, although many times she was cast in uncredited or bit roles. Among these shorts were 'The Light That Came' (1909), 'To Save Her Soul' (1909), 'A Summer Idyll' (1910), 'Two Little Waifs' (1910), 'A Wreath of Orange Blossoms' (1911), and 'Three Sisters' (1911). In 1911, she left Biograph and began working at various other studios, such as Inceville, Vitagraph, and Photo Drama Motion Picture Company. Although she appeared in a number of shorts and, later, features with her older sister, with her younger brother, and sometimes worked in movies with both of them, the only full-length feature in which all three Pickford siblings appeared together was 'Fanchon the Cricket' (1915), in which they played the leading roles. Following this, she began to enjoy more important leading roles in movies, such as 'The Diamond from the Sky' (a 1915 serial), 'The Reward of Patience' (1916), 'The Man from Funeral Range' (1918), and 'They Shall Pay' (1921). Originally her sister Mary had been offered the leading role in 'The Diamond from the Sky', but she turned down the opportunity and their mother Charlotte suggested Lottie to the serial's producers. When the original director abandoned the project after finding out that Lottie was pregnant (by her husband George Rupp), William Desmond Taylor obligingly took over. His quality of work and his kind treatment of Lottie influenced Mary to eventually hire him as her own director. Lottie's child was officially christened Mary Pickford Rupp, although she later had her daughter's name changed to Gwynne. When she divorced Rupp in 1920, her mother Charlotte and her sister Mary took over Gwynne's upbringing. Lottie later remarried to the actor Allan Forrest, and appeared in her last two films, 'Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall' (1924) and 'Don Q, Son of Zorro' (1925), under the name Lottie Pickford Forrest. However, this marriage too didn't last, and in 1928 they got divorced. Her final marriage was to Russel O. Gillard, an undertaker. This marriage similarly ended in divorce in 1933. Like her younger brother Jack, whom she idolized, Lottie had also developed problems with drinking and with throwing notoriously wild parties. This lifestyle would eventually lead to the premature end of her acting career and her death at the age of only forty-three.
Actress. While she never enjoyed the popularity of her older sister, the legendary actress Mary Pickford, or her younger brother Jack Pickford, she nevertheless had a modest amount of fame in her own right. Like her siblings, she also got her start in acting by playing juvenile roles in stage plays upon the urging of their mother Charlotte. However, she primarily served as Mary's understudy and dresser instead of getting prominent roles herself. They moved from stage acting to screen acting in 1909 when they were signed by Biograph Studios. For the next few years she appeared in numerous shorts, although many times she was cast in uncredited or bit roles. Among these shorts were 'The Light That Came' (1909), 'To Save Her Soul' (1909), 'A Summer Idyll' (1910), 'Two Little Waifs' (1910), 'A Wreath of Orange Blossoms' (1911), and 'Three Sisters' (1911). In 1911, she left Biograph and began working at various other studios, such as Inceville, Vitagraph, and Photo Drama Motion Picture Company. Although she appeared in a number of shorts and, later, features with her older sister, with her younger brother, and sometimes worked in movies with both of them, the only full-length feature in which all three Pickford siblings appeared together was 'Fanchon the Cricket' (1915), in which they played the leading roles. Following this, she began to enjoy more important leading roles in movies, such as 'The Diamond from the Sky' (a 1915 serial), 'The Reward of Patience' (1916), 'The Man from Funeral Range' (1918), and 'They Shall Pay' (1921). Originally her sister Mary had been offered the leading role in 'The Diamond from the Sky', but she turned down the opportunity and their mother Charlotte suggested Lottie to the serial's producers. When the original director abandoned the project after finding out that Lottie was pregnant (by her husband George Rupp), William Desmond Taylor obligingly took over. His quality of work and his kind treatment of Lottie influenced Mary to eventually hire him as her own director. Lottie's child was officially christened Mary Pickford Rupp, although she later had her daughter's name changed to Gwynne. When she divorced Rupp in 1920, her mother Charlotte and her sister Mary took over Gwynne's upbringing. Lottie later remarried to the actor Allan Forrest, and appeared in her last two films, 'Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall' (1924) and 'Don Q, Son of Zorro' (1925), under the name Lottie Pickford Forrest. However, this marriage too didn't last, and in 1928 they got divorced. Her final marriage was to Russel O. Gillard, an undertaker. This marriage similarly ended in divorce in 1933. Like her younger brother Jack, whom she idolized, Lottie had also developed problems with drinking and with throwing notoriously wild parties. This lifestyle would eventually lead to the premature end of her acting career and her death at the age of only forty-three.
Bio by: Carrie-Anne
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