People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Photograph: Silent Era image collection.

Marion Sunshine

Born 15 May 1894 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, as Mary Tunstall Ijames.
Died 25 January 1963 in New York, New York, USA.

Sister of actress Florence Tempest.

Married Eusebio Santiago Azpiazú (Don Antobal), 5 December 1930; until Marion’s death, 25 January 1963.

Marion Sunshine began her entertainment career in New York, New York, at a young age. She worked in vaudeville with her sister Florence Tempest and eventually appearing on Broadway in musicals. In addition to singing and playing the piano, Sunshine was an accomplished song composer.

Sunshine’s entre into motion pictures came on a chance encounter on a New York street with director D.W. Griffith, and she began working for the Biograph Company late in 1910 and again late in 1911 to apparently have work during the vaudeville offseason. (Attributions that Marion appeared in Biograph films in 1908 are highly suspect.) She made her last film appearance in 1916.

Born of Cuban-American parents, Sunshine translated the lyrics of popular Spanish-language Rhumba songs, including the immensely popular Latin hit “The Peanut Vendor,” and continued with her own compositions in the 1930s, some of which became Jazz standards.

References: Usai-Griffith-4 pp. 268-269 : Website-IMDb; Website-Wikipedia.