Alma Rubens

Depending on the source, Alma Rubens was born either Alma Genevieve Reubens or Genevieve Driscoll in San Francisco Feb. 19, 1897. She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, but was drawn to acting in her early teens. She got a very lucky break when a stage comedy being locally produced needed a replacement for one of the chorus girls who became sick. Alma was chosen and as a result became a stock member of the company. When the company relocated to Los Angeles, it was suggested she try her had at film.

Her earliest roles included A Woman's Wiles (1915) and Reggie Mixes In (1915) with Douglas Fairbanks. However, her real break came when she co-starred with Fairbanks in The Half Breed (1916). She continued to work regularly, including a very small part in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), and in another Fairbanks film The Americano (1917). Trouble was not far off however, because at some point around 1918 she developed a taste for drugs. She was arrested in 1919 for drug possession and sentenced to a stay at a state hospital. Still, Alma continued to work regularly in films through the early 1920's, and had two short marriages along the way. She continued a very successful career in the mid-twenties, where she made 15 films and starred with George O'Brien in The Dancers (1925) and opposite Edmund Lowe in East Lynne (1925). Then, while working for Fox in 1926, Alma met and married Ricardo Cortez. Sadly, from this point on her film career plummeted, mainly due to her heroin addiction. She made only one film in 1927 and one in 1928. She was arrested twice around this time for disorderly conduct, and finally collapsed in January, 1929, from a drug overdose. She spent six months at the California State Insane Asylum. Once released, she was able to go back to films, making the part-talkie Show Boat in 1929, and then her last film, She Goes To War, starring Eleanor Boardman. Cortez filed for divorce at this time, and she went East for a stage show that unfortunately folded after one week. Alma went back West hoping to renew her film career, but ran into trouble when police searched her home and found morphine. She was released on $5,000 bail. She never made it to trial, lapsing into a coma and dying on Jan. 21, 1931. Alma appeared in a total of 58 films.

In a confessional interview with the Los Angeles Examiner shortly before her death, Alma said, "As long as my money held out I could get drugs. I was afraid to tell my mother, my best friends. My only desire was to get drugs and take them in secrecy. If only I could get on my knees before the police or before a judge and beg them to make stiffer laws so that men will refuse to take any dirty dollars from the murderers who sell this poison and who escape punishment when caught by buying their way out."

Click on the images for a larger view.

Photoplay magazine, May 1922

Stars of the Photoplay - 1924 edition

The same edition of Stars of the Photoplay also featured future husband Ricardo Cortez.

Publicity Still from East Lynne (1925)

Stars of the Photoplay - 1930 edition and still a featured star.


Undated publicity still

Publicity still from The Masks of the Devil (1928), co-starring with John Gilbert.

Movie Mirror - December 1931, where the caption sums it up.

Alma Rubens - What do you think - Allure?