
Acting
Born July 5, 1890 · Santa Barbara, California, USA
Bessie starred in at least 200 melodrama, action westerns and crime films. In the 1910 she was visiting the Selig Film studios with a party of friends, when a director saw and liked her red hair because he said it would photograph a beautiful black, so he offered her a minor role, she had no formal training on stage, as did many early film actors, she was talented and soon rose to be one of Selig's most popular stars.

The Girl of Gold
1925

Cheap Kisses
1924

The Usurper
1919

A Man of Honor
1919

Children of Banishment
1919

The Way of a Man with a Maid
1918

The Still Alarm
1918

The City of Purple Dreams
1918

Who Shall Take My Life?
1917
The Law North of 65
1917

The Heart of Texas Ryan
1917

Beware of Strangers
1917

The Crisis
1916

Twisted Trails
1916
The Two Natures Within Him
1915
The Great Experiment
1915
The Fork in the Road
1915
The Red Blood of Courage
1915
The Primitive Way
1915
His Fighting Blood
1915
Lassoing a Lion
1915

In the Days of the Thundering Herd
1914
When the West Was Young
1914

Chip of the Flying U
1914
The White Mouse
1914

Etienne of the Glad Heart
1914
The Wilderness Mail
1914
In Defiance of the Law
1914

Shotgun Jones
1914

The Spoilers
1914
Kid Pink and the Maharajah
1914

The Smuggler's Sister
1914

Alone in the Jungle
1913

In the Long Ago
1913
Greater Wealth
1913

The Mate of the Alden Bessie
1912

Blackbeard
1911

Kit Carson's Wooing
1911