Women in History: Pearl White, Stunt Queen

You've probably seen the footage. The damsel tied to the railroad tracks with the mustacheoed evildoer standing by laughing maniacally as the damsel screams for help.

Chances are, that may have been Pearl White tied to those tracks. Or driving that fast car or flying that plane or swimming that raging river to get away from the evildoer.

Born and raised in poverty, Pearl Fay White began her acting career at the age of six to help earn money for her family. She was traveling with a touring stock company at 18 and doing minor film roles for Powers Film Company in New York.

White worked her way up the burgeoning film industry ladder, taking small roles in films such as The Girl From Arizona and short films by the Crystal Film Company in New York.

White's big break came when she was 25. She was offered the starring role in The Perils of Pauline. In the early part of the 20th century, "chapter," or serial, films were very popular. The Perils of Pauline contained 20 episodes and starred the brunette Pearl White. White donned a blond wig when she discovered it filmed better. She became an international star when the Pauline serials were box office successes, yet she could still walk down the street without being recognized. She earned a whopping $3,000 a week for her work on the Pauline serials and followed those with the equally popular The Exploits of Elaine.

Having an athletic build, White did her own stunts in her films, probably the first woman to do so. In doing so, White sustained personal injuries which affected her in her later years.

Having been raised in poverty made White a frugal businesswoman. She invested her film earnings in thoroughbred racehorses, Parisian nightclubs and resort hotels/casinos. She was already a wealthy woman when she married her second husband, Major Wallace McCutcheon Jr. in 1919. McCutcheon served in World War I. They were divorced in 1921, but their saga was far from over.

It was believed that McCutcheon committed suicide after the divorce. White was already working on another film, Plunder, in 1922. By this point, even though White was only 33 years old, she was forced to relinquish doing her own stunts due to injuries sustained earlier in her career. While filming one day in August, John Stevenson, a stunt double for White, was killed while performing a stunt.

It was initially rumored that White herself had been killed. Concern quickly turned to outrage when audiences and fans learned that White no longer did her own stunts. White, shaken by the death of her fellow stuntman and the ensuing scandal, suffered a nervous breakdown and went to France to recover.

But recovery eluded White. A few months after the stuntman's death in May of 1923, Wallace McCutcheon resurfaced in White's life. His reappearance was quite a shock to White who believed McCutcheon to have committed suicide after their divorce. Clearly McCutcheon's intention was to reunite with White. He was found in 1928, having actually committed suicide, with clippings about White stuffed in his pockets.

As a result of guilt, shock and, no doubt still suffering from previous injuries, White turned to alcohol. A 1933 hospitalization led to an addiction to pain killers. White died at age 49 at the American Hospital in Neuilly, France, on August 4, 1938. She made more than 200 films in her lifetime.

Pearl White's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6890 Hollywood Blvd., between Orange and Highland.