Seena Owen

Seena Owen (November 14, 1894 - August 15, 1966) was an American silent film actress. She was born in Spokane, Washington.

Her first important film was A Yankee From the West (1915) under the name Signe Auen at the age of 21. In 1916 she performed in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance. The same year she married George Walsh whom she had met on the set of Intolerance. The marriage lasted until their divorce in 1924. A regular player for the rest of the silent era, Owen appeared in films such as Maurice Tourneur's Victory in 1919 where she was photographed to great effect by Tourneur's cameraman, Rene Guissart. Victory long lost was recently found in 35mm print in Europe and can now showcase Seena's beauty to modern audiences on DVD. In 1920 Owen appeared in "The Gift Supreme" with Lon Chaney, who appeared with her in Victory. All but one reel of The Gift Supreme is lost. She also co-starred with Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron in the ill-fated Queen Kelly (1928), in which she plays the mad Queen who whips Swanson in one famous scene.

With the arrival of sound in movies, Owen's weak voice became a problem and forced her to retire from the silver screen in 1933. After her retirement, she co-wrote two films with Dorothy Lamour, Aloma of the South Seas and Rainbow Island, both in 1941.

Owen is also known for being on William Randolph Hearst's yacht The Oneida during the weekend in November 1924 with film director and producer Thomas Ince who died a few days later of heart...
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