About Me
Nita Naldi (April 1, 1897 – February 17, 1961) was one of the most prominent silent film vamps of the Roaring Twenties. Often referred to as "The Female Valentino", she would star opposite Rudy in four films: Blood and Sand (1922), The Hooded Falcon (1924), A Sainted Devil (1924) and Cobra (1925).
Born Anita Donna Dooley in New York City into a working class Irish-Italian family, Nita began her professional career in the Ziegfeld Follies, changing her decidedly Irish sounding surname to the more exotic Naldi as an homage to a childhood friend with the surname Rinaldi.
She was discovered in 1919 by film legend John Barrymore and soon took Hollywood by storm. With her sultry, exotic, vampish looks, she was immediately snapped up for a Paramount Pictures contract.
She made her first appearance in the 1920 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Barrymore's request. Nita was often cast in the role of the vamp; a sort of paean to earlier Hollywood star and rival Theda Bara. It was an onscreen persona that Naldi would wonderfully capitalize on during her years in the film industry.
Perhaps her most memorable role came when she was teamed with Italian screen idol Rudolph Valentino in the enormous 1922 hit Blood and Sand. The pairing of the overtly exotic and seductive duo was so appealing to the public that Naldi was Valentino's co-star in three more films. Naldi would become close friends with Valentino and would star alongside Valentino's wife Natacha Rambova in Rambova's penned 1925 drama What Price Beauty?. While the film would be critically panned, it is noteworthy for being actress Myrna Loy's first screen appearance.
At her career's peak, Naldi appeared in the colossal 1923 epic film The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. She also appeared in one of legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock's first directorial efforts, 1926's The Mountain Eagle. Nita would even appear alongside the decade's most popular entertainers, Harry Houdini, in his 1923 sophomore fim The Man from Beyond.
Nita would spend the mid-1920s appearing opposite such popular actors as of the era as: Leatrice Joy, Conrad Nagel, Maurice Costello, Rod La Rocque, Dorothy Gish, Norma Shearer and Bebe Daniels.
In the late 1920's she travelled to Europe and made several films on the continent. She would make her last appearance onscreen in the 1929 Austrian film Pratermizzi opposite Czech actress Anny Ondra. After returning to America, she appeared on Broadway in the 1933 productions of The Firebird and Queer People.
Unfortunately, like so many other silent film stars, the advent of the "talkies" saw Naldi's career wane. By the end of the 1920s, with America entering the Great Depression, her vamp persona seemed passé to American film-goers. Nita eventually retired and married Searle Barclay in 1929; the couple remained married until his death on January 30, 1945. Nita never remarried nor had children.
Sadly, Nita spent her later years living in relative obscurity in a rather seedy New York City hotel with a meager stipend from the Motion Picture Relief Fund. She died of a heart atatck in 1961 at aged 63 and was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens County, New York.
For her contribution to the film industry, Nita Naldi was honored with a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6316 Hollywood Blvd.
