Wilda Bennett

Wilda Bennett (December 19, 1894 – December 20, 1967) was an American actress known for her work in musical comedies and film. Born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, to John H. Bennett, a city building inspector, she built a Broadway career spanning from 1911 to the mid-1920s before transitioning to later stage and screen work. Her personal life, marked by repeated legal entanglements, kept her name in national headlines throughout much of her career.

Bennett's Broadway appearances began with Everywoman in 1911–1912 and A Good Little Devil in 1913. She continued with The Only Girl, which ran from 1914 to 1915, followed by The Riviera Girl in 1917 and The Girl Behind the Gun in 1918–1919. Apple Blossoms ran from 1919 to 1920, and she appeared in the Music Box Revue of 1921–1922. The Lady in Ermine occupied the 1922–1923 season, and she took on the title role in Madame Pompadour for the 1924–1925 run. Her later stage work included Lovely Lady in 1928 and Merrily We Roll Along in 1934. In 1927, she reprised her role from The Only Girl for a radio production. Bennett possessed a soprano voice described as sweet.

Her film credits encompassed work across several decades. A Good Little Devil was adapted for the screen in 1914, though that film is now considered lost. Subsequent appearances included Love, Honor and Obey in 1920, Bullets or Ballots in 1936, and four films released in 1939: Dark Victory, The Women, What a Life, and Ninotchka. Those Were the Days! followed in 1940, and The Lady Eve in 1941.

Bennett's personal life generated sustained press coverage. In 1925, Katherine Frey sued her for $100,000, alleging that Bennett had been involved with Frey's husband Charles. The court awarded Katherine Frey a judgment of $25,000. While that lawsuit was still unresolved, Charles Frey was driving Bennett's car when it struck and killed a young woman; Bennett was a passenger at the time. A 1927 lawsuit concerned unpaid care expenses for a horse Bennett had previously owned, and in 1928 a landlord sued her for destroying furniture and removing items from a rented apartment, a case she lost, resulting in a $400 payment. In 1930, Bennett initiated a lawsuit against Anthony J. Wettach following a car accident, and the two subsequently married that same year. She was arrested in 1932 on charges of being drunk and disorderly.

Bennett married four times. Her first husband was actor-producer Robert Schable, from whom she was divorced in 1920. She married Argentine dancer Abraham "Peppy" de Albrew in 1926, though the couple separated the following year. Her third marriage, to Anthony J. Wettach in 1930, ended in divorce in 1933. Her fourth husband was mining engineer Munro Whitmore, who died in 1960. Bennett died on December 20, 1967, in Winnemucca, Nevada, one day after her seventy-third birthday.