Biography
Mary Alden, also credited as Mary Maguire Alden, was an American stage and film actress. Born in New York City on 18 June 1883, she began her career on Broadway, appearing in productions including Personal (1907) and The Rule of Three (1914). She later moved into motion pictures, working initially with the Biograph Company and Pathé Exchange.
Alden is best known for her role as Lydia Brown, Stoneman's mulatto housekeeper, in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). She also appeared in Griffith's Intolerance (1916) and films such as Less Than the Dust (1917) with Mary Pickford. After a period on stage, she returned to screen roles including Mrs Anthon in The Old Nest (1921) and continued working through the 1920s into the early 1930s.
Her final credited films include Hell's House, Rasputin and the Empress and Strange Interlude, all from 1932. Alden died on 2 July 1946 in Woodland Hills, California.
