Martha Sleeper

born: 24 June 1910 Lake Bluff, Illinois, United States of America

died: 25 March 1983 (at home) Beaufort, South Carolina, United States of America (heart attack, age 72)

American actress who had a stint on the Broadway stage. Some sources state she was born in 1907, which is inaccurate. More speculation surrounds her non-appearance as Billy Gilbert's wife Ethel in The Chimp. The record shows that her Mom and Dad (WILLIAM B.and MINNIE) were married in Chicago on 30 Dec 1903. He was 39 and she was 29 years old. The family moved around a lot but is easy to follow in the US Census's. On Wikipedia, Martha's bio says that her Dad was in the upper management of the Keith Albee Vaudeville Circuit, which explains the traveling. The "Exhibitors Trade Review" (not a fan magazine) in the 16 Aug 1924 issue says that Martha is "the niece of J J MURDOCK, Vice President of the B F Keith Vaudeville Circuit" (he was a VIP in the industry.) In the April 1910 Census, the Dad and Mom and daughter ANNETTE (age 3) are in Wyoming. Dad is working as the head honcho of a ranch; there is no Martha (because she wasn't born until 24 June). The Wiki bio mentions this, but I can take it one step farther: The 1910 Census asks the question: how many children has the wife bore? (and) how many are still living? MINNIE SLEEPER answers "1" to both questions. This means that up to April 1, 1910, Mom has had one child and that child is still living. That one child would be ANNETTE, sister of MARTHA. My wild guess is that the Dad's health was already starting to fail and thus he sought life in "the wide open spaces". If you follow her in the fan magazines, you'll see that in 1923 she was playing pre-teens and teens in feature length dramas (non-ROACH). Most articles about her mention her young age. She was a "champion swimmer" and stage dancer before Hollywood. She was married 3 times, first in 1934 to an actor.

Real name: Martha Marie Sleeper Height: 5'4"

Films listed on this page: complete Hal Roach filmography; plus 1 film with Laurel & Hardy.

51

1924 A Ten-Minute Egg Mrs. Dugan 1924 Seeing Nellie Home [?] 1924 Sweet Daddy [?] 1924 Outdoor Pajamas Lady with runaway horse 1924 Should Landlords Live? [?] 1924 The Goofy Age Gumball machine customer 1924 Too Many Mammas Apache dancer 1924 Every Man For Himself Lady with rings around her eyes 1924 All Wet [?] 1924 The Royal Razz [?] 1925 The Rat's Knuckles 'Flirty' McFickle 1925 Plain And Fancy Girls Jimmy's girlfriend 1925 Bad Boy Jimmy's girlfriend 1925 Are Husbands Human? [?] 1925 Big Red Ridinghood The maid/Book store clerk 1925 Wild Papa [unidentified character]   1925 Sure-Mike! Vermuda 1925 Sherlock Sleuth Hotel telephone operator 1925 Innocent Husbands Girl at party 1925 Tame Men And Wild Women [unidentified character]   1925 There Goes The Bride The bride 1925 Better Movies Teenaged 'vamp'   1925 Should Sailors Marry? Smyrna 1925 Laughing Ladies [unidentified character]   1925 Hold Everything [?] 1926 A Punch In The Nose [?] 1926 What's The World Coming To? Butler 1926 Your Husband's Past [?] 1926 Madame Mystery [?] 1926 Ukulele Sheiks [?] 1926 Baby Clothes Leggy lady 1926 Mum's The Word Maid 1926 Say It With Babies Mrs. Kimmel 1926 Don Key (Son Of Burro) Maid   1926 Long Fliv The King Princess Helga of Thermosa 1926 Never Too Old [unidentified character]   1926 Thundering Fleas Bride 1926 Along Came Auntie Maid 1926 Crazy Like A Fox The bride 1926 Should Husbands Pay? The flirt's wife 1926 Bromo And Juliet [?] 1926 Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes Co-ed getting out of pool 1926 The Nickel-Hopper Stunt double for Mabel Normand 1927 The Honorable Mr. Buggs Fiancé 1927 Jewish Prudence Rachel Gimplewart 1927 Fluttering Hearts Daughter 1927 Love 'Em And Feed 'Em Martha, a stenographer 1927 Fighting Fathers [?] 1927 Flaming Fathers Daughter 1928 Pass The Gravy Daughter 1928 Should Tall Men Marry? Martha Skittle ▼ NON-HAL ROACH FILMS 1934 Hollywood Party Show girl [publicity image provided by Bob Duncan] Acknowledgements: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/07/obituaries/martha-sleeper-is-dead-at-72-star-of-films-and-broadway.html (New York Times obit) http://ia601604.us.archive.org/ (Shadowland, July 1923) Jim Jarvis (information and assistance) Jesse Brisson (identification in Wise Guys Prefer Brunettes, The Goofy Age, The Nickel-Hopper) Bob Duncan (stills) The GIF file of Martha Sleeper was created by myself, June 5, 2017. This page was last updated on: 28 January 2026