{{short description|American actress}} {{Infobox person | name = Sybil Seely | image = Portrait of Sybil Seely.jpg | caption = Seely c. 1920 | birth_name = Sibye Travilla | birth_date = {{Birth date|1902|1|2}} | birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|6|26|1902|1|2}} | death_place = Culver City, California, U.S. | years_active = 1917–1922 | occupation = Actress | spouse = {{marriage|Jules Furthman|1920|1966|end=died}} | children = 1 }}
'''Sybil Seely''' (born '''Sibye Travilla''',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Massa |first1=Steve |title=Slapstick Divas: The Women of Silent Comedy |publisher=BearManor Media |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtCKDwAAQBAJ&q=%22The+Three+Trevilla+Brothers%2C+which+consisted+of+her+brothers%2C+Jack%2C+Guy%22&pg=RA1-PA1786 |access-date=30 August 2019 |language=en}}</ref> January 2, 1902 – June 26, 1984)<ref name="msff">{{cite book|last1=Walker|first1=Brent E.|title=Mack Sennett's Fun Factory: A History and Filmography of His Studio and His Keystone and Mack Sennett Comedies, with Biographies of Players and Personnel|date=2013|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-7711-1|page=551|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x_icAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Sybil+Travilla%22&pg=PA551|access-date=September 26, 2017}}</ref> was a silent film actress who worked with the well known silent film comedy actor Buster Keaton.
==Early years== Seely was born to Harry Travilla and Lucie Ellen Boyker in Los Angeles, the sixth of seven children. She was of French, English, and Scottish descent. Her three brothers performed "as the Travilla Brothers, a popular vaudeville act featuring stunts in a huge onstage tank using a trained seal named Winks, advertised as 'The Seal With The Human Brain.'"<ref name=":0" />
==Career== Seely is known to have appeared in 23 films, and her first role, according to IMDb, was an uncredited part in ''Her Nature Dance'' (1917), at the age of 15. This picture was made for the Mack Sennett studio, where she began as a "Bathing Beauty", and where she was under contract for her entire career. Sennett loaned her to Buster Keaton for four short films, including her first role with the great silent screen comedian as his bride and fellow ill-fated house-kit-builder in ''One Week'' (1920). This is the role for which Seely is best known, and her unflappable screen personality, as well as the ability to keep up with Keaton and perform her own stunts, earned her the roles in the three other Keaton two-reelers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |date=July 21, 2015 |title=Sybil Seely, Buster's Most Charming Leading Lady |url=https://silentology.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/sybil-seely-busters-most-charming-leading-lady/ |journal=The Keaton Chronicle |volume=Spring 2015 |via=Silent-ology |access-date=October 13, 2023}}</ref> thumb|Still from Buster Keaton's "One Week" with Keaton and co-star Sybil Seely
==Personal life== In 1920, she married screenwriter Jules Furthman. They had a son, Jules Jr. In 1922, she retired from her acting career.<ref name="cvs">[http://www.classicvideostreams.com/BCVS/favs/Seely-S_idx.htm Sybil Seely], Classic Video Streams; accessed January 18, 2019.{{better source needed|date=December 2025}}</ref>
==Death== Seely was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1983 and also suffered from cerebral arteriosclerosis at the time of her death from cardiac failure<ref name="msff" /> in Culver City, California, aged 82, on June 26, 1984.<ref>[http://www.classicvideostreams.com/BCVS/docs/Seely-S_de.jpg Death Certificate of Sybil Travilla Furthman], classicvideostreams.com; accessed January 5, 2017.{{better source needed|date=December 2025}}</ref>
==Filmography== *''Hearts and Flowers'' (1919) *''A Lady's Tailor'' (1919) *''Salome vs. Shenandoah'' (1919) *''Up in Alf's Place'' (1919) *''His Last False Step'' (1919) *''Down on the Farm'' (1920) *''By Golly!'' (1920) *''Married Life'' (1920) *''One Week'' (1920) *''Convict 13'' (1920) *''Movie Fans'' (1920) * ''Love, Honor and Behave'' (1920) *''The Scarecrow'' (1920) (uncredited) *''Bungalow Troubles'' (1920) *''The Boat'' (1921) *''A Sailor-Made Man'' (1921) *''On Patrol'' (1922)
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category}} * ''One Week'' (1920) at Internet Archive * [https://archive.org/details/Convict13 ''Convict 13'' (1920)] at Internet Archive * [https://archive.org/details/BusterKeatonthescarecrow ''The Scarecrow'' (1920)] at Internet Archive * [https://archive.org/details/TheBoat ''The Boat'' (1921)] at Internet Archive * [https://archive.org/details/TheFrozenNorth ''The Frozen North'' (1922)] at Internet Archive
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Seely, Sybil}} Category:American film actresses Category:American silent film actresses Category:Actresses from Los Angeles Category:1902 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:20th-century American actresses