Biography for
Nell Shipman More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

25 October 1892, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Date of Death

23 January 1970, Cabazon, California, USA

Birth Name

Helen Foster-Barham

Mini Biography

Canadian-born actress, writer, producer and animal trainer, best known for writing and acting in several James Oliver Curwood stories and for her portrayals of strong, adventurous women.

IMDb Mini Biography By: anonymous

Spouse

Charles Austin Ayers	(1925 - 1964) (his death)
Ernest Shipman	(25 August 1910 - 10 May 1920) (divorced) 1 son
Bert Van Tuyle	(? - ?)

Trivia

Mother of actor Barry Shipman.

Two titles frequently appear in Shipman filmographies: "The Tiger of the Sea, The (1918)" and "The Eighth Great Grand-Parent." "Tiger" was advertised in 1918 by her husband Ernest Shipman as a seven-reel feature based on a Nell Shipman script and available to state rights distributors, but there is no evidence that this film was ever made. "The Eighth" is the title of the original story on which the Vitagraph production The Wild Strain (1918) was based. Furthermore, Lauritzen and Lundquist mention another Shipman-scripted seven-reel state rights offering for 1919, "The Coast Guard Patrol", but again she was never involved with this title.

Grandmother of Nina Shipman.

Victoria-born Shipman, Silent film star, director, producer and writer, was the first actress in the world to ever do a full frontal nude scene on film. It was in the 1919 movie Back to God's Country, which coincidentally (or perhaps because of the scene), became the most financially successful silent film ever made in Canada. The Tagline in one of the posters for the movie was: "Is the Nude Rude?"

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