From Wikipedia
Theda Bara (born Theodosia Burr Goodman, July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress.
Bara was one of the most popular actresses of the silent era, and one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname The Vamp (short for vampire). Bara made more than 40 films between 1914 and 1926, but most are now lost because the 1937 Fox vault fire destroyed most of her films.
After her marriage to Charles Brabin in 1921, she made two more feature films and retired from acting in 1926, having never appeared in a sound film.
Bara died of stomach cancer in 1955 at the age of 69.