Bara, Theda (redirected from Theodosia Goodman)

Bara, Theda

 orig. Theodosia Goodman

(born July 20, 1885?, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.—died April 7, 1955, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. film actress. She had a brief stage career before going to Hollywood. Her first major picture, A Fool There Was (1915), was accompanied by a publicity campaign, billing her as the daughter of a Middle Eastern potentate, that made her an instant success. Establishing a sultry, exotic persona, she became the prototype of the screen “vamp.” She made more than 40 films within a few years, but her popularity soon declined, and she retired in the 1920s.

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Bara, Theda (b. Theodosia Goodman) (1890–1955) movie actress; born in Cincinnati, Ohio. The daughter of a tailor, she acted briefly in stock companies and then showed up in Hollywood as an extra. The creation of the Hollywood studio machine, she was assigned her new name, billed as the daughter of an Eastern potentate, and turned into an overnight star in A Fool There Was (1915). Known as "the Vamp" becamse of her screen portrayals of exotic "man-hungry" women, her famous line, "Kiss me, my fool!" and the offscreen image she cultivated (such as giving interviews while stroking a snake), she made some 40 movies, most by 1919. That year she went to New York to become a Broadway actress, but her reputation did her no good so she returned to Hollywood. By this time, though, changing tastes made her seem absurd, and after a few more unsuccessful movies, she retired in 1926 and effectively vanished.