Seena Owen

Known For

Acting

Born

Nov 13, 1894

Died

Aug 15, 1966

Place of Birth

Spokane, Washington, USA

Credits

55 titles

Seena Owen

Biography

From Wikipedia Seena Owen (November 14, 1894 – August 15, 1966) was a Danish-American silent film actress. Born Signe Auen at Spokane, Washington, the youngest of three children raised by Jens Christensen and Karen (née Sorensen) Auen. Her father and mother came from Denmark in the late 1880s and settled in Minnesota where they married in 1888. Within a short period of time they relocated to Portland and then Spokane, where her father became proprietor of the Columbia Pharmacy. Her first important film was A Yankee From the West (1915) under the name Signe Auen at the age of 21. She was later convinced to change her name and settled on Seena Owen, the phonetic spelling of her real name. In 1916 she performed in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance. The same year she married George Walsh whom she had met on the set of Intolerance. The marriage lasted until their divorce in 1924. A regular player for the rest of the silent era, Owen appeared in films such as Maurice Tourneur's Victory in 1919 where she was photographed to great effect by Tourneur's cameraman, Rene Guissart. In 1920, she appeared in "The Gift Supreme" with Lon Chaney, who appeared with her in Victory. She co-starred with Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron in the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928), as the mad Queen who whips Swanson in one scene. With the arrival of sound in movies, Owen's weak voice became a problem and forced her to retire from the silver screen in 1933. After her retirement, she worked on a number of films in the 1930s/40s as a screenwriter including two starring Dorothy Lamour: Aloma of the South Seas and Rainbow Island, both in 1941. The former was written in part with her sister, Lillie Hayward, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, Seena Owen died on August 15, 1966 at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, aged 71, and was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Known For

Filmography

1947

Carnegie Hall

Story

Movie
1941

The Great Man's Lady

Story

Movie
1941

Aloma of the South Seas

Writer

Movie
1937

Thrill of a Lifetime

Screenplay

Movie
1937

This Way Please

Screenplay

Movie
1937

Clarence

Screenplay

Movie
1932

Officer Thirteen

Trixi Du Bray

Movie
1929

Queen Kelly

Queen Regina V

Movie
1929

The Marriage Playground

Rose Sellers

Movie
1928

His Last Haul

Blanche

Movie
1928

Sinners in Love

Yvonne D'Orsy

Movie
1928

Man-Made Women

Georgette

Movie
1928

The Blue Danube

Helena Boursch

Movie
1927

The Rush Hour

Yvonne Dorée

Movie
1926

The Flame of the Yukon

The Flame

Movie
1926

Shipwrecked

Lois Austin

Movie
1925

Faint Perfume

Richmiel Crumb

Movie
1925

The Hunted Woman

Joanne Gray

Movie
1924

I Am the Man

Julia Calvert

Movie
1924

For Woman's Favor

June Paige

Movie
1924

The Great Well

Camilla Challenor

Movie
1923

Unseeing Eyes

Miriam Helston

Movie
1923

The Leavenworth Case

Eleanor Leavenworth

Movie
1923

The Go-Getter

Mary Skinner

Movie
1922

The Face in the Fog

Grand Duchess Tatiana

Movie
1922

Sisters

Alix Strickland

Movie
1922

Back Pay

Hester Bevins

Movie
1921

The Woman God Changed

Anna Janssen

Movie
1921

Lavender and Old Lace

Ruth Thorne

Movie
1921

The Cheater Reformed

Carol McCall

Movie
1920

The Price of Redemption

Jean Dering

Movie
1920

The Gift Supreme

Sylvia Alden

Movie
1920

Sooner or Later

Edna Ellis

Movie
1919

Victory

Alma

Movie
1919

A Fugitive from Matrimony

Barbara Riggs

Movie
1919

The Life Line

Laura

Movie
1919

The Fall of Babylon

Attarea

Movie
1919

The City of Comrades

Regina Barry

Movie
1919

Riders of Vengeance

The Girl

Movie
1919

One of the Finest

Frances Hudson

Movie
1919

The Sheriff's Son

Beulah Rutherford

Movie
1919

A Man And His Money

Betty Dalrymple

Movie
1919

Breed of Men

Ruth Fellows

Movie
1918

Branding Broadway

Mary Lee

Movie
1917

Madame Bo-Peep

Movie
1917

A Woman's Awakening

Paula Letchworth

Movie
1916

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

Princess Beloved (Attarea) (Babylonian Story)

Movie
1916

Martha's Vindication

Dorothea

Movie
1915

The Lamb

Mary

Movie
1915

A Yankee from the West

Gunhild, a Norwegian Girl

Movie