Gladys Brockwell
actress
- Birth name:
- Gladys Lindeman
- Born:
- 1894-09-26, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
- Died:
- 1929-07-02, Hollywood, California, USA
- Professions:
- actress
Biography
Gladys Brockwell inherited footlights in her blood: her mother, Billie Brockwell, was already a known player when three-year-old Gladys toddled onstage. By 1913 the Lubin Company in Philadelphia aimed a camera at the teen and launched her shadow life; a stint with D.W. Griffith polished the raw spark, and a contract at Fox kept her working at a pace that left rivals breathless. Talkies arrived and she shifted gear without stalling, still in demand while others faded. Romance trailed two surnames: first came director Robert Broadwell, then a fleeting match with Harry Edwards—once married to vamp Louise Glaum—before she settled into life with advertising man Thomas Stanley Brennan. On 27 June 1929 the pair were climbing a curve near Calabasas when dust and cinders whipped into Brennan’s eyes; the automobile vaulted a 75-foot embankment and overturned. Brennan survived multiple injuries; Brockwell was pinned beneath the chassis, her jaw shattered, skull fractured, body broken. Four blood transfusions could not stop the peritonitis that stalked her hospital room, and she slipped away. A coroner’s jury cleared Brennan, blaming the wind-blown grit that had stolen the wheel from his hands.
