Olive Tell

This article has an unclear citation style. The references used may be made clearer with a different or consistent style of citation and footnoting. (January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Olive Tell
Tell in 1924
Born	(1894-09-27)September 27, 1894 New York City, U.S.
Died	June 8, 1951(1951-06-08) (aged 56) New York City, U.S.
Years active	1917–1938
Spouses	George Willis Kreh ​ ​ (m. 1923; died 1923)​ Henry Hobart ​ (m. 1926)​
Relatives	Alma Tell (sister)

Olive Tell (September 27, 1894 – June 8, 1951)^[1] was a stage and screen actress from New York City.

Tell was educated in several cities in Europe.^[2] She and her younger actress sister Alma graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1915.^[3] The sisters began appearing in Broadway theaters around 1918. Olive made her New York debut in the drama Husband and Wife. At first, she preferred acting in theater and detested her work on screen.

She first appeared in motion pictures during World War I. Her early screen roles were in silent films, including The Silent Master (1917), The Unforeseen (1917), Her Sister (1917), and National Red Cross Pageant (1917). Tell appeared with popular film actors of the era such as Donald Gallaher, Karl Dane, Ann Little, Rod La Rocque, Ethel Barrymore and a young Tallulah Bankhead.

Her first husband was killed in World War I. Tell married George Willis Kreh in April 1923; he died four months later; she married First National Pictures movie producer Henry Morgan Hobart in 1926.^[4] Hobart and Tell moved to California in 1926 and stayed in Hollywood for 12 years.

Her final screen credits came in the late 1930s. She performed in In His Steps (1936), Polo Joe (1936) with Joe E. Brown, Easy to Take (1936), and Under Southern Stars (1937). Tell's final screen appearance was in the drama Zaza (1939), directed by George Cukor.

Olive Tell died in Bellevue Hospital in 1951 after suffering a fractured skull at the Dryden Hotel, 150 East Thirty-Ninth Street, New York City, where she resided.^[5] She was 56 years old.

• Los Angeles Times, "Olive Tell In Stage Return", March 25, 1928, Page C15.
• New York Times, "Olive Tell, Appeared On Stage And Screen", June 9, 1951, Page 19.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Olive Tell.

• Olive Tell at IMDb