Theda Bara

Silent film actress Theda Bara (1885-1955) was one of cinema’s earliest sex symbols, gracing the silver screen in risque costumes as femme fatale characters that earned her the nickname “The Vamp.”

Though photos still exist, most of her films were lost in a fire in 1937 at Fox’s nitrate film storage vaults. Out of the forty films she made between 1914 and 1926, only six remain.