Lina Basquette

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Birth name Lena Copeland Baskette
Nationality USA
Birth 19 april 1907 at San Mateo (USA)
Death 20 september 1994 (at 87 years) at Wheeling (USA)

Lina Basquette, born Lena Copeland Baskette (April 19, 1907 – September 30, 1994), was an American actress noted for her 75-year career in entertainment, which began during the silent film era. Talented as a dancer, she was paid as a girl for performing and gained her first film contract at age nine. In her acting career, Basquette may have been best known for her role as Judith in The Godless Girl (1929) The film was based on the life of Queen Silver, known as a 20th-century child prodigy, and feminist and Socialist activist.

Basquette also was noted for her several marriages, including her first, to the much older noted producer, Sam Warner, founder of Warner Bros. film studio. She had several marriages and a tumultuous personal life. When her film career declined, she returned for a period to dancing and stage performances. After she retired from the entertainment world, in 1947 Basquette moved to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where she became a noted breeder of Great Danes; her dogs won numerous professional show prizes. She wrote several books on dog breeding as well. Later living in West Virginia, she also served as a judge for the American Kennel Club, and wrote a column.

Biography

Marriages and children
Basquette's first marriage was to Sam Warner, film producer and co-founder of Warner Bros. studio. The two were married on July 4, 1925, despite Warner's family's disapproval because Basquette was not Jewish. They had a daughter, Lita (named after Charlie Chaplin's wife Lita Grey) in October 1926. After suffering severe headaches and a sinus infection aggravated by several abscessed teeth, Warner was admitted to California Lutheran Hospital in September 1927. Doctors discovered that he had developed a mastoid infection that was spreading to his brain. After four surgeries to remove the infection, Warner slipped into a coma. He died of pneumonia caused by sinusitis and epidural and subdural abscesses on October 5, 1927.

In January 1929, Basquette married cinematographer Peverell Marley. Shortly after the marriage, Harry Warner, Sam Warner's older brother, asked Basquette give up custody of her daughter Lita. He was concerned that she would raise Lita as a Roman Catholic like her, rather than in the Jewish faith. Basquette said that she and Sam Warner had agreed to raise any female children they had as Catholic and any male children as Jewish. Harry Warner and his wife offered Basquette large amounts of money to relinquish custody but she refused. She finally relented after Harry Warner promised her that Lita would receive a $300,000 trust fund. On March 30, 1930, Harry Warner and his wife were awarded legal custody of Lita. Basquette quickly regretted her decision and tried to regain custody of her daughter.

In August 1930, Basquette left Marley as she tried to regain custody of Lita. When custody was denied, she attempted suicide by drinking poison at a party. She was saved when a guest heard her screams. Marley and Basquette were divorced in September 1930.

Basquette was never financially stable enough to regain custody of her daughter. The Warner family filed several legal suits against her to win back Sam Warner's share of Warner Bros. studio. Over the next 20 years, Basquette saw Lita on only two occasions: in 1935, when Harry Warner and his family moved to Los Angeles, and in 1947, when Lita married Dr. Nathan Hiatt. Basquette and her daughter reconnected in 1977 when Basquette backed a lawsuit that Lita brought against her uncle Jack L. Warner's estate.

Basquette's third marriage was to actor Ray Hallam in 1931. He died of leukemia three weeks after they were married. On October 31, 1931, she married Theodore Hayes, the former trainer of world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey. After discovering that Hayes was still married to another woman, Basquette was granted a Mexican divorce on September 10, 1932.

In her autobiography, Basquette said that, while she and Hayes were separated, she had an affair with Jack Dempsey. Dempsey ended the affair in July 1932, after which Basquette attempted suicide a second time. She and Hayes eventually reconciled and remarried in 1934. They had a son, Edward Alvin Hayes, in April 1934. The following year, they divorced in December 1935.

In April 1937, Basquette married British actor Henry Mollison in London. They separated in 1940, and divorced in October 1944.

In 1947, she married Warner Gilmore, the general manager of the St. Moritz Hotel. They divorced in 1951. Basquette's final marriage was to artist Frank Mancuso. They married in 1959 and separated that same year, but they never bothered to get legally divorced.