Neva Gerber
American actress (1894–1974)
title: "Neva Gerber" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1894-births", "1974-deaths", "20th-century-american-actresses", "actresses-from-illinois", "american-film-actresses", "american-silent-film-actresses", "burials-at-desert-memorial-park", "neurological-disease-deaths-in-california", "deaths-from-cerebral-thrombosis", "film-serial-actresses", "people-from-macon-county,-illinois", "american-vaudeville-performers", "western-(genre)-film-actresses"] description: "American actress (1894–1974)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neva_Gerber" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American actress (1894–1974) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Neva Gerber |
| image | Neva Gerber - Jan 1920 EH.jpg |
| caption | Gerber in 1920 |
| birth_name | Genevieve Dolores Gerber |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Argenta, Illinois, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
| resting_place | Desert Memorial Park |
| other_names | Jean Dolores |
| Genevieve Millett | |
| occupation | Actress |
| years_active | 1912–1930 |
| spouse | {{plainlist |
| * {{marriage | Arthur Nelson Millett |
| * {{marriage | Edward Dana Nolan |
| * {{marriage | David Booth |
| * {{marriage | William Munchoff |
| partner | William Desmond Taylor (1914–1919) |
| :: |
| name = Neva Gerber | image = Neva Gerber - Jan 1920 EH.jpg | caption = Gerber in 1920 | birth_name = Genevieve Dolores Gerber | birth_date = | birth_place = Argenta, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Palm Springs, California, U.S. | resting_place = Desert Memorial Park | other_names = Jean Dolores Genevieve Millett | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1912–1930 | spouse = {{plainlist|
| partner = William Desmond Taylor (1914–1919)
Genevieve Dolores Gerber (April 3, 1894 – January 2, 1974) was an American silent film actress who appeared in more than 120 films between 1912 and 1930.
Early life and career
She was born in Argenta, Illinois, to S. Nelson Gerber (1870–1902) and Juanetta Jean Pullman. Her parents separated when she was young and her mother moved her to Los Angeles, California. She was raised by nuns from the College of the Immaculate Heart. After the death of her father, Gerber's impoverished mother gave guardianship of her daughter to an attorney.
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Neva_Gerber_-_Jul_3_1915_RL.jpg" caption="Gerber on cover of ''Reel Life'', 1915"] ::
After her graduation from high school, Gerber became an actress and appeared in several one-reelers. Her film debut came in The Flower Girl's Romance (1912). Beginning in 1917, she starred in multiple serial films, and she is considered one of the top ten "serial queens" of the silent film period. She teamed with director and actor Ben F. Wilson in many of these productions, and starred in the first crude sound era serial, The Voice from the Sky, also directed by Wilson. However, her career stalled in 1930 after Wilson died from heart disease. Gerber retired from acting shortly thereafter.
Personal life and death
Gerber's first marriage was to actor Arthur Nelson Millett on July 22, 1913. They separated the following year. In 1915, she became engaged to director William Desmond Taylor. Gerber and Taylor did not marry, because she was not yet divorced from Millett, and she and Taylor broke it off in 1919. (Taylor was subsequently murdered in 1922, a famous unsolved case). Gerber's divorce from Millett was eventually finalized in 1920. In 1923, Gerber married contractor Edward Dana Nolan, who died in 1926 of alcoholism. She went on to marry David Booth in 1934. After Booth's death, she married a fourth and final time, to contractor William Munchoff; he died in 1960.
On January 2, 1974, Gerber died of a cerebral thrombosis in Palm Springs, California. She was buried in a pauper's grave in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.
Selected filmography
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1912 | The Flower Girl's Romance | Bessie Berkow | Short film |
| 1912 | The Water Rights War | Mabel | Short film |
| 1913 | The Redemption | Ogle - the Nursemaid | Short film |
| 1914 | Mrs. Peyton's Pearls | Eleanor Barton - the Daughter | Short film |
| 1914 | The Judge's Wife | Mrs. Livingston | |
| 1915 | The Madonna | Gertie | Short film |
| 1915 | Little Chrysanthemum | Little Chrysanthemum | Short film |
| 1916 | The Impersonation | Rhoda Lyons | |
| 1916 | The Mansard Mystery | Brina | Short film |
| 1917 | The Voice on the Wire | Polly Marion | Film serial |
| 1917 | The Mystery Ship | Betty Lee | Film series |
| Lost film | |||
| 1918 | Hell Bent | Bess Thurston | Alternative title: The Three Bad Men |
| 1918 | Three Mounted Men | Lola Masters | Lost film |
| Alternative title: Three Wounded Men | |||
| 1919 | Roped | Aileen | Lost film |
| 1919 | A Fight for Love | Kate McDougal | Lost film |
| 1919 | The Trail of the Octopus | Ruth Stanhope | Film serial |
| 1920 | The Screaming Shadow | Mary Landers | Film serial |
| Lost film | |||
| 1920 | Bill's Wife | Short film | |
| Writer | |||
| 1921 | A Yankee Go Getter | Lucia Robilant/Vera Robilant | |
| 1921 | Dangerous Paths | Ruth Hammond | |
| 1921 | The Mysterious Pearl | Ariel/The Pearl | Film serial |
| 1922 | The Price of Youth | Adela Monmouth | |
| 1922 | Impulse | Julia Merrifield | |
| 1923 | In the West | Florence Jackson | |
| 1923 | The Santa Fe Trail | Film serial | |
| Lost film | |||
| 1924 | Sagebrush Gospel | Lucy Sanderson | |
| 1924 | Days of '49 | Sierra Sutter | Film serial |
| 1925 | The Power God | Aileen Sturgess | Film serial |
| 1925 | Vic Dyson Pays | Neva | |
| 1925 | Tonio, Son of the Sierras | Evelyn Brower | |
| 1925 | A Daughter of the Sioux | Nanette | |
| 1926 | Officer 444 | Gloria Grey | Film serial |
| 1926 | Fort Frayne | Helen Farrar | |
| 1926 | West of the Law | Alice Armstrong | |
| 1927 | The Range Riders | Betty Grannan | |
| 1927 | Hell Hounds of the Plains | Esther Lawson | |
| 1928 | The Old Code | Lola | |
| 1928 | The Lone Patrol | Credited as Jean Dolores | |
| 1929 | The Saddle King | Felice Landreau | |
| 1929 | Thundering Thompson | Maria Valerian | |
| 1930 | The Voice From the Sky | Jean Lowell | Credited as Jean Dolores |
| 1930 | A Woman's Justice | Credited as Jean Dolores | |
| :: |
References
References
- Lowe, Denise. (2004). "An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films, 1895–1930". Haworth Press.
- (2017). "Encyclopedia of American Film Serials". McFarland.
- (1981). "A reference guide to American science fiction films". T.I.S. Publications Division.
- Doyle, Billy. (February 1999). "Whatever Became of Neva Gerber ?". classicimages.com.
- Higham, Charles. (November 15, 2004). "Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Silent Screen Mystery". Terrace Books.
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