Theda Bara

To be good is to be forgotten. I'm going to be so bad I'll always be remembered.

Theda Bara was the stage name of Theodosia Burr Goodman (29 July 1885 – 7 April 1955), a silent film actress popularly known as "The Vamp." One of Hollywood’s first major movie stars, she become known for her exotic style and as a sex symbol in the first few decades of the 1900's. Most of her work has been lost.

Quotes

There is a little bit of vampire instinct in every woman.

• To be good is to be forgotten. I'm going to be so bad I'll always be remembered.
  • As quoted in "The Confessions of Theda Bara" by Agnes Smith, Photoplay Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 1 (June 1920), pp. 57–58, 110–111

• The reason good women like me and flock to my pictures is that there is a little bit of vampire instinct in every woman.
  • Reportedly said around the time of her retirement, circa 1926, as quoted in Women, Women, Women: Quips, Quotes, and Commentary (1977) by Leta W. Clark, p. 16

• I will continue doing vampires as long as people sin.
  • As quoted in Sexy Origins and Intimate Things : The Rites and Rituals of Straights, Gays, Bi's, Drags, Trans, Virgins, and Others (1998) Charles Panati, p. 295

Quotes about Bara

• After Theda Barra appeared in A Fool There Was, a vampire wave surged over the country. Women appeared in vampire gowns, pendant earrings, and even young girls were attempting to change from frank, open-eyed ingenues to the almond-eyed, carmine-lipped woman of subtlety and mystery.
  • Mary Pickford, "To Be Or Not To Be a Vampire", The Day [New London, CT] (16 May 1916), p. 11

External links

• Theda Bara on IMDb