May MacAvoy(1899-1984)Height 4' 11"(1.50 m!):Silent screen star she was born in an upper scale area of New York City.Her well-to-do family owned and operated a large livery stable situated where the Waldorf-Astoria now stands.She initially wanted to be a teacher but became intrigued with show business after watching a friend rehearse a show at a nearby vaudeville theater.She moved into extra work in films and received her first major break with The Devil's Garden (1920) co-starring Lionel Barrymore. When Cecil B. DeMille put a halt on her career in 1923 as punishment for refusing a role that required partial nudity,May assertively bought out her contract and freelanced for the next six years.She was Esther in her best known silent film Ben-Hur (1925).She also starred in England's first all-talking picture.She retired for marriage in 1929 and bore one son,Patrick.She returned to films for a decade and a half in the 1940s for MGM.She was widowed in 1973 and died of a heart attack.