A while back, I asked readers to share their silent movie crushes and a good time was had by all so I am back for a second helping!
This isn’t about objective-ish things like physical beauty or acting ability, this is about which stars make your heart go pit-a-pat for whatever reason. (Or no reason at all.) Obviously, there are no wrong answers so please share your crushes and have fun!
I will start:
Normal Crush: Ivan Mosjoukine is pretty rawr.
And Sessue Hayakawa was an utterly devastating looker.
Sinister Crush: Conrad Veidt is so beautiful when he’s homicidal.
Weird Crush: Boris Karloff in The Black Cat. I know.
(Also, I seem to have an incredibly specific type.)
Okay, your turn! I look forward to your answers. Spill!
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Movies Silently 
William Haines had my heart from the first film of his I saw — West Point, I think!
Despite (or maybe because of!) the cocky, rather abrasive personality he has in many of his films, I couldn’t help but be charmed 😍
Haines seems to be a really divisive performer but I think he’s adorbs
Charlie Farrell, always and forever. The top middle pic especially. http://silenthollywood.com/charlesfarrell.html Plus, in Old Ironsides, SHIRTLESS! {{{swoooooon}}}
And it’s a great film too!
Never in a million years did I dream that the old guy in My Little Margie was one of the most handsome men to appear in the movies!!
Two of the first silent film stars I ever saw are still my favorite ‘crushes’ – Charles Farrell and Richard Barthelmess. Dozens of films later, I haven’t found anyone to surpass them, although I do love Buster Keaton’s soulful face, too.
Buster usually makes a strong showing 🙂
It’s always so fun to learn about other people’s crushes when it comes to old films. The variety!
As of January 2019, my silent crushes are Buster Keaton, Buddy Rogers, Charles Farrell, and Ramon Novarro. Also Richard Arlen and Rudolph Valentino. But a new year means more silents, so this list might change in the future
Keep up the good work, Fritzi!
Arlen… rawr 😀
The usual suspects come to mind: Lilian Gish, Janet Gaynor, Clara Bow. Not quite so usual, Mary Duncan, especially in The River and also City Girl.
Based on appearance alone, Louise Brooks is awe-inspiring to me. There’s something about her face that I don’t think I’ve seen in anyone else, living or dead, on film or not.
I’ve only seen Betty Amann in one film, but she had my full attention in “Asphalt”
It seems to me that dark eyes were at a big advantage in the silent era, especially before panchromatic film.
I love Louise Brooks also and I found after seeing her that she was free spirited and highly intelligent. Clara Bow and Mary Pickford of course, but I am drawn to the expressive Maria Falconetti as well.
Jobyna Ralston. Enchantingly beautiful.
Alla Nazimova and Theda Bara for me.
Bobby Harron, Valentino, Elliott Dexter, Ronald Colman and Wally Reid. Tom Meighan is adorbs, too!
Milton Sills (sigh).
When I started watching silent movies again (and to learn to love them as much as they deserve), I watched Buster Keaton and D.W. Griffith movies. Women of the silent era really had something special in my opinion. But I have to admit that Lillian Gish can convey emotions like nobody else. She broke my heart in Broken Blossoms, but, well, she may have won it too !
Lars Hanson and Nils Asther – hurrah for the Swedes! I look into their eyes and I’m a goner.
Sweden has a lot to answer for 😉
Since my first silent film experiences were watching Harold Lloyd movies, it’s not too surprising that I have a huge crush on both Bebe Daniels and Jobyna Ralston.
Colleen Moore is the cutest thing ever!
There are so many I adore, but biggest crushes go to dashing Milton Sills and his co-star in The Sea Hawk, the beauteous Enid Bennett.
Milton is doing really well for himself this time!
Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Lars Hansen, Nils Asther, John Gilbert, Sessue Hayakawa.
Edna Purviance and a young Norma Shearer.
Mabel Normand, Thelma Hill and the obscure Keystone actress Helen Carruthers a.k.a. Peggy Page
Definitely Louise Brooks
I’ve had a lot of crushes, Louise Brooks, Clara Bow. Yes, forgot about Edna Purviance. But they’ve been crushes as much on the character they’re playing as on the actor. Recently, I’ve developed a crush on Doris Kenyon of the 1910s. I saw her in The Ocean Waif and A Girl’s Folly and loved her innocent-but-feisty personality as well as her looks. I used to be almost exclusively a fan of the 1920s movies but find that I’m drawn more and more to the movies of the 1910s.
My usual movie crushes: Lillian Gish, Janet Gaynor, Clara Bow, Pola Negri, Mary Pickford.
More unusual ones: Betty Amann, Lya de Putti in Variety, Barbara Kent, Ossi Oswalda and man, is Marie Glory STUNNING in the french movie L’Argent.
Renée Adoree!
Bebe Daniels does it for me too.
Olga Baclanova, Alice Terry and Norma Shearer.
Always a soft spot for Conrad Veidt and Ramon Novarro in Ben Hur– he never really reached such heights again, for me.
Yes, I can’t remember where I read it but MGM was so nervous about Novarro being taken down in an inevitable Latin Lover backlash that they were very conservative with his roles throughout the 1920s. I always like him when I see him but his work with Ingram and on Ben-Hur definitely has a more interesting quality to it.
Barbara Kent, Dorothy Janis, Clara Bow, Dolores Costello, Lupe Velez, Florence
La Badie, Bessie Love, Olive Thomas
Buster Keaton! Always my first silent love, beautiful face, amazing spirit. Richard Barthelmess was gorgeous, and I also want to put in a word for silent John Barrymore. Even without his beautiful voice, I love his silent performances, I always feel that I can tell what he is thinking.
“Blush” George O’Brien “Double blush”.
British actress Gladys Cooper, pin up girl for the British troops in WWl. And yes, you know who she is.
John Gilbert and Ronald Colman
Louise Fazenda. Don’t ask me to explain why. She just is.
A prisoner of Fazenda! 😉
I saw a short with her as a waitress with an attitude and she was kind of hot.