Quiz

She was Cecil B. DeMille's mistress off-screen for quite some time. The devoted DeMille kept her employed in bit parts long after her career (and their relationship) was over.

Was one of the silent film stars who were honored with citations from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for their help "in making Hollywood the film capital of the world." The event was held at the Academy Award Theater in 1951.

Studied paintings of Napoleon's first wife, the French empress Josephine, in order to portray her accurately in The Fighting Eagle (1927).

Was a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty.

She played the Pharaoh Ramses' wife in I dieci comandamenti (1923) and Aaron's wife Elisheba in I dieci comandamenti (1956). Both films were directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

One of her rare leading lady roles was that of country girl Dorcas in His Dog (1927), a DeMille Pictures Corporation production co-starring Joseph Schildkraut.

Was given top billing for the first and only time in Turkish Delight (1927), a DeMille Pictures Corporation production co-starring Rudolph Schildkraut.

Off-screen, she was known to be a highly skilled horsewoman.

Appeared in four of Cecil B. DeMille's biblical epics: I dieci comandamenti (1923), Il re dei re (1927), Sansone e Dalila (1949), and I dieci comandamenti (1956).

Had a coloratura soprano voice and studied singing in Europe in the early 1930s.

Appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's two remakes of The Squaw Man (1914): The Squaw Man (1918) and Naturich la moglie indiana (1931).

Her paternal grandfather, Thomas Maloney, was born in Ireland and settled in Virginia in the 1850s.

Was named after her maternal grandmother, Julia Ann (Crandall) Elliott (1851-1896).

Her second marriage ceremony took place at the Church of the Angels in Pasadena, California. She and husband Walter Merrill planned to honeymoon in Mexico City. Cecil B. DeMille was present and gave the bride away. Frank Flynn was best man and Jane Marston Burgard, wife of actor Lawrence Tibbett, was matron of honor.

She appeared in more Cecil B. DeMille films than any other actress. Her first DeMille film was L'ultima dei Montezuma (1917), in which she played Geraldine Farrar's handmaiden. In the early 1930s, she left acting in order to study singing and also began to write; she also remarried during this time, but this second marriage lasted less than a year. This explains her absence in some DeMille epics of the 1930s, such as Il segno della croce (1932), Cleopatra (1934), I crociati (1935), and I filibustieri (1938). In the late 1930s, she returned to films with the help of DeMille, who gave her her last notable roles: Delilah (Hedy Lamarr)'s maidservant Hisham in Sansone e Dalila (1949) and Aaron (John Carradine)'s wife Elisheba in I dieci comandamenti (1956).

Her father, Robert J. Maloney, was born in West Virginia. His family eventually settled in Newton, Kansas, where he worked for the Santa Fe Railroad and married in 1890, two years before Faye's birth. He died before 1901.

Her mother, Emma Louise Elliott (1872-1955), was born in New Castle, Indiana. After the death of her husband, she went to live with her parents and worked as a dressmaker. In 1901, she remarried to Cyrus D. Covell.

In 1930, she appeared in an advertisement for Lux Toilet Soap. The ad also features fellow M-G-M contract stars Joan Crawford, Carlotta King, Gwen Lee, and Dorothy Sebastian. At that point in her career, Faye was under contract to MGM.

According to Faye, when she and DeMille first met, he told her that she would never achieve stardom because her face was too round and her nose too long. He described her personality as "the 'cute' type".

Like many of her contemporaries, her home in Hollywood contained a Chinese room, filled with oriental art objects.

In 1926, The Los Angeles Examiner selected her to appear as a member of the "All American Screen Players Team," along with Estelle Taylor, Monte Blue, Norma Talmadge, Ricardo Cortez, Eleanor Boardman, Marion Davies, Patsy Ruth Miller, Sydney Chaplin, Ronald Colman, Noah Beery, Alec B. Francis, George Beranger, William Boyd, Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen.