Actress. A demure, delicate-looking star of 1920s films, she is best remembered as the heroine 'Christine Daae' in the Lon Chaney classic, "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925). She appeared in over 30 films, including "Merry-Go-Round" (1923), "Stella Maris" (1925), "The Man Who Laughs" (1927), "Drums of Love" (1928), and "Love Me and the World Is Mine" (1928). Born in Chicago, Illinois, at 17 she was brought to Hollywood as the winner of a beauty contest sponsored by Universal Studios, and was named a "WAMPAS Baby Star" in 1922. She retired at the arrival of talkies, though she returned to dub her own voice in a 1930 sound reissue of "The Phantom of the Opera". A melancholy chapter of Philbin's life was recently revealed by historian Scott McQueen. In the late 1920s she was engaged to Universal producer Paul Kohner, but Philbin's parents forced her to break off the relationship because they were Irish Catholics and Kohner was Jewish. They apparently never got over each other. After Kohner's death in 1988, workers cleaning out his office discovered a batch of Philbin's old love letters to him, within easy reach in his desk drawer. Philbin never married. She cared for her parents until their deaths and then lived alone in the Hollywood mansion she had bought for the family during her years of stardom. She died at 90 in a nursing home in Huntington Beach, California. Most of her films are now lost.
Actress. A demure, delicate-looking star of 1920s films, she is best remembered as the heroine 'Christine Daae' in the Lon Chaney classic, "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925). She appeared in over 30 films, including "Merry-Go-Round" (1923), "Stella Maris" (1925), "The Man Who Laughs" (1927), "Drums of Love" (1928), and "Love Me and the World Is Mine" (1928). Born in Chicago, Illinois, at 17 she was brought to Hollywood as the winner of a beauty contest sponsored by Universal Studios, and was named a "WAMPAS Baby Star" in 1922. She retired at the arrival of talkies, though she returned to dub her own voice in a 1930 sound reissue of "The Phantom of the Opera". A melancholy chapter of Philbin's life was recently revealed by historian Scott McQueen. In the late 1920s she was engaged to Universal producer Paul Kohner, but Philbin's parents forced her to break off the relationship because they were Irish Catholics and Kohner was Jewish. They apparently never got over each other. After Kohner's death in 1988, workers cleaning out his office discovered a batch of Philbin's old love letters to him, within easy reach in his desk drawer. Philbin never married. She cared for her parents until their deaths and then lived alone in the Hollywood mansion she had bought for the family during her years of stardom. She died at 90 in a nursing home in Huntington Beach, California. Most of her films are now lost.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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