Belle Bennett was a talented stage and screen actress who embarked on her professional career in vaudeville, hailing from Milaca, Minnesota, where she was born on April 22, 1891.
As a film actress, she began her career in 1913, working for small East Coast film companies, and appeared in numerous one-reel shorts. She then moved on to minor motion pictures, such as the western film A Ticket to Red Horse Gulch (Mutual, 1914),and later starred in full-length films produced by the Triangle Film Corporation, including The Lonely Woman (1918).
Bennett's breakthrough role came when she was selected by Samuel Goldwyn from among seventy-three actresses for the leading role in Stella Dallas (1925). Tragedy struck during the filming of the movie, as her sixteen-year-old son, William Howard Macy, who had posed as her brother due to her fear of being discovered to be thirty-four rather than twenty-four, passed away.
Following her role in Stella Dallas, Bennett became typecast as a mother figure, and went on to appear in films such as Mother Machree (1928),The Battle of the Sexes (1928),The Iron Mask (1929),Courage (1930),Recaptured Love (1930),and The Big Shot (1931).
Throughout her life, Bennett was married three times. Her first husband, Jack Oaker, a sailor at the San Pedro, California submarine base, was married to her during her time with the Triangle Film Corporation in 1918. Her second husband was William Macy of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and she later married film director Fred Windermere.
In the final years of her life, Bennett struggled with cancer, which she had been battling for two and a half years. She passed away on November 4, 1932, at the age of 41, and was interred in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood.
In recognition of her contributions to the film industry, Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a testament to her enduring legacy.
