Olive Tell

Olive Tell (September 27, 1894 – June 8, 1951) was a New York City-born actress whose career spanned both the Broadway stage and motion pictures. She and her younger sister Alma, also an actress, completed their training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1915, the same year Tell began her Broadway career. Her New York stage debut came in the drama Husband and Wife, and she went on to appear in a number of Broadway productions between 1915 and 1923, including Cousin Lucy, Nemesis, Morphia, Civilian Clothes, and A King of Nowhere. Before pursuing her stage work, Tell received her education in several European cities.

Her screen career began during World War I, initially in silent films. Among her early film appearances were The Silent Master, The Unforeseen, Her Sister, and National Red Cross Pageant, all released in 1917. During this period she worked alongside prominent performers of the era, including Donald Gallaher, Karl Dane, Ann Little, Rod La Rocque, Ethel Barrymore, and a young Tallulah Bankhead. Despite this film work, Tell initially favored the theater and expressed a strong aversion to working on screen.

Tell's personal life was marked by significant loss. Her first husband died during World War I. She married George Willis Kreh in April 1923, but he died just four months after the wedding. In 1926 she married Henry Morgan Hobart, a producer at First National Pictures, and the couple relocated to California that same year, remaining in Hollywood for twelve years.

Her later film work appeared in the 1930s. Credits from that period include In His Steps (1936), Polo Joe (1936) with Joe E. Brown, Easy to Take (1936), and Under Southern Stars (1937). Her final screen appearance was in the 1939 drama Zaza, directed by George Cukor.

Tell died on June 8, 1951, at Bellevue Hospital in New York City following a fractured skull sustained at the Dryden Hotel at 150 East Thirty-Ninth Street, where she had been residing. She was 56 years old.