Jean Acker

Jean Acker
Born	Harriet Acker October 23, 1893(1893-10-23) Trenton, New Jersey, United States
Died	August 16, 1978(1978-08-16) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, United States
Other names	Mrs. Rudolph Valentino
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1913–1955
Spouse	Rudolph Valentino (1919-1923)
Partner	Chloe Carter (?-1978)

Jean Acker (October 23, 1893 – August 16, 1978) was an American film actress with a career dating from the silent film era through the 1950s. She was perhaps best known as the estranged wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino.

Early life and career

Acker was born Harriet Acker in Trenton, New Jersey where she attended school. She performed in vaudeville until she moved to California in 1919.^[1] After arriving in Hollywood, Acker became the protegee and lover of Alla Nazimova, a film actress whose clout and contacts enabled Acker to negotiate a $200 per week contract with a movie studio. Acker appeared in numerous films during the 1910s and 1920s, but by the early 1930s she began appearing in small, mostly uncredited film roles. She made her last onscreen appearance in the 1955 film How to Be Very, Very Popular, opposite Betty Grable.

Marriage to Valentino

After meeting and befriending the then-struggling actor Rudolph Valentino at a party, they entered a two-month courtship and married on November 6, 1919. Acker quickly had regrets and locked him out of their hotel bedroom on their wedding night.^[2][3] The marriage was reportedly never consummated.^[4]

After filing for divorce, Valentino did not wait the requisite period for it to be finalized before marrying his second wife, Natacha Rambova, in Mexico, and he was charged with bigamy when the couple returned to the United States.^[5] Acker then sued Valentino for the legal right to call herself "Mrs. Rudolph Valentino." Valentino remained angry with her for several years, but they mended their friendship before his death in 1926. Acker wrote a popular song about him soon after he died called "We Will Meet at the End of the Trail".^[6][7]

Acker had an affair with the actress Alla Nazimova. Nazimova included Acker in what was dubbed the "Sewing circles", a group of actors who were forced to conceal the fact that they were lesbian, bisexual, and romantically and sexually attracted to women, thus living secret lives.^[8]

Death

After divorcing Valentino in 1923, Acker met Chloe Carter, a former Ziegfeld Follies girl with whom she would remain for the rest of her life. The couple owned an apartment building together in Beverly Hills.^[9] Acker died of natural causes in 1978 at the age of 84,^[10] and is buried next to Carter in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Selected filmography

References

External links

• Jean Acker at the Internet Movie Database
• Jean Acker at AllRovi
• Jean Acker at Find a Grave