Ouida Bergère

Ouida circa 1920, the year she met her husband

Ouida Bergère was a pioneer of American cinematography during the economic surge of the roaring twenties. Ouida was born on December 14, 1886 on a passenger train bound for Madrid. She spent the first four years of her life in Madrid, raised by her father's grandparents. During this time, she only spoke Spanish and couldn't understand her English-speaking mother when her parents returned. Ouida's mother and father moved with her to Paris, then to England, eventually settling in America by the time Ouida turned eleven. 

In 1912 Ouida starred in two films before working exclusively as a screen writer. She wrote the script for 39 silent films. Her last film, The Eternal City (1923), starred the fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and ten thousand members of his Blackshirt paramilitary group. Mussolini had just been elected Prime Minister of Italy the year before, setting into motion a chain of events that culminated in World War II.

Ouida Bergère gave up her film career when she married Basil Rathborne in 1926. She had met Basil 6 years before when he played the lead role in Peter Ibson, a play she adapted into a silent movie. Together they adopted a daughter, and raised Ouida's niece Ouida Branch. Ouida Branch married David Bruce Huxley, brother of Aldous Huxley (author of Brave New World).

Ouida Bergère on the Internet Movie Database