Flora Finch
Flora Finch (17 June 1867 – 4 January 1940) was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company.
Finch was born into a music hall and travelling theatrical family in London and was taken to the United States as a young child. She kept up the family tradition and worked in theatre and the vaudeville circuit right up until her 30s.
She had her first film roles at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company starting in 1908. There she worked with Fatty Arbuckle, Mack Sennett (with whom she was romantically involved for a short time) and Charlie Chaplin amongst others.
Starting in 1910 at Vitagraph, she was paired with John Bunny for the first of 160 very popular shorts made between 1910 and 1915. These shorts, known as "Bunnygraphs", "Bunnyfinches", and "Bunnyfinchgraphs", established Finch and Bunny as the first popular comedy team in films. The duo became a short-lived trio, when Mabel Normand arrived at the studio.
After Bunny's death in 1915 she continued to make comedy shorts, but with less success. She started her own production company, "Flora Finch Productions", but was never able to regain her popularity. One of her best-known roles in the later silent years was Aunt Susan in Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary (1927). She found film work in the sound era, but only in small supporting parts. The Scarlet Letter (1934) gave her one of her more substantial roles in sound films, and she had a cameo in one of Laurel and Hardy's best-known films Way Out West (1937). Her last film was The Women (1939).
Filmography (122 Appearances)
The Women
Stablemates
A Night at the Movies
Way Out West
Mama Steps Out
Postal Inspector
Women Are Trouble
Show Boat
The Scarlet Letter
Sweet Kitty Bellairs
The Matrimonial Bed
Say It with Songs
Come Across
The Faker
The Haunted House
Five and Ten Cent Annie
The Wife's Relations
Quality Street
Rose of the Golden West
The Cat and the Canary
Captain Salvation
Her Indiscretion
'Morning, Judge
The Brown Derby
Fifth Avenue
Lover's Island
A Kiss for Cinderella
His Buddy's Wife
The Live Wire
The Wrongdoers
The Adventurous Sex
Men and Women
The Midnight Girl
Monsieur Beaucaire
Roulette
Luck
Man Wanted
When Knighthood Was in Flower
Orphans of the Storm
Lessons in Love
Birthright
Dawn
Oh Boy!
The Great Adventure
Prudence the Pirate
A Night Out
Heavy Villains
The Lady of Shalott
War
The Smoking Out of Bella Butts
Sweeney's Christmas Bird
Fixing Their Dads
Bunny Backslides
Hearts and Diamonds
Polishing Up
The Locked House
The Vases of Hymen
A Train of Incidents
The Old Maid's Baby
Father's Flirtation
Mr. Bunny in Disguise
Tangled Tangoists
A Change in Baggage Checks
Love's Old Dream
The Golf Game and the Bonnet
Father's Hatband
The Autocrat of Flapjack Junction
The Feudists
Those Troublesome Tresses
The Pickpocket
Bunny's Dilemma
A Lady and Her Maid
Vampire of the Desert
Disciplining Daisy
Cutey and the Chorus Girls
The Locket; or, When She Was Twenty
Stenographer Troubles
The Classmate's Frolic
The Little Minister
Three Black Bags
When the Press Speaks
A Cure for Pokeritis
Freckles
The Unusual Honeymoon
The Hand Bag
Mrs Lirriper’s Lodgers
An Elephant on Their Hands
She Cried
A Vitagraph Romance
Bunny's Suicide
Captain Barnacle's Legacy
Saving an Audience
Suing Susan
The Foster Child
The Troublesome Step-Daughters
Diamond Cut Diamond
Her Forgotten Dancing Shoes
The Old Silver Watch
Irene's Infatuation
Stenographer Wanted
The First Violin
In the Clutches of a Vapor Bath
Her Crowning Glory
The Strategy of Ann
Treasure Trove
The Subduing of Mrs. Nag
Two Overcoats
The Sleep Walker
The Wooing of Winifred
The New Stenographer
In Northern Forests
The Troublesome Baby
Muggsy's First Sweetheart
The Way of Man
Her First Biscuits
What Drink Did
Jones and the Lady Book Agent
A Wreath in Time
Those Awful Hats
Mr. Jones Has a Card Party
Mrs. Jones Entertains
The Helping Hand