- Patsy Ruth Miller, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1922. Bonner and Marguerite De La Motte were beaten to Esmeralda by PRM – who said that Quasimodo, aka Lon Chaney, directed her much more than Wallace Worsley. Although Irving Thalberg claimed credit for the idea of the film, it was Chaney who suggested it, designed his own (often painfujl) make-up and chose director Frank Borzage, later replaced by Worsley.
- Dolores Costello, The Sea Beast, 1926. John Barrymore chose and “contractually signed” Bonner as his co-star… until she read in the papers that she’d been dumped for Costello, who had met Barrymore on the lot and later married him. Bonner was paid off in full and got a kind letter from Barrymore. She still sued Universal – and won! She quit acting on marrying the eminent Dr E Bertrand Woolfan in 1928. Her voice was fine for talkies as probvec her 38th and final film in 1940, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, 1940. Her only talkie.
Birth year: 1899Death year: 1956Other name: Casting Calls: 2