Majel Coleman

Majel Coleman (February 22, 1903 – July 27, 1980) was an American film actress and model from Mason, Ohio.^{[citation needed]} Most of her 11 film credits are silent movie features.

Coleman was born in Mason, Ohio (just north of Cincinnati, Ohio) to Pierce ("Percy") Coleman and Grace (née Slayback) Coleman. Her father was a former Major League Baseball pitcher from Mason. Majel and her parents lived in Cincinnati, where she attended Hughes Center High School, class of 1921.

She won a Cincinnati Post beauty contest in 1920 and was declared the "Most Beautiful Girl in Hamilton County."

Coleman -- "a quiet red-haired girl" -- was listed among the 14 most beautiful women in the world in 1926 along with Sally Rand, Etta Lee, Eugenia Gilbert, Jocelyn Lee, Sally Long, Clara Morris, Olive Borden, Christina Montt, Adalyn Mayer, Thais Valdemar, Yola D'Avril, and Dorothy Seastrom.

Coleman's hands became an ideal of perfection, beginning with film screen tests which revealed their beauty, and she was often a hand double in movies. A 1927 nationally syndicated newspaper article noted that "Many times when you have gazed upon a closeup of a feminine hand reaching for a cigaret (sic), playing with gold and jewels, or coming snakelike fashion from behind a heavy curtain, the hand has not been that of a star. More often such hand shots are made with a double furnishing the hands. Those perfectly tapered fingers, those matchless nails, the slender wrists that are the envy of every woman have been shown with care. One star who broke into the movies by her perfect hands is Majel Coleman. Long before the directors discovered that Majel Coleman's face was not hard to look upon, her hands were given screen tests and found not wanting. Majel's hands began to be famous in Hollywood."

A nationally syndicated newspaper story in 1922 noted that "The largest close-up of a pair of hands ever made for the screen was taken recently of those belonging to Majel Coleman, a former Cincinnati society girl, who is now carrying a career for herself in the films. Miss Coleman's shapely hands were used in several statues made by the sculptors of the Cincinnati Art Institute, and caused much comment when the statues were exhibited at the Exposition Internationale des Arts, in Paris.

Coleman was also featured in print advertising campaigns including for William Hepner's "Halo-Tress" cosmetics and wigs.

Majel went to Hollywood in 1921 after high school.