Jane Wolfe
Jane Wolfe (March 21, 1875 – March 29, 1958) was an American silent film character actress and Thelemite.
Early life
Of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, Wolfe was born in the tiny Pennsylvania borough of St. Petersburg in Clarion County. As a young girl she went to New York City to pursue a career in the theatre but soon became involved with acting in the fledgling motion picture industry.
Career
She made her film debut in 1910 at the age of 35 with Kalem Studios in A Lad from Old Ireland under the direction of Sidney Olcott.
In 1911, Wolfe was part of the Kalem Company's crew in New York City who relocated to the company's new production facilities in Los Angeles. She went on to become one of the leading character actors of the decade, appearing in more than one hundred films including an important secondary role in the 1917 Mary Pickford film, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
Association with Aleister Crowley
In 1918, Jane Wolfe began corresponding with the English author and occultist Aleister Crowley, and two years later she gave up her career in Hollywood to join Crowley at his "Abbey of Thelema" at Cefalù, Sicily, living there from 1920 until it closed in 1923. There she kept records about her magical practice, which were later published by the College of Thelema of Northern California as The Cefalu Diaries.[1]
Wolfe is considered an important female figure in magick as, in addition to her friendship and work with Crowley, she took part in the founding of the Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis in Southern California as well as being its lodge master.
Later years
After not appearing on screen for 17 years, in 1937 Jane Wolfe had a small role in a B-movie Western named Under Strange Flags.[2]
Ouija
Wolfe used the Ouija board and credited some of her greatest spiritual communications to the use of this implement.[3]
Death
Jane Wolfe died in the Southern California city of Glendale eight days after her 83rd birthday.
Partial filmography
- A Lad from Old Ireland (1910)
- The Roses Of A Virgin (1910)
- The Wild Goose Chase (1915)
- The Majesty of the Law (1915)
- The Case of Becky (1915)
- Blackbirds (1915)
- The Immigrant (1915)
- Pudd'nhead Wilson (1916)
- The Blacklist (1916)
- The Thousand-Dollar Husband (1916)
- The Selfish Woman (1916)
- Each Pearl a Tear (1916)
- The Lash (1916)
- Unprotected (1916)
- The Plow Girl (1916)
- On Record (1917)
- Castles for Two (1917)
- Unconquered (1917)
- The Crystal Gazer (1917)
- On the Level (1917)
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917)
- The Call of the East (1917)
- The Fair Barbarian (1917)
- A Petticoat Pilot (1918)
- Mile-a-Minute Kendall (1918)
- The Bravest Way (1918)
- The Firefly of France (1918)
- Less Than Kin (1918)
- The Cruise of the Make-Believes (1918)
- The Girl Who Came Back (1918)
- Under the Top (1919)
- The Poor Boob (1919)
- The Woman Next Door (1919)
- An Innocent Adventuress (1919)
- Men, Women, and Money (1919)
- A Very Good Young Man (1919)
- The Grim Game (1919)
- The Thirteenth Commandment (1920)
- The Six Best Cellars (1920)
- Why Change Your Wife? (1920)
- Thou Art the Man (1920)
- The Round-Up (1920)
- Behold My Wife! (1920)
- Under Strange Flags (1937)
References
- ↑ Jane Wolfe: The Cefalu Diaries 1920 – 1923. College of Thelema of Northern California, 2008.
- ↑ IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029710/
- ↑ Cornelius, J. Edward (2005). Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board. ISBN 1-932595-10-4
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jane Wolfe. |
- Jane Wolfe at the Internet Movie Database
- Jane Wolfe at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Jane Wolfe at the TCM Movie Database
- Jane Wolfe at AllMovie
- Book Jane Wolfe: Her Life with Aleister Crowley