--- name: "Clara Bow" canonical: "https://film.one/person/clara-bow" roles: ["Actor"] born: "29 July 1905" died: "27 September 1965" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-19T21:23:33.201111+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Clara Bow Actor. Born 29 July 1905 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. Died 27 September 1965. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 29 July 1905, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA - **Died:** 27 September 1965 - **Also known as:** Clara Gordon Bow, The 'It' Girl - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q234640, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001966/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/102499 ## Streaming the US now - **Tubi:** [*Wings*](https://film.one/film/wings-1927.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Clara Bow > Bow moves when everyone else in the frame stands still, and in *Wings* that is the whole difference between her and the men. The flapper was a formula the studio kept her in; the energy was hers, and it still plays. Halfway through *Wings* (1927), Jack Powell is bent over his racing car and Mary Preston, the girl next door, is trying to get him to look up. He does not. Clara Bow plays not being noticed as work: she sulks, she drives, she climbs, she changes her mind, and William Wellman's camera, which only properly wakes up in the air, follows her more willingly than it follows any of the men. Charles Rogers stands still and emotes at the lens. Bow is already out of the door. The career was short and nearly all of it was the twenties. She came into films after winning a magazine beauty contest in 1922, while still at school, and had a first notable part that year in *Down to the Sea in Ships*. B.P. Schulberg produced dozens of her silents, most of them flapper pictures, and in 1927 two films made her a star: *It*, from Elinor Glyn's story, which gave her a label she never shook, and *Wings*. She went into sound with *The Wild Party* (1929), for Dorothy Arzner, Brooklyn accent and all, made a handful more and stopped in 1933 with *Hoopla*. She knew what she was doing. "All the time the flapper is laughing and dancing, there's a feeling of tragedy underneath. She's unhappy and disillusioned, and that's what people sense." In *Wings* the Paris nightclub is where you see it. Edith Head and Travis Banton put her in a glittering borrowed dress, the camera glides across the tables, and she is dressed up to be seen by a man who cannot see her. No title card says so. We found we had stopped watching Jack Powell's war and were watching her wait for him, and it is the only stretch of the ground story we would not cut. The studio found the formula and kept her in it, one flapper after another between 1927 and 1930, and she said as much herself, more than once. The dramatic sound parts, *Call Her Savage* (1932) among them, came late and came few. We have reviewed only *Wings*, so we will not pretend to a verdict on the rest. What we can say is that the thing she does there, the refusal to hold still while the plot happens to her, is not a trick of silent acting, because the talkies did not take it from her. Start with *Wings*, and watch the scenes on the ground, which is not advice we would give about anyone else in it. ## Biography Clara Bow (born Clara Gordon Bow) was an American actor who rose to prominence in silent films during the 1920s. She was born on 29 July 1905 in Brooklyn, New York City, and died on 27 September 1965. She appeared in Wings (1927) as Mary Preston and in It (1927) as Betty Lou Spence. The latter role earned her the nickname "The It Girl". Bow appeared in dozens of films and was a leading box-office attraction in the late 1920s. She made the transition to sound films and retired from acting after marrying actor Rex Bell in 1931. Her final film, Hoop-La, was released in 1933. *Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Wings* (1927), Fi1m 78, as Mary Preston — [page](https://film.one/film/wings-1927.md) ## Complete filmography (68) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess* (2012), Actor - *Sigrid Holmquist* (2010), as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage) - *Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture* (2010), Actor - *Edith Head: The Paramount Years* (2002), as (archive footage) - *The Casting Couch* (1995), Actor - *Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies* (1988), as (archive footage) (uncredited) - *The Muppets Go to the Movies* (1981), as Mary Preston (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Yesterday and Today* (1953), as (archive footage) - *Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner* (1949), as Clara Bow - *Hoopla* (1933), as Lou - *The Film Parade* (1933), as (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Call Her Savage* (1932), as Nasa Springer - *The House That Shadows Built* (1931), as (archive footage) - *Kick In* (1931), as Molly Hewes - *No Limit* (1931), as Helen 'Bunny' O'Day - *Her Wedding Night* (1930), as Norma Martin - *Love Among the Millionaires* (1930), as Pepper Whipple - *True to the Navy* (1930), as Ruby Nolan - *The Saturday Night Kid* (1929), as Mayme Barry - *Dangerous Curves* (1929), as Pat Delaney - *The Wild Party* (1929), as Stella Ames - *Three Week Ends* (1928), as Gladys O'Brien - *The Fleet's In* (1928), as Trixie Deane - *Ladies of the Mob* (1928), as Yvonne - *Red Hair* (1928), as Bubbles McCoy - *Get Your Man* (1927), as Nancy Worthington - *Hula* (1927), as Hula Calhoun - *Wings* (1927), as Mary Preston — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/wings-1927.md) - *Rough House Rosie* (1927), as Rosie O'Reilly - *Children of Divorce* (1927), as Kitty Flanders - *It* (1927), as Betty Lou Spence - *Kid Boots* (1926), as Clara McCoy - *Mantrap* (1926), as Alverna - *The Runaway* (1926), as Cynthia Meade - *Fascinating Youth* (1926), as Clara Bow - *Dancing Mothers* (1926), as Kittens Westcourt - *Two Can Play* (1926), as Dorothy Hammis - *Shadow of the Law* (1926), as Mary Brophy - *The Ancient Mariner* (1925), as Doris - *The Plastic Age* (1925), as Cynthia Day - *My Lady of Whims* (1925), as Prudence Severn - *The Best Bad Man* (1925), as Peggy Swain - *Free to Love* (1925), as Marie Anthony - *The Primrose Path* (1925), as Marilyn Merrill - *The Keeper of the Bees* (1925), as Lolly Cameron - *Parisian Love* (1925), as Marie - *Kiss Me Again* (1925), as Grizette - *The Scarlet West* (1925), as Miriam - *The Lawful Cheater* (1925), as Molly Burns - *Eve's Lover* (1925), as Rena D'Arcy - *My Lady's Lips* (1925), as Lola Lombard - *The Adventurous Sex* (1925), as The Girl - *Capital Punishment* (1925), as Delia Tate - *Black Lightning* (1924), as Martha Larned - *This Woman* (1924), as Aline Sturdevant - *Helen's Babies* (1924), as Alice Mayton - *Empty Hearts* (1924), as Rosalie - *Wine* (1924), as Angela Warriner - *Daughters of Pleasure* (1924), as Lila Millas - *Poisoned Paradise* (1924), as Margot LeBlanc - *Grit* (1924), as Orchid McGonigle - *Black Oxen* (1923), as Janet Ogelthorpe - *Maytime* (1923), as Alice Tremaine - *The Daring Years* (1923), as Mary - *The Pill Pounder* (1923), Actor - *Enemies of Women* (1923), as Dancing Girl (uncredited), Girl Dancing on Table - *Down to the Sea in Ships* (1922), as 'Dot' Morgan - *Beyond the Rainbow* (1922), as Virginia Gardener ## Gallery - ![Clara Bow](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-109c0b0cea69.jpg) Clara Bow — Otto Dyar (1892-1988), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Clara_Bow_by_Otto_Dyar%2C_1933.jpg/1280px-Clara_Bow_by_Otto_Dyar%2C_1933.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Included in the set of Rolf Armstrong's 16 screen beauties. (1930)](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-a14c6de81eb2.jpg) Included in the set of Rolf Armstrong's 16 screen beauties. (1930) — Screenland, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Clara_Bow_-_Vermilion.jpg/1280px-Clara_Bow_-_Vermilion.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Clara Bow (1905 - 1965) (1920)](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-0f9a2b0f125e.jpg) Clara Bow (1905 - 1965) (1920) — D.D.Teoli Jr., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/ClaraBow2.jpg/1280px-ClaraBow2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Clara Bow (1905 - 1965) (1920)](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-5397c8a4ab26.jpg) Clara Bow (1905 - 1965) (1920) — D.D.Teoli Jr., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Clara_Bow_%2720s.jpg/1280px-Clara_Bow_%2720s.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Clara Bow](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-ffbd31d51fd9.jpg) Clara Bow — Image via TMDB - ![Clara Bow](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-76ce5fcfab49.jpg) Clara Bow — Image via TMDB - ![Clara Bow](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-d5043f302711.jpg) Clara Bow — Image via TMDB - ![Publicity photo of Clara Bow for Argentinean Magazine. (Printed in USA) (1933)](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-a0082f591213.jpg) Publicity photo of Clara Bow for Argentinean Magazine. (Printed in USA) (1933) — produced by Fox Film Corporation and supplied to CINELANDIA magazine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Clara_Bow_Argentinean_Magazine_AD.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Title: Clara Bow Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-86cc50fd9628.jpg) Title: Clara Bow Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. — Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Clara_Bow_LCCN2014712579.jpg/1280px-Clara_Bow_LCCN2014712579.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Clara Bow](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-5f9b5070cbe3.jpg) Clara Bow — Image via TMDB - ![Clara Bow](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-4c8753da71f5.jpg) Clara Bow — Image via TMDB - ![Clara Bow](https://film.one/media/person/1224061/gallery-638336719d13.jpg) Clara Bow — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won - star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1960: star on Hollywood Walk of Fame (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/clara-bow