{{Short description|Russian-American actress (1886-1948)}} {{Use American English|date=July 2021}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Vera Gordon | image = Vera Gordon (SAYRE 24238).jpg | imagesize = | caption = Gordon in 1909 | birth_name = Vera Pogorelsky Gordon | birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|06|11}} | birth_place = Ekaterinoslav, Russia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1948|05|08|1886|06|11}} | death_place = Beverly Hills, California, U.S. | resting_place = Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, California, U.S. | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1904–1946 | spouse = {{Marriage|Nathan Gordon|1904}} | children = 2 }} '''Vera Pogorelsky Gordon''' (June 11, 1886 – May 8, 1948) was a Russian-born American stage and screen actress.
==Early life== Vera Pogorelsky was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russia, on June 11, 1886, the daughter of Boris Pogorelsky and Teigan Nemirovsky.
==Career== Pogorelsky was a child actor but she was fired by the directors of the Shevchenko Imperial Company when they learned she was of Jewish heritage. After emigrating to the United States, Pogorelsky, now Gordon, appeared in smaller theater like the Liberty and the Lyric in New York’s Lower East Side. <ref name="jwa" />
In 1916 Gordon went on a tour in England, appearing in vaudeville and theatre. <ref name="Binheim" /> <ref name="jwa" />
Gordon starred in several motion pictures such as ''Humoresque'' and ''The Cohens and Kellys''. She represented the archetypical Jewish mother. <ref name="Binheim" /> <ref name="jwa">{{cite web|title=Vera Gordon 1886 – 1948|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gordon-vera|access-date=25 August 2017}}</ref>
She contributed to newspapers and magazines on marriage and children, and supported Jewish children orphanages. <ref name="jwa" />
She was a member of Actors' Equity Association, Russian-American Art Club of Los Angeles, and Grand Street Boys, N.Y. <ref name="Binheim" />
==Personal life== thumb|right|Vera Gordon, ''Humoresque'' (1920) In 1904, in Russia, Vera Pogorelsky married Nathan A. Gordon, a producer and writer at the Ostoffersk Acting Company, and had two children: William (b. 1904) and Nadje (b. 1907). <ref name="Binheim" /> <ref name="jwa" />
In 1905 the Gordons moved to New York City and in 1926 to California, living at 364 S. Highland Ave., Los Angeles. <ref name="Binheim">{{cite book|last1=Binheim|first1=Max|last2=Elvin|first2=Charles A|title=Women of the West; a series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America|date=1928|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenofwestserie00binh/page/48/mode/2up 48]|url=https://archive.org/details/womenofwestserie00binh|access-date=8 August 2017}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>
Her nephew was the musicologist and violinist Sol Babitz,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.maebabitz.com/about/sol-babitz/ |title=Sol Babitz biography |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= |publisher= |access-date=2024-02-19 |quote=}}</ref> and her great-niece was the writer Eve Babitz.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/182682-eve-babitz-the-woman-who-had-los-angeles-beneath-her-heel-2495651189.html/ |title=Eve Babitz, with Los Angeles at Her Feet |author=Pop Matters Staff|date=11 June 2014 |website=Pop Matters |publisher= |access-date=2024-02-19 |quote=}}</ref>
She moved to Beverly Hills, died there on May 8, 1948, and is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood. <ref name="jwa" /> <ref>{{cite book|last1=Ellenberger|first1=Allan R.|title=Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory|date=2001|publisher=McFarland|page=9|isbn=9780786409839|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bOJCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|access-date=25 August 2017}}</ref>
==Filmography== * 1920 ''Humoresque'' (Mama Kantor) * 1920 ''The North Wind's Malice'' (Rachel Guth) * 1920 ''The Greatest Love'' (Mrs. Lantini) * 1922 ''Your Best Friend'' (Mrs. Esther Meyers) * 1922 ''The Good Provider'' (Becky Binswanger) * 1923 ''Potash and Perlmutter'' (Rosie Potash) * 1924 ''In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter'' (Rosie Potash) * 1926 ''The Cohens and Kellys'' (Mrs. Cohen) * 1926 ''Sweet Daddies'' (Rose Finklebaum) * 1926 ''Kosher Kitty Kelly'' (Mrs. Feinbaum) * 1926 ''Millionaires'' (Esther Rubens) * 1926 ''Private Izzy Murphy'' (Sara Goldberg) * 1927 ''An Affair of the Follies'' * 1928 ''The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris'' (Mrs. Cohen) * 1928 ''Four Walls'' (Benny's Mother) * 1929 ''The Cohens and Kellys in Atlantic City'' (Melitta Cohen) * 1930 ''The Cohens and the Kellys in Scotland'' (Mrs. Cohen) * 1930 ''Madame Satan'' (uncredited) * 1930 ''The Cohens and Kellys in Africa'' (Mrs. Cohen) * 1931 ''50 Million Frenchmen'' (Jewish Tourist's Wife) * 1934 ''When Strangers Meet'' (Mrs. Sarah Rosinsky) * 1937 ''Michael O'Halloran'' (Mrs. Levinsky) * 1938 ''You and Me'' (Mrs. Abie Levine aka Mama) * 1938 ''Having Wonderful Time'' (Tenement Neighbor (uncredited)) * 1942 ''The Big Street'' (Mrs. Lefkowitz) * 1942 ''The Living Ghost'' (Sister Lapidus) * 1943 ''Stage Door Canteen'' (Vera Gordon) * 1946 ''Abie's Irish Rose'' (Mrs. Cohen)
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{commons category|Vera Gordon}} *{{IMDb name|0330653}} *{{IBDB name|42642}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Vera}} Category:1886 births Category:1948 deaths Category:American stage actresses Category:20th-century American writers Category:20th-century American women writers Category:American film actresses Category:Actors from Dnipro Category:Actresses from Los Angeles Category:20th-century American actresses Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Category:Actresses from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast