Editing Mary Pickford (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Bust of Mary Pickford.jpg|right|thumb|Bust of Mary Pickford on [[University Avenue (Toronto)|University Avenue]], near her Toronto birthplace]]
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith<ref name="pbs"/> in 1892, at 211 [[University Avenue (Toronto)|University Avenue]], [[Toronto]], Ontario,{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}} now the location of [[Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)|the Hospital for Sick Children]]. Her father, John Charles Smith, was the son of English [[Methodism|Methodist]] immigrants, and worked a variety of odd jobs. Her mother, [[Charlotte Hennessey]], was of [[Irish Catholic]] descent and worked for a time as a seamstress. She had two younger siblings, both actors. [[Lottie Pickford|Charlotte was billed as "Lottie Pickford"]] (born 1893) and [[Jack Pickford|John Charles Jr. was billed as "Jack Pickford"]] (born 1896). To please her husband's relatives, Pickford's mother baptized her children as Methodists, the religion of their father. John Charles Sr. was an alcoholic. He died on February 11, 1898, from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a [[purser]] with Niagara Steamship.{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}}

When Gladys was four years old, her household was under infectious quarantine as a public health measure. Their devoutly Catholic maternal grandmother (Catherine Faeley Hennessey) asked a visiting Roman Catholic priest to baptize the children. Pickford was at this time baptized as Gladys Marie Smith.<ref>{{cite book |first=Kevin|last=Brownlow |quote=I was baptized Gladys Marie by a French priest – Gladys Marie Smith. David Belasco settled on Pickford after I told him the various names in my family ... |title=The Parade's Gone by ... |page=[https://archive.org/details/paradesgoneby0000brow/page/123 123] |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=1968 |isbn=978-0-520-03068-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/paradesgoneby0000brow/page/123}}</ref>{{sfn|Leavey|2011|p=15}}

After being widowed in 1898, Charlotte Smith began taking in boarders, one of whom was a Mr. Murphy, the theatrical stage manager for Cummings Stock Company, who soon suggested that Gladys, then age seven, and Lottie, then age six, be given two small theatrical roles—Gladys portrayed a girl and a boy, while Lottie was cast in a silent part in the company's production of ''[[The Silver King (play)|The Silver King]]'' at Toronto's Princess Theatre (destroyed by fire in 1915, rebuilt, demolished in 1931), while their mother played the organ.{{sfn|Leavey|2011}}{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}} Pickford subsequently acted in many melodramas with Toronto's Valentine Stock Company, ultimately playing the major child role in its version of ''The Silver King''. She concluded her short career in Toronto with the starring role of Little Eva in the Valentine production of ''[[Tom show|Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'', adapted from the 1852 novel.{{sfn|Whitfield|1997|pp=8, 25, 28, 115, 125, 126, 131, 300, 376}}