Measurements: 33 1/4-25-36 (from her dress designer), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
One of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Second cousin of John Mantley.
She and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers adopted two children, Ronald "Ronnie" Charles and Roxanne.
She and husband Douglas Fairbanks were friends of Edsel Ford (son of Henry Ford) and his wife. In the Edsel & Eleanor Ford home at 1100 Lake Shore Rd., Grosse Point Shores, MI there hangs in the study an autographed photo of her signed "Mary Pick-A-Ford", c. 1932.
She became estranged from daughter Roxanne for a time when she, at age eighteen, ran off to marry a man her parents did not approve of.
She had intended to have all of her films destroyed after her death, fearing that no one would care about them. She was convinced not to do this.
She left her children $50,000 and her grandchildren trust funds.
She paid for her grandchildren to go to school, provided that they showed proof that they were registered.
She started her film career at Biograph Company (American Mutoscope & Biograph) in 1909, when Biograph's director D.W. Griffith hired her. Her first film was Biograph's Pippa Passes; or, The Song of Conscience (1909), though she only was a face in the crowd. However, this launched her long and illustrious film career.
She was first hired for the movies by director D.W. Griffith.
She was the first movie actress to receive a percentage of a film's earnings
Sister of actor/director Jack Pickford.
Sister of screen/stage actress Lottie Pickford.
Sister-in-law of Tom Moore and Matt Moore.
Sister-in-law of Joe Moore, aunt of Alice Moore.
Sister-in-law of Robert Fairbanks.
Son Ronnie has two children, daughter Jamie (born 1954) and son Tommy (b. 1955). Daughter Roxanne gave birth to a daughter, Katina, in the early 1960s.
Stage producer David Belasco gave Mary her stage name in 1908. Her real name, Gladys Marie Smith, wasn't right for an actress on his stage. "Gladys" didn't suit the diminutive actress, "Smith" was too common, "Marie" was too foreign. "Marie" became "Mary". "Pickford" was her mother's maiden name. Years later, a fan who traced her family tree found that the name "Mary Pickford" occurred several times in her mother's family going back to the 12th century,
Step-mother to Douglas Fairbanks Jr..