Bessie starred in at least 200 melodrama, action westerns and crime films. In the 1910 she was visiting the Selig Film studios with a party of friends, when a director saw and liked her red hair because he said it would photograph a beautiful black, so he offered her a minor role, she had no formal training on stage, as did many early film actors, she was talented and soon rose to be one of Selig's most popular stars.
Who Shall Take My Life?
(Mary Moran)
The Law North of 65
(Jeanne)
Twisted Trails
(Sunshine West)
Kit Carson's Wooing
(Lat-to-nick)
When the West Was Young
(Nellie Halton)
Chip of the Flying U
(Dr. Cecil Grantham)
The White Mouse
(Jean Silver)
Greater Wealth
(Mrs. Ed Young)
Etienne of the Glad Heart
(Marie Le Groux)
The Wilderness Mail
(Joan, a Young French-Canadian)
In Defiance of the Law
(Isobel Deane)
The Smuggler's Sister
(Bessie)
Cheap Kisses
(Maybelle Wescott)
Lassoing a Lion
His Fighting Blood
(Hope McTrigger)
The Primitive Way
(Mildred Manning)
The Red Blood of Courage
(Lydia Duane)
The Fork in the Road
(Elsa - the Innkeeper's Daughte)
The Great Experiment
(Ritta)
The Two Natures Within Him
(Mary Bishop)
Kid Pink and the Maharajah
Shotgun Jones
(Sally Lattier - the Daughter)
The Girl of Gold
(Ada Tremaine)
In the Long Ago
(Starlight)
Blackbeard
(Conchita)
The Mate of the Alden Bessie
(The Captain's Daughter)
The Spoilers
(Helen Chester)
Alone in the Jungle
(Helen Brown)
In the Days of the Thundering Herd
(Sally Madison)
The Crisis
(Virginia Carvel)
Beware of Strangers
(Madeleine, Mentor's Daughter)
The Heart of Texas Ryan
(Texas Ryan)