Agnes Ayres

Agnes Ayres, born Agnes Henkel on April 4, 1892, was an American actress who built her reputation during the silent film era before appearing on Broadway in 1928 in the musical Whoopee!.

Ayres entered the film industry in 1914 after a staff director at Essanay Studios noticed her and placed her as an extra. She subsequently relocated to Manhattan with her mother to pursue acting more seriously, where actress Alice Joyce took notice of her due to a physical resemblance between the two women. That connection led to Ayres being cast in Richard the Brazen (1917) as the sister of Joyce's character. Her career advanced further when Paramount Pictures founder Jesse Lasky took an interest in her work, securing her a starring role in the drama Held by the Enemy (1920) and advocating for her inclusion in several Cecil B. DeMille productions. During this period, Ayres and Lasky were also romantically involved.

Her rise to stardom came in 1921 with The Sheik, in which she played Lady Diana Mayo, an English heiress, opposite Rudolph Valentino. She reprised that role in the 1926 sequel The Son of the Sheik. Among her other prominent film credits were The Affairs of Anatol (1921) with Wallace Reid, Forbidden Fruit (1921), and DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923). Her career began to decline by 1923, coinciding with the end of her relationship with Lasky. In 1924 she married Mexican diplomat S. Manuel Reachi; the couple had a daughter before divorcing in 1927.

Ayres appeared on Broadway in 1928 in the musical Whoopee!, and the following year took what would prove to be her last major film role in The Donovan Affair, starring Jack Holt. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 cost her both her fortune and her real estate holdings. To generate income she performed on the vaudeville circuit. She attempted a return to film acting in 1936 but was unable to secure starring roles, appearing instead in mostly uncredited parts before retiring from acting in 1937. In 1939 she lost custody of her daughter, Maria Ayres, to Reachi.

Ayres died from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 25, 1940, at her home in Hollywood, California, at the age of 48. She is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In 1960 she was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star at 6504 Hollywood Boulevard.