1901-1982
She barely makes the list here, were it not for two things, her stage career in the 1920's and the fact that the only film, her motion picture debut, an early talkie from 1929 is considered a lost film. She was born in New York City, and became interested in acting because her father worked as an editor of a trade paper. She started in stock stage acting as a teenager and made her Broadway debut in 1924 at the age of 23. She continued her career on Broadway all throughout the 1930's even as her film career seriously took off. The 1929 film in question is Strange Cargo, a 75 minute mystery with full mono sound by RCA Photophone System. The oddity of it is that several people claim to have seen it, it is not one of those F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre situations. I've done some digging and can't find a wiff of it's continued existence. Perhaps some people have prints in private collections?? If so, please share! It does merit pointing out that at least one review on IMDb is from Australia; it is often from these far flung places, so called "terminus" points that lost films both famous and unknown for the most part have been found. One of the reasons for her memorial here is that I am huge fan of "Topper" franchise, and she portrayed the beleaguered role of Henrietta Topper in the 1950's television reboot of the movie franchise. She passed away on November 21, just 1 day before her 81st birthday in Laguna Beach, CA. She is interred in Pacific View Memorial Park.
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