Biography
Louise Dresser was an American actress. Born Louise Josephine Kerlin in Evansville, Indiana, she began her career in vaudeville around 1900 and later appeared on Broadway in productions including Matinee Idol (1910–1912) and Have a Heart (1917). She adopted her professional surname from songwriter Paul Dresser.
Dresser made her film debut in The Glory of Clementina (1922). She played The Czarina, Catherine II, in The Eagle (1925) opposite Rudolph Valentino, and appeared in The Goose Woman (1925) and The Scarlet Empress (1934). She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for A Ship Comes In (1928) and was frequently cast as the wife of Will Rogers in films such as State Fair (1933) and David Harum (1934). Her final film was Maid of Salem (1937).
She was married twice: to Jack Norworth from 1898 until their divorce in 1908, and to Jack Gardner from 1910 until his death in 1950. Dresser died in 1965.
