Aileen Pringle
Acting • Born 1895-07-23 – Died 1989-12-16
Biography
Aileen Pringle's favorite film was a mid-1920s silent based on a book by Elinor Glyn: Three Weeks (1924), sort of a "Lady Chatterly's Lover". She recalled in a 1980 telephone conversation: "The film was in good taste; some people thought the book was trashy". Anita Loos wrote in "A Girl Like I", the first volume of her autobiography, vaudeville comic Joe Frisco telling Glynn: "Leave me get this straight. You want to find some tramp that don't look like a tramp, to play that English tramp in your picture. But take it from me, that kind of tramp don't hang out in Hollywood". Aileen had spent her 20s married to Charles McKenzie Pringle, the son of Sir John Pringle, a Jamaica landowner and a member of the Privy and Legislative Councils of Jamaica. Aileen lived in Jamaica until she went on stage with George Arliss. When she began divorce proceedings against Pringle in 1926, Hollywood gossip columnists speculated she would marry H.L. Mencken. She did not remarry until 1944 when she became the bride of James M. Cain, author of "The Postman Always Rings Twice". I opened my 1980 telephone conversation with Aileen by mentioning that the day before I had been reading her correspondence with Mencken at the New York Public Library. "But all the letters were destroyed", she said. I knew that Mencken had asked for all of his letters to her back at the time he became engaged to Sara Haardt. Aileen was the only woman who received such a request from Mencken at that time. "It was your letters from the late '30s and '40s I was reading", I told Aileen. "In one of them Mencken was urging you to write a book. Did you ever finish it?" "No. I got married instead." In a 1946 letter she wrote to Mencken. "If I had remained married to that psychotic Cain, I would be wearing a straitjacket instead of the New Look." Date of Death 16 December 1989, New York City, New York
Filmography
74 credits
A Single Man
Movie • 1929
Mary Hazeltine
The Phantom of Crestwood
Movie • 1932
Mrs. Walcott
Subway Express
Movie • 1931
Dale Tracy
Convicted
Movie • 1931
Claire Norville
The Wife of the Centaur
Movie • 1924
Inez Martin
A Kiss in the Dark
Movie • 1925
Janet Livingstone
Love Past Thirty
Movie • 1934
Caroline Burt
The Night of Nights
Movie • 1939
Dress Saleslady (uncredited)
Criminal Lawyer
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Manning (uncredited)
Murder at Midnight
Movie • 1931
Esme Kennedy
The Age of Consent
Movie • 1932
Barbara
Piccadilly Jim
Movie • 1936
Paducah Pomeroy
By Appointment Only
Movie • 1933
Diane Manners
Jane Eyre
Movie • 1934
Lady Blanche Ingram
The Unguarded Hour
Movie • 1936
Diana Roggers
Don't Marry for Money
Movie • 1923
Edith Martin
Thanks for Listening
Movie • 1937
Lulu
John Meade's Woman
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Melton
Name the Man
Movie • 1924
Isabelle
Soldiers and Women
Movie • 1930
Brenda Ritchie
Sons of Steel
Movie • 1934
Enid Chadburne
She's No Lady
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Douglas
The Christian
Movie • 1923
Lady Robert Ure
Three Weeks
Movie • 1924
The Queen
True As Steel
Movie • 1924
Mrs. Eva Boutelle
A Thief in Paradise
Movie • 1925
Rosa Carmino
Dream of Love
Movie • 1928
The Duchess
Night Parade
Movie • 1929
Paula Vernoff
Souls for Sale
Movie • 1923
Lady Jane
The Strangers' Banquet
Movie • 1922
Mrs. Schuyler-Peabody
Stolen Moments
Movie • 1920
Inez Salles
Wanted: Jane Turner
Movie • 1936
Norris' Secretary (uncredited)
Earthbound
Movie • 1920
Calling Dr. Kildare
Movie • 1939
Mrs. Thatcher (uncredited)
The Hardys Ride High
Movie • 1939
Miss Booth
The Women
Movie • 1939
Miss Carter the Saleslady (uncredited)
One Year to Live
Movie • 1925
Elsie Duchanier
Body and Soul
Movie • 1927
Hilda
Should a Girl Marry?
Movie • 1939
Mrs. White
The Mystic
Movie • 1925
Zara
Laura
Movie • 1944
Woman (uncredited)
Puttin' on the Ritz
Movie • 1930
Mrs. Teddy Van Rennsler
The Great Deception
Movie • 1926
Lois
Police Court
Movie • 1932
Diana McCormick
Happy Land
Movie • 1943
Mrs. Prentiss (uncredited)
Since You Went Away
Movie • 1944
Woman at Cocktail Lounge (uncredited)
Between Us Girls
Movie • 1942
Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
Wife vs. Secretary
Movie • 1936
Mrs. Anne Barker (uncredited)
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Movie • 1935
Herries Servant
Nothing Sacred
Movie • 1937
Mrs. Bullock (uncredited)
They Died with Their Boots On
Movie • 1941
Mrs. Sharp (uncredited)
Appointment for Love
Movie • 1941
Nurse Gibbons (uncredited)
Tin Gods
Movie • 1926
Janet Stone
Life in Hollywood No. 7
Movie • 1927
Herself
My American Wife
Movie • 1922
Hortensia deVereta
Wall Street
Movie • 1929
Ann Tabor
Prince of Diamonds
Movie • 1930
Eve Marley
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
Movie • 1943
Chaperon (uncredited)
The Baby Cyclone
Movie • 1928
Lydia
Camille: The Fate of a Coquette
Movie • 1926
Estelle
1925 Studio Tour
Movie • 1925
Self
Adam and Evil
Movie • 1927
His Hour
Movie • 1924
Tamara Loraine
The Tiger's Claw
Movie • 1923
Chameli Brentwood
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
Movie • 1937
Lady Maria Frinton
The Cost
Movie • 1920
Olivia
Wickedness Preferred
Movie • 1928
Kitty Dare
Tea For Three
Movie • 1927
Doris Langford
Beau Broadway
Movie • 1928
Yvonne
In the Palace of the King
Movie • 1923
Princess Eboli
Soul Mates
Movie • 1925
Velma
Too Hot to Handle
Movie • 1938
Mrs. Arthur MacArthur (uncredited)
Oath-Bound
Movie • 1922
Alice
The Wilderness Woman
Movie
Juneau MacLean