- Following her divorce from Jack Dempsey, a fan approached her for her autograph. Holding the piece of paper, the actress saw Dempsey's name scrawled near the top of it. She signed the page: "This is the last time that son-of-a-bitch is on top of me. Estelle Taylor.".
- In her divorce proceedings from Jack Dempsey, she received a settlement of $40,000 in cash, their $150,000 home, including all paintings and furniture, along with three cars. Dempsey remarked, "I resented her more than I disliked her. In fact, I would have taken her back if she had snapped her fingers. But she was glad to be free and away from me.".
- Was one of Lupe Velez's best friends. She was also one of the last persons who spoke with Velez before the Mexican actress' death. Taylor once said that Velez was her favorite movie star because of her "personality and spontaneity".
- She had a dramatic soprano voice and studied singing in the late 1920s and early 1930s. When she retired from films in the mid-1930s, she began a successful career as a singer, receiving a salary of $1,000 a week. She performed in vaudeville, on the stage in musicals, and in night clubs. At one point, she even gave a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall.
- "Photoplay" included her role in Where East Is East (1929) in its eight Best Performances of the Month (June 1929).
- She refused to play the title role in The Queen of Sheba (1921) because of the scantiness of the costumes. The part then was given to Betty Blythe, another Fox star.
- She signed a contract with Paramount Pictures on the strength of her performance as Miriam in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923). DeMille, who had already made female stars of relatively unknown starlets (e.g., Gloria Swanson, Bebe Daniels, Agnes Ayres), chose Taylor as his new female star. Unfortunately, for some obscure reason, the roles that had been announced for her in Feet of Clay (1924) and The Golden Bed (1925) were given to other actresses. However, she still had the desire to work for DeMille again. She coveted a part in The Volga Boatman (1926) and was one of the serious candidates for the role of Mary Magdalene in The King of Kings (1927). DeMille and Taylor never worked together again after "The Ten Commandments", but it seems that there were no hard feelings between them, since Taylor visited DeMille on the 30th anniversary of his first film in 1942.
- While riding through a canyon in Arizona for The Call of the Canyon (1923), she was soaked by a rainstorm and became ill with arthritis. She flew back to Los Angeles to recover and had to give up the role she was playing, which was the female lead. Lois Wilson replaced her.
- At the height of her fame, she starred opposite some of the most popular leading men of the silent era: William Farnum, Tyrone Power Sr., John Gilbert, Rod La Rocque, Antonio Moreno, Thomas Meighan, John Barrymore, Ricardo Cortez, and Lon Chaney.
- She lived to see the release of The Ten Commandments (1956), the remake of one of her silent films, The Ten Commandments (1923). Julia Faye, Taylor's friend and co-star in the silent version, was the only credited cast member to appear in both films. Taylor passed away a couple of years later, in 1958.
- She was named after her maternal grandmother, Ida (Lauber) Barrett (1858-1946).
- She co-starred in one film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture: Cimarron (1931).
- Sister of Helen Taylor.
- She was cast as Rudolph Valentino's leading lady in a planned film about the life of 16th-century Italian artist Benvenuto Cellini, but Valentino died before the film was made.
- Appeared as herself in two films about Hollywood: Mary of the Movies (1923) and Show People (1928).
- Her father, Harry D. Taylor, was born in January 1871 in Delaware.
- Her mother, Ida LaBertha Barrett (1874-1965), was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. She married Estelle's father in 1893 and divorced him in 1903. Her third husband was a vaudevillian, Harry J. Boylan.
- She made a screen test for the role of Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind (1939).
- Antonio Moreno was her leading man in two films: Tiger Love (1924) and The Whip Woman (1928). Moreno once said that Taylor was his favorite co-star because she looked Spanish and was a natural actress.
- Played the title roles in Blind Wives (1920), Only a Shop Girl (1922), The Whip Woman (1928), and Lady Raffles (1928).
- Starred in The Ten Commandments (1923) and Cimarron (1931). Anne Baxter starred in the remakes: The Ten Commandments (1956) and Cimarron (1960). Both actresses played Dixie Lee in the film adaptations of Cimarron. In the versions of The Ten Commandments, Taylor played Moses' sister Miriam and Baxter played Nefretiri, the Queen of Egypt (and Moses' former love).
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content