Jean Acker

Jean Acker was a silent-film actress known for being the first wife of Rudolph Valentino — a marriage that lasted less than a night when she locked him out of their hotel room on their wedding night, November 6, 1919, and fled to the home of her lover, actress Grace Darmond, whom she had met and begun a relationship with the year before. Many historians interpret the Valentino marriage as one of social convenience. Acker had earlier been involved with Alla Nazimova, the Russian-born star whose circle of queer actresses became known as Hollywood's "sewing circle." She continued acting through the 1930s, and her documented relationships with women have made her a frequently cited figure in histories of lesbian life in silent-era Hollywood.