Eva Novak | WatchedThis
Eva Novak
Acting
Biography
Eva Barbara Novak (February 14, 1898 – April 17, 1988) was an American film actress, who was quite popular during the silent film era. On February 14, 1898, Eva Barbara Novak was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Joseph Jerome Novak, an immigrant from Bohemia, and Barbara Medek. Her older sister, Johana, also became an actress. Joseph Novak died when Eva was still a child and Barbara was left to raise five children. Novak began her acting career in 1917 in L-KO's Roped into Scandal, followed by another seven films that same year. She appeared in 17 films in 1918, and another eight in 1919. In 1920, she starred opposite Tom Mix in The Daredevil, one of six film roles she would have that year, and one of ten films in which she starred opposite Mix. In 1921, she married stuntman William Reed, whom she met while on location for a film. They had two daughters Vivian Barbara and Pamela Eve. Novak was interested in stunt performing herself, having been taught by Mix to perform many of her own stunts. From 1921 to 1928, she appeared in and starred in 48 films, including an early version of Boston Blackie. She also co-starred with Betty Bronson and Jack Benny in The Medicine Man (1930) and appeared in the 1922 film Chasing the Moon, which was an early forerunner of the 1950s film D.O.A. In the late 1920s, she and her husband moved to Australia, where she made numerous films, including The Romance of Runnibede. However, with the advent of "talking films", her popularity faded. She would continue to act, but mostly in obscure roles. She appeared in 123 films between 1917 and 1965, when she retired. She was residing in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles at the time of her death from pneumonia at the age of 90, on April 17, 1988. In May 1923, the Altoona Tribune held a contest to find the girl who most closely resembled Novak. An announcement in the newspaper said that the winner would receive $250 worth of clothes from a store.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Apology for Murder
Head over heels in love with a stern and cold older businessman's young wife, a reporter is seduced into conspiring to murder him so she can inherit his estate, while pinning the murder on another businessman.
Making a Man
Jack Holt, as Horace Winsby, the lead character. Winsby is a millionaire beet sugar king who owns nearly all of California's San Geronimo Valley -- and he has mortgages on what's left over. But he's also a condescending snob who has no mercy for his debtors and that wins him no friends. He even patronizes Patricia Owens, the girl he loves (Eva Novak), and she turns down his marriage proposal.
The Torrent
Velma is unhappily married to Sam Patton, a millionaire roué. Aboard his yacht bound for the South Seas, Sam pays more attention to his guests than to his wife, and she flees when he attempts to force liquor on her. A sudden paralytic stroke renders him helpless, and she believes him dead. A storm comes up, and Velma is washed ashore on a desert isle. She is later joined by Lieut. Paul Mack, whose hydroplane has run out of fuel. They fall in love, but their idyll is broken when they are captured by a band of moonshiners.
Wolves of the North
Aurora, daughter of Professor Norris, a student of Eskimo culture in the region of Unalik on the southeast coast of Alaska, is devoted to David, a youth of weak character who has been reared in the family, and she is aloof to other men. "Wiki" Jack, primitive and passionate, sets out to win her despite her unconcealed disdain for him.
The Speed Maniac
Billy Porter sells his ranch and travels to San Francisco to try his hand in the business world. But he's barely off the ferryboat before he gets waylaid by a little newsboy and the boy's pugilist father, "Knockout" McClusky.
The Feud
Two Southern clans, the Lynches and the Summers, have been at odds with each other since long before Civil War times. But that hasn't stopped Jere Lynch and Betty Summers from falling in love.
The Daredevil
When Timothy Atkinson arrives in a rough Western town to become the telegraph operator, the locals peg him as a tenderfoot.
Desert Love
Murderous bandits shoot up a town and kill the sheriff. But before he dies, the lawman leaves behind a list of the men responsible for his murder. Twenty-five years later, his son, Buck Marston has grown up and followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a sheriff.
Up and Going
In Up and Going, based on Mix's own story, Arctic Trails, the star played a titled, polo playing Northwest Mounted Police officer. From an elderly woman, Tom learns that childhood girlfriend Jackie McNabb is being kept prisoner by evil Basil Du Bois.
Chasing the Moon
Tom Mix, in mufti rather than his traditional western garb, plays a young man who is convinced he has taken a slow-acting poison.
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