Malvina Longfellow

Malvina Virginia Longfellow (March 30, 1889 – November 2, 1962) was an American actress who worked in both stage and silent film during the early twentieth century. Born in New York City, she was the daughter of Julia Langfelder and the sister of Lilyan Cohen. She trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, completing her studies as a member of the senior class of 1908–1909.

Longfellow's stage career included two Broadway productions. The Watcher, a four-act play written by Cora Maynard and produced by the Shubert brothers, centered on an impoverished New York family named the Kents whose deceased mother continues to shape their lives. The production, which also featured Cathrine Countiss, Percy Haswell, Thurlow Bergen, and John Emerson, opened in Baltimore at the Auditorium Theater in December 1909 before moving to the Shubert Theater on 41st Street in January 1910. Her second Broadway credit was Into the Whirlwind, also in 1910. In January 1916, Longfellow participated in a program of entertainment at the Century Theatre organized for British-American War Relief, alongside Kitty Gordon, Eleanor Painter, Eugene Ormonde, and Paul Draper.

Her film career began in 1917 with The Will of the People. Subsequent screen appearances included Adam Bede (1918), The Romance of Lady Hamilton (1919), Calvary (1920), Moth and Rust (1921), Possession (1922), The Wandering Jew (1923), The Indian Love Lyrics (1923), and The Celestial City (1929). In 1921, German producer Ernst Lubitsch sought Longfellow to portray Lady Hamilton opposite Reinhold Schünzel in a film about Lord Nelson.

Beyond her performing career, Longfellow was recognized publicly for her appearance. In 1911, she was awarded a prize of 10,000 francs offered by the Paris publication Le Matin for the title of most beautiful girl on earth. In November 1922, photographer and beauty expert E. O. Hoppé selected her as one of the world's most beautiful women, alongside Marion Davies, Mrs. Lydig Hoyt, Lady Lavery, and Viscountess Maidstone. During 1921 and 1922, Longfellow lent her name to endorsements for a preparation called Phosferine.

In January 1919, Longfellow appeared as a witness at a coroner's inquest in London concerning the death of British actress Billie Carleton, who had been found dead in a London hotel in December 1918. The coroner's jury found Reggie de Veulle guilty of supplying Carleton with cocaine. Longfellow testified that she had been aware of Carleton's drug addiction, had attempted to persuade her to stop, and had warned Veulle on Armistice Night that his continued supply of drugs would lead to trouble.

By 1916, Longfellow was married to a British officer who had served in the Dardanelles for six months in 1915. In the spring of 1940, she married Alan Percy Cunliffe in Folkestone, Kent. An Old Etonian landowner and racehorse owner, Cunliffe was the younger brother of Walter Cunliffe, 1st Baron Cunliffe, a former Governor of the Bank of England. Cunliffe died in September 1942 at the age of 77, at his address in Castle Close, Sandgate, Kent, leaving assets of £154,669. Longfellow's mother, Julia Langfelder, died in 1938; her funeral was held on April 19 at the Riverside Memorial Chapel on 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in New York City.

Longfellow died on November 2, 1962, at Westminster Hospital in London. At the time of her death she was a widow residing in a flat on South Street in Mayfair, London. She left an estate valued at £371,270.