Trivia

Maris was replaced in the cast of hard-luck "Viva Villa!" primarily because of star Wallace Beery's dissatisfaction with her.

Although she was born 'Maria,' her family nicknamed her Mona, Spanish for "graceful" or "pretty," and she chose the last name of Maris because it reminded her of the sea.

Fortunio Bonanova and Mona Maris were originally cast as Emporer Louis Napoleon and Empress Eugenie in "The Song of Bernadette," but the scenes were discarded, and were re-filmed with Jerome Cowan and Patricia Morison.

1909 Nobel Prize winner Gugliemo Marconi, the famous Italian radio engineer and radio pioneer, was a friend of her family.