This listing is for an 8x10 size picture of actress Thelma Todd.

Thelma Todd (July 29, 1906 - December 16, 1935) was an American film actress.

Early Life

Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts and was a bright student who achieved good academic results. She intended to become a school teacher. However, in her late teens, she began entering beauty pageants, winning the title of Miss Massachusetts in 1925. While representing her home state, she was spotted by a Hollywood talent scout and began her career in film.

Career

During the silent era, she appeared in numerous supporting roles that made full use of her beauty but gave her little chance to act. With the advent of the talkies, Todd was given opportunity to expand her roles by the producer Hal Roach, who contracted her to appear with such comedic stars as Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, and Laurel & Hardy. At Roach studios, she appeared as the lead actress in a series of comedy films with actresses ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly. Hal Roach originally hoped to create a female version of Laurel & Hardy with the duo of Thelma Todd & ZaSu Pitts but despite a lot of effort it wasn't to be.

She became highly regarded as a capable film comedienne, loaned out to other studios to play opposite Wheeler & Woolsey, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, and the Marx Brothers. She also appeared successfully in such dramas as the original 1931 film version of The Maltese Falcon. During her career she appeared in more than 130 films and was sometimes publicised as The Ice Cream Blonde. She was also a superb comedienne with impeccable timing, as capable of delivering a witty line as she was of throwing hilarious exasperated glances straight to camera, in a comedic style similar to Oliver Hardy and, later, Lucille Ball.

In the early 1930s, she opened a successful cafe at Pacific Palisades, called Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe, attracting a diverse clientele of Hollywood celebrities as well as many tourists.

Suspicious Death

On the morning of December 16, 1935, she was found dead in her car inside her garage, and her death was determined to have been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. Todd had a wide circle of friends and associates as well as a busy social life. Police investigations revealed that she had spent the last night of her life at a party hosted by entertainer Stanley Lupino and his daughter, the actress Ida Lupino. She had been involved in an argument with her boyfriend, director Roland West. However, her friends stated that she was in good spirits and were aware of nothing unusual in her life that could suggest a reason for committing suicide.

Police were offered other alternatives throughout their investigations. One theory was that Roland West (known to have been very possessive of her) had grown frustrated by Todd's flightiness and, to keep her from leaving her premises to attend another party, had locked her in the garage. Her resulting death according to this theory was accidental. However, a key, which would have allowed her to escape, was found in Todd's handbag.

A second theory was that Todd had turned on the motor of the car in order to keep warm and had fallen asleep. Roland West had closed the door to the garage without realising Todd was inside, and she had died as a result.

A third theory postulates she was murdered by New York gangster "Lucky" Luciano because of her refusal to allow him to involve her club with illegal gambling. Like the Roland West story, the Lucky Luciano story was in Kenneth Anger's book Hollywood Babylon. Later it was alleged to be "the true story" in Andy Edmonds' book (and later TV movie) Hot Toddy. It has become the most celebrated of all theories.

A fourth theory was that she was murdered by her ex--husband, Pat DiCicco, who was involved in bootlegging and prostitution and had a history of violence against women. Gloria Vanderbilt, who was later married to DiCicco, mentioned allegations that he had murdered Thelma Todd in her autobiography, Black Knight, White Knight (DiCicco was the "Black Knight" of the title ).

The Los Angeles DA's department and a Grand Jury were unable to establish the true circumstances surrounding her death. The conjecture that surrounded it at the time, which has never been resolved with a definitive explanation, is an early example of what would become known as a conspiracy theory with rumours and suppositions accepted as fact and widely divergent opinions given credence. The fact that her body was cremated caused theorists to conjecture that this had been done to destroy evidence and to prevent a second autopsy. However, by this time, authorities were satisfied with her official cause of death.

Her death certificate states her cause of death as accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. She was cremated and, after her mother's death, her remains were placed in her mother's casket and buried in Bellevue Cemetery in her hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

A segment of a History Channel series called "History's Mysteries" reported that Roland West actually confessed to the crime, in the manner stated in the first theory stated above, i.e. that he was trying to keep her from going to the next party. Although no legal action was taken against him, allegedly due to Hollywood's elite "closing ranks", West supposedly "never worked again" in Hollywood. It is difficult to verify that, since his IMDB entry shows that he actually stopped producing pictures several years before Todd's death.

Thelma Todd has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6262 Hollywood Blvd.

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