CINEFILER

Aileen Pringle

Born
July 23, 1895
Died
December 16, 1989
Aileen Pringle's favorite film was a mid-1920s silent based on a book by Elinor Glyn: Three Weeks (1924), sort of a "Lady Chatterly's Lover". She recalled in a 1980 telephone conversation: "The film was in good taste; some people thought the book was trashy". Anita Loos wrote in "A Girl Like I", the first volume of her autobiography, vaudeville comic Joe Frisco telling Glynn: "Leave me get this straight. You want to find some tramp that don't look like a tramp, to play that English tramp in your picture. But take it from me, that kind of tramp don't hang out in Hollywood". Aileen had spent her 20s married to Charles McKenzie Pringle, the son of Sir John Pringle, a Jamaica landowner and a member of the Privy and Legislative Councils of Jamaica. Aileen lived in Jamaica until she went on stage with George Arliss. When she began divorce proceedings against Pringle in 1926, Hollywood gossip columnists speculated she would marry H.L. Mencken. She did not remarry until 1944 when she became the bride of James M. Cain, author of "The Postman Always Rings Twice". I opened my 1980 telephone conversation with Aileen by mentioning that the day before I had been reading her correspondence with Mencken at the New York Public Library. "But all the letters were destroyed", she said. I knew that Mencken had asked for all of his letters to her back at the time he became engaged to Sara Haardt. Aileen was the only woman who received such a request from Mencken at that time. "It was your letters from the late '30s and '40s I was reading", I told Aileen. "In one of them Mencken was urging you to write a book. Did you ever finish it?" "No. I got married instead." In a 1946 letter she wrote to Mencken. "If I had remained married to that psychotic Cain, I would be wearing a straitjacket instead of the New Look." Date of Death 16 December 1989, New York City, New York
Known For
They Died with Their Boots On
(1941)
Mrs. Sharp (uncredited)
Laura
(1944)
Woman (uncredited)
The Women
(1939)
Miss Carter the Saleslady (uncredited)
Nothing Sacred
(1937)
Mrs. Bullock (uncredited)
Happy Land
(1943)
Mrs. Prentiss (uncredited)
Jane Eyre
(1934)
Lady Blanche Ingram
Full Filmography
Acting
Stolen Moments
(1920)
Inez Salles
Earthbound
(1920)
My American Wife
(1922)
Hortensia deVereta
The Strangers' Banquet
(1922)
Mrs. Schuyler-Peabody
The Christian
(1923)
Lady Robert Ure
Souls for Sale
(1923)
Lady Jane
The Tiger's Claw
(1923)
Chameli Brentwood
Don't Marry for Money
(1923)
Edith Martin
Name the Man
(1924)
Isabelle
Three Weeks
(1924)
The Queen
True As Steel
(1924)
Mrs. Eva Boutelle
His Hour
(1924)
Tamara Loraine
The Wife of the Centaur
(1924)
Inez Martin
A Kiss in the Dark
(1925)
Janet Livingstone
A Thief in Paradise
(1925)
Rosa Carmino
The Mystic
(1925)
Zara
1925 Studio Tour
(1925)
Self
One Year to Live
(1925)
The Great Deception
(1926)
Lois
Tin Gods
(1926)
Janet Stone
Camille: The Fate of a Coquette
(1926)
Estelle
Body and Soul
(1927)
Hilda
Life in Hollywood No. 7
(1927)
Herself
Adam and Evil
(1927)
Dream of Love
(1928)
The Duchess
The Baby Cyclone
(1928)
Lydia
Night Parade
(1929)
Paula Vernoff
Wall Street
(1929)
Ann Tabor
A Single Man
(1929)
Mary Hazeltine
Soldiers and Women
(1930)
Brenda Ritchie
Puttin' on the Ritz
(1930)
Mrs. Teddy Van Rennsler
Prince of Diamonds
(1930)
Eve Marley
Convicted
(1931)
Claire Norville
Murder at Midnight
(1931)
Esme Kennedy
Subway Express
(1931)
Dale Tracy
The Phantom of Crestwood
(1932)
Mrs. Walcott
The Age of Consent
(1932)
Barbara
Police Court
(1932)
Diana McCormick
By Appointment Only
(1933)
Diane Manners
Jane Eyre
(1934)
Lady Blanche Ingram
Sons of Steel
(1934)
Enid Chadburne
Love Past Thirty
(1934)
Caroline Burt
Vanessa: Her Love Story
(1935)
Herries Servant
Piccadilly Jim
(1936)
Paducah Pomeroy
The Unguarded Hour
(1936)
Diana Roggers
Wanted: Jane Turner
(1936)
Norris' Secretary (uncredited)
Wife vs. Secretary
(1936)
Mrs. Anne Barker (uncredited)
Thanks for Listening
(1937)
Lulu
John Meade's Woman
(1937)
Mrs. Melton
She's No Lady
(1937)
Mrs. Douglas
Nothing Sacred
(1937)
Mrs. Bullock (uncredited)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
(1937)
Lady Maria Frinton
Criminal Lawyer
(1937)
Mrs. Manning (uncredited)
The Hardys Ride High
(1939)
Miss Booth
Calling Dr. Kildare
(1939)
Mrs. Thatcher (uncredited)
The Women
(1939)
Miss Carter the Saleslady (uncredited)
Should a Girl Marry?
(1939)
Mrs. White
The Night of Nights
(1939)
Dress Saleslady (uncredited)
They Died with Their Boots On
(1941)
Mrs. Sharp (uncredited)
Appointment for Love
(1941)
Nurse Gibbons (uncredited)
Between Us Girls
(1942)
Nightclub Patron
Happy Land
(1943)
Mrs. Prentiss (uncredited)
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
(1943)
Chaperon (uncredited)
Laura
(1944)
Woman (uncredited)
Since You Went Away
(1944)
Woman at Cocktail Lounge (uncredited)
Data provided by TMDB