Volume III: Biographies

HURLEY, Julia *

Actress (1915)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Julia Hurley appeared in a Thanhouser film in 1915.

Biographical Notes: Julia Roosevelt Hurley was born in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1847 and was educated in New York. She was schooled on the stage by Charles H. Cushman and spent 48 years before the footlights, under the management of E.L. Davenport, Dion Boucicault, Luke Martin, and others. She was seen in such productions as Mulligan Guards, The Ticket of Leave Man, and Elevating a Husband.

Her screen career included work with Reliance (Guy Mannering, 1912), Solax in 1913 (Blood and Water, A Child's Intuition), All Star Features (The Jungle, 1914), Biograph (The Charity Ball, 1914), Fox circa 1915 (Gold and the Woman, The Bondman, The Little Gypsy), Metro (The Woman Pays, 1915), Cort (The Melting Pot, 1915), and others. Apparently, Julia Hurley was with Thanhouser for just a brief time.

In 1908 a reporter for the New York Morning Telegraph visited Miss Hurley at her apartment at 220 West 38th Street. The resultant article, published on November 8th, gave her impressions of acting for films, in comparison to on the stage: "Yes, I do miss the sound of the voice in motion pictures. Even an old actress like myself yearns for the applause of an audience occasionally, and longs to hear the sound of 'mighty lines' enunciated as Hamlet tells us to enunciate them. After working for a screen production I sometimes stop and ask myself what it is all for. And I cannot answer until I see the picture upon the screen. then I can understand that the art of pantomime is a limitless one like the histrionic profession itself, and I can then take joy in my work as I did on the legitimate stage. No, I do not think that I shall go back to the footlights. The treatment which has been accorded me in my present profession has been uniformly courteous. People are always very nice to me."

The 1916 Motion Picture News Studio Directory stated that she was 5' tall, weighed 134 pounds, and had silver gray hair and dark hazel eyes. Her pastimes included painting, singing, and dancing. At the time her home address was 220 West 38th Street, New York City. In the 1920s she acted in a number of films and was also seen on the stage, including in a three-act play, Blossom Time, at the Century Theatre, New York City, in January 1923. Julia Hurley died in New York City on June 4, 1927.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1915: The Reformation of Peter and Paul (4-23-1915)

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