Zena Keefe

Biography

Zena Keefe was born in San Francisco, California, on June 26, 1896. The actress who was to make a total of 28 films started her career at the age of 16 when she played a bit part in The Hieroglyphic (1912). After The Gamblers (1912) later that year, four years elapsed before she would appear onscreen again, in The Rail Rider (1916). Her first real meaty role, however, came later that year when she played "Mary Winslow" in Her Maternal Right (1916). For the rest of her career she was not as busy as she would have liked--in the film industry's early years it was not unusual for performers to make 20 films a year, but Zena was turning out only three or four. She stayed with her craft throughout the 1920s, making her final film in 1924, Trouping with Ellen (1924). On November 16, 1977, Zena Keefe died at the age of 81 in Danvers, Massachusetts.