Before she became a
Mack Sennett bathing beauty, Hill worked as an artist's model in New York. Hill was one of the few
Sennett Bathing Beauties to make it into featured roles. Hill was widely known as the "mah jongg bathing girl" because of the
mah jongg bathing suit she was photographed in. When she was a child her parents divorced and her father died. Thelma and her mother moved to California, where they opened a cafe down the road from the Sennett studios. She was discovered by
Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle when she was serving him and dropped soup in his lap. Arbuckle introduced her to
Mack Sennett who made her one of his bathing beauties. In a 1924 article Sennett declared she was the "ideal bathing beauty of her time". The petite actress was just five feet tall and weighed only 100 pounds. Publicity Photo She started working as an extra at the Sennett studios in 1919 and appeared in dozens of comedy shorts including
Picking Peaches (1924) and
The Hollywood Kid (1925). She was a talented comedienne and quickly moved on to featured roles. Hill starred opposite
Ben Turpin in
A Prodigal Bridegroom (1926) and with
Billy Bevan in
Hoboken From Hollywood. Mack Sennett saw her potential and signed to her a long term long contract. From 1927 to 1929, she co-starred with
Bud Duncan in
Larry Darmour's series of silent
Toots and Casper comedy shorts and was
Laurel and Hardy's leading lady in
Two Tars (1928). She was under contract at
FBO in 1927 and was signed by
MGM for a role in
The Fair Co-Ed (1927). She appeared in a handful of talkies including
The Old Barn (1929) and
The Naughty Flirt (1931) with
Alice White. Her final role was in the
Hal Roach comedy
Mixed Nuts (1934). ==Personal life==