Lilyan Tashman

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Nationality USA
Birth 22 october 1896 at Brooklyn (USA)
Death 22 march 1934 (at 37 years) at New York City (USA)

Lilyan Tashman (October 23, 1896 – March 21, 1934) was an American vaudeville, Broadway, and film actress. Tashman was best known for her supporting roles as tongue-in-cheek villainesses and the vindictive "other woman." She made 66 films over the course of her Hollywood career and although never obtained superstar status, her cinematic performances are described as "sharp, clever and have aged little over the decades."

Tall, blonde, and slender with fox-like features and a throaty voice, Tashman freelanced as a fashion and artist's model in New York City. By 1914 she was an experienced vaudevillian, appearing in Ziegfeld Follies between 1916 and 1918. In 1921 Tashman made her film debut in Experience, and over the next decade and a half she appeared in numerous silent films. With her husky contralto singing voice she easily navigated the transition to the talkies.

Tashman married vaudevillian Al Lee in 1914, but they divorced in 1921. She married actor Edmund Lowe in 1925. Her lesbian affairs in Hollywood were an open secret, and her wardrobe and lavish parties the talk of the town.

She died of cancer in New York City on March 21, 1934, at the age of 37. Her last film, Frankie and Johnny, was released posthumously in 1936.

Biography

Tashman was a lesbian and had numerous backstage same-sex liaisons as a New York City chorine and actress. In Hollywood, she was known to initiate sex in rest rooms with women of all ages, and, if repulsed, would forge ahead with a promise of complete silence on the matter and assurances that such sexual activity was common and very pleasureable. In 1928, Tashman was introduced to Greta Garbo and began a relationship with her the same day. The two became inseparable companions. Tashman was a fiercely jealous person however and had frequent altercations with her lovers. By November 1932, Garbo's patience had worn thin and she ended the relationship, leaving Tashman devastated.

On September 21, 1925, Tashman married longtime friend Edmund Lowe, an actor who was widely thought to be gay, presumably to present a heterosexual façade to the world. The two became the darlings of Hollywood reporters and were touted in fan magazines as having "the ideal marriage". Tashman was described by reporter Gladys Hall as "the most gleaming, glittering, moderne, hard-surfaced, and distingué woman in all of Hollywood". The couple entertained lavishly at "Lilowe", their Beverly Hills home, and weekly parties became full-blown orgies with A-list celebrities seeking invitations. Her wardrobe cost $1,000,000 and women around the world clamored for copies of her hats, gowns, and jewelry. Servants were ordered to serve her cats afternoon tea and for Easter brunch she had her dining room painted dark blue to provide a contrast to her blonde hair. She once painted her Malibu home red and white, asked her guests to wear red and white, and even dyed the toilet paper red and white.