"I don't think you can change anything that is going to happen to you any more than you can change anything that has happened to you." - Olive Thomas

Olive Thomas was born Oliveretta Elaine Duffy on October 20, 1894, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. She was the oldest of three children. Olive's father died when she was a child. In April 1911 Olive married Bernard Krug Thomas. They divorced two years later. Olive moved to New York City and worked in a department store. After winning a beauty contest she started modeling and was offered a job in the Ziegfeld Follies. Olive had a romantic relationship with Ziegfeld Follies creator Florenz Ziegfeld, who was married to actress Billie Burke. In 1916 Olive made her film debut in Beatrice Fairfax. That same year she married actor Jack Pickford, brother of Mary Pickford.

Olive was offered a lucrative contract with Selznick Pictures. She appeared in many successful silent films including Madcap Madge, Youthful Folly, and The Flapper. Olive and Jack had a tumultuous marriage. Jack was an alcoholic and they spent a lot of time apart. There are also rumors that Olive was having an affair with producer Myron Selznick. In 1920 Olive and Jack took a trip to Europe. On the night of September 6 Olive went in to her bathroom and swallowed some mercury bichloride (a drug that had been prescribed to treat Jack's syphilis).

She died four days later. Olive was just twenty-five years old. Her death was ruled an accident but some believe she committed suicide. Olive was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. Since Olive's death many people claim to have seen her ghost in the New Amsterdam Theatre where she began her career as a Ziegfeld girl.