Mary Pickford (1892–1979) was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, producer, and writer. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as "America's Sweetheart". "The best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history." Adela Rogers St. Johns, 1981