Theda Bara

As the silent era's premier femme fatale, actress Theda Bara single-handedly introduced the word vamp to the American lexicon while the title card "Kiss me, my fool" from her debut, "A Fool There Was" (1915), became a popular phrase of the period. Thanks to the popularity of films like "The Vixen" (1916), "The Serpent" (1916) and "The Darling of Paris" (1917), Bara's popularity was only outmatched by the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, though early on she became frustrated by her limited options. She went on to star as the titular "Cleopatra" (1917), a huge hit that was then the most lavish production Hollywood ever produced. But like many of her films in later years, "Cleopatra" was lost - in fact, of the 40 films she made, only a handful survived intact, making her career largely anecdotal. Her popularity waned in 1919, largely due to her desire to break free of her vamp persona, and she retired after making her last picture, "Madame Mystery" (1926). Though not as well remembered as some of her contemporaries, Bara left behind an indelible mark as a trendsetter who became Hollywood's first true sex symbol.