Patsy Ruth Miller

Charming, vivacious, dark-haired silent film lead who never quite achieved top-rank stardom. Miller, was, however, an extremely prolific performer, appearing in over a dozen films in 1924 alone. She is probably best known as Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer, in the Lon Chaney version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923), and for displaying a delightful flair for comedy in the female lead of the Ernst Lubitsch sparkler, "So This Is Paris" (1926). The advent of sound did not diminish Miller's appeal, and films such as the highly amusing "Wide Open" (1930) showed her promise, but she only made about ten talkies before giving up acting in 1931 to concentrate on writing. Two decades later she returned to films to play a supporting role in the historical adventure "Quebec" (1951). Married and divorced from director Tay Garnett and screenwriter John Lee Mahin.