Biography
Aileen Pringle's favorite film was a mid-1920s silent based on a book by Elinor Glyn: Three Weeks (1924), sort of a "Lady Chatterly's Lover". She recalled in a 1980 telephone conversation: "The film was in good taste; some people thought the book was trashy". Anita Loos wrote in "A Girl Like I", the first volume of her autobiography, vaudeville comic Joe Frisco telling Glynn: "Leave me get this straight. You want to find some tramp that don't look like a tramp, to play that English tramp in your picture. But take it from me, that kind of tramp don't hang out in Hollywood". Aileen had spent her 20s married to Charles McKenzie Pringle, the son of Sir John Pringle, a Jamaica landowner and a member of the Privy and Legislative Councils of Jamaica. Aileen lived in Jamaica until she went on stage with George Arliss. When she began divorce proceedings against Pringle in 1926, Hollywood gossip columnists speculated she would marry H.L. Mencken. She did not remarry until 1944 when she became the bride of James M. Cain, author of "The Postman Always Rings Twice". I opened my 1980 telephone conversation with Aileen by mentioning that the day before I had been reading her correspondence with Mencken at the New York Public Library. "But all the letters were destroyed", she said. I knew that Mencken had asked for all of his letters to her back at the time he became engaged to Sara Haardt. Aileen was the only woman who received such a request from Mencken at that time. "It was your letters from the late '30s and '40s I was reading", I told Aileen. "In one of them Mencken was urging you to write a book. Did you ever finish it?" "No. I got married instead." In a 1946 letter she wrote to Mencken. "If I had remained married to that psychotic Cain, I would be wearing a straitjacket instead of the New Look." Date of Death 16 December 1989, New York City, New York
Acted in 68
1940s
- 1944
- 1943
Happy Land
Mrs. Prentiss (uncredited)
Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case
Chaperon (uncredited)
- 1942
Between Us Girls
Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
- 1941
Appointment for Love
Nurse Gibbons (uncredited)
1930s
- 1939
The Night of Nights
Dress Saleslady (uncredited)
Should a Girl Marry?
Mrs. White
Calling Dr. Kildare
Mrs. Thatcher (uncredited)
The Hardys Ride High
Miss Booth
- 1938
- 1937
She's No Lady
Mrs. Douglas
John Meade's Woman
Mrs. Melton
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
Lady Maria Frinton
Criminal Lawyer
Mrs. Manning (uncredited)
- 1936
Wanted: Jane Turner
Norris' Secretary (uncredited)
Piccadilly Jim
Paducah Pomeroy
The Unguarded Hour
Diana Roggers
- 1935
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Herries Servant
- 1934
Sons of Steel
Enid Chadburne
- 1933
By Appointment Only
Diane Manners
- 1932
The Phantom of Crestwood
Mrs. Walcott
The Age of Consent
Barbara
Police Court
Diana McCormick
- 1931
Convicted
Claire Norville
Murder at Midnight
Esme Kennedy
Subway Express
Dale Tracy
- 1930
Soldiers and Women
Brenda Ritchie
Prince of Diamonds
Eve Marley
Puttin' on the Ritz
Mrs. Teddy Van Rennsler
1920s
- 1929
Wall Street
Ann Tabor
Night Parade
Paula Vernoff
A Single Man
Mary Hazeltine
- 1928
The Baby Cyclone
Lydia
Wickedness Preferred
Kitty Dare
- 1927
Tea For Three
Doris Langford
Body and Soul
Hilda
- 1926
Tin Gods
Janet Stone
The Great Deception
Lois
Camille: The Fate of a Coquette
Estelle
- 1925
The Mystic
Zara
A Thief in Paradise
Rosa Carmino
Soul Mates
Velma
A Kiss in the Dark
Janet Livingstone
One Year to Live
Elsie Duchanier
- 1924
The Wife of the Centaur
Inez Martin
His Hour
Tamara Loraine
True As Steel
Mrs. Eva Boutelle
Three Weeks
The Queen
Name the Man
Isabelle
- 1923
In the Palace of the King
Princess Eboli
Don't Marry for Money
Edith Martin
Souls for Sale
Lady Jane
The Tiger's Claw
Chameli Brentwood
The Christian
Lady Robert Ure
- 1922
The Strangers' Banquet
Mrs. Schuyler-Peabody
My American Wife
Hortensia deVereta
- 1920
Stolen Moments
Inez Salles
Earthbound
Movie
The Cost
Olivia
No release date
The Wilderness Woman
Juneau MacLean
Appearances2
1920s
- 1927
Life in Hollywood No. 7
Herself
- 1925
1925 Studio Tour
Self