Ethel Clayton

Ethel Clayton

Birth : 1882-11-08, Champaign - Illinois - USA

Death : 1966-06-06

History

From Wikipedia Ethel Clayton (November 8, 1882 — June 6, 1966) was an American actress of the silent film era. Clayton's screen debut came in 1909, in a short called Justified. She jockeyed her early film appearances with a burgeoning stage career. Her pretty blond looks were reminiscent of the famous Gibson Girl drawings by Charles Dana Gibson. On the stage she appeared mainly in musicals or musical reviews such as The Ziegfeld Follies of 1911. These musical appearances indicate a singing talent Clayton may have possessed but went unused in her many silent screen performances. In 1912 she appeared in "The Country Boy" on stage at the Lyceum Theatre in Rochester New York and made her feature length film debut in For the Love of a Girl. The film was directed by Barry O'Neil. She was cast with Harry Myers, Charles Arthur, and Peter Lang. She was also directed by William Demille, Robert G. Vignola, George Melford, Donald Crisp, Dallas M. Fitzgerald, and Clifford Sanforth. Like many silent film actors Clayton's career was hurt by the coming of sound to motion pictures. She continued her career in small parts in movies until she retired in 1948. Her screen credits number more than 180. Clayton was first married to actor-director Joseph Kaufman until his death in 1918 in the Spanish Influenza epidemic. She later married silent film actor and former star Ian Keith twice and they divorced twice. In both cases Clayton cited cruelty and excessive drinking. Clayton and Keith were first married in Minneapolis in 1928 and first separated on January 13, 1931. Ethel Clayton died on June 6, 1966 at St. John's Hospital in Oxnard, California, aged 83. She was buried at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura, California. For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Ethel Clayton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Profile

Ethel Clayton

Movies

True to Life
Woman (uncredited)
A writer for a radio program needs some fresh ideas to juice up his show. For inspiration, he rents a room with a typical American family and begins to secretly write about their true life antics. The show becomes a big hit, but he begins to feel guilty about his charade when he falls in love with the family's pretty older daughter.
Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras Woman
The first of a series of six two-reel "Musical Parade" shorts produced in Technicolor for the Paramount 1943-44 production season. The series would continue into 1948, and then were reissued in the early 50's. Songs included "All the Way" and "At the Mardi Gras."
Dixie
Woman (uncredited)
A young songwriter leaves his Kentucky home to try to make it in New Orleans. Eventually he winds up in New York, where he sells his songs to a music publisher, but refuses to sell his most treasured composition: "Dixie." The film is based on the life of Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the classic song "Dixie."
The Major and the Minor
Ball Guest (uncredited)
Susan Applegate, tired of New York after one year and twenty-five jobs, decides to return to her home town in Iowa. Discovering she hasn't enough money for the train fare, Susan disguises herself as a twelve-year-old and travels for half the price. Caught out by the conductors, she hides in the compartment of Major Philip Kirby, a military school instructor who takes the "child" under his wing.
Beyond the Blue Horizon
Guest at Chase's Residence (uncredited)
A young girl's parents are killed on a tropical island, and the girl is raised and protected by the jungle animals. When she is found, as a grown woman, she is taken back to the United States to claim her inheritance. There are several people, with vested interests, who stand to gain something if she is shown not to be the missing heir.
New York Town
(uncredited)
Victor Ballard, a happy-go-lucky albeit impoverished sidewalk photographer, shares a New York City studio apartment with Polish immigrant painter Stefan Janowski. The big city doles out joy and misery indiscriminately: In the apartment below Victor and Steve, Gus Nelson learns that his wife has given birth to quintuplets, while the lonely tenant in the apartment below Gus has given up on life and committed suicide.
West Point Widow
Nurse
In this romance, a hospital nurse marries a West Point football hero. She soon gets pregnant, but this doesn't stop her from annulling the marriage so as not to interfere with her husband's military career.
Love Thy Neighbor
Minor Role
Capitalizing on the famous radio 'feud' between comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen. The two stars play versions of themselves, constantly at each other's throats due to real and imagined slights.
Geronimo
The army's effort to capture Apache chief Geronimo, who is leading a band of warriors on a rampage of raiding and murder, is hampered by a feud between two officers--who are father and son.
The Sap Takes a Wrap
Mrs. Wallace
Charley gives his girlfriend a mink coat he was supposed to be guarding for three showgirls; when the ladies want their coat back, Charley goes to great lengths to recover it.
Cafe Society
Woman
A pampered heiress (Madeleine Carroll) elopes with a shipboard reporter (Fred MacMurray) just to get her name in a society column.
Boy Trouble
A fussy shopkeeper's life drastically changes when his wife takes in two homeless boys.
Say It in French
Bit Part
An American golf pro falls in love with a woman while visiting France; before long they are married and in the US. Upon their arrival, they are dismayed to discover that the golfer's parents have arranged for him to marry a wealthy socialite so they can use her money to support their business....
Say It in French
Bit Part (uncredited)
An American golf pro falls in love with a woman while visiting France; before long they are married and in the US. Upon their arrival, they are dismayed to discover that the golfer's parents have arranged for him to marry a wealthy socialite so they can use her money to support their business....
If I Were King
Old Woman
King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash poet François Villon extolling why he would be a better king. Annoyed yet intrigued, the King bestows on Villon the title of Grand Constable. Soon Villon begins work and falls for a lovely lady-in-waiting, but then must flee execution when the King turns on him.
Men with Wings
Woman
Reporter Nicholas Ranson is jubilant when, on 17 Dec 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright take their first airplane flight. Back home in Underwood, Maryland, however, his uncle Hiram F. Jenkins, owner and editor of the local newspaper, refuses to print the story. Nicholas quits and continues to work on his own airplane, with the devoted help of his little daughter Peggy. Peggy is actually the first in her family to fly when her friends, Patrick Falconer and Scott Barnes, induce her to get inside a large kite they have made, and run with it in a field until she is airborne. The kite is caught in a tree, however, and Peggy gets a black eye. Later, Nicholas dies when his experimental airplane crashes, leaving his wife and children alone. By Peggy's adulthood, planes are capable of flying at an altitude of 11,000 feet, and speeds of nearly 100 m.p.h. Peggy continues her father's obsession with flight by helping Scott and Pat to build a plane.
Cocoanut Grove
Undetermined Role
Band tries to get an audition for a job at a prestigious nightclub.
Wells Fargo
Pioneer Woman
In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fresh oysters to Buffalo from New York City. When he rescues Justine Pryor and her mother, who are stranded in a broken wagon on his route, he doesn't let them slow him down and gives the ladies an exhilirating ride into Buffalo. He arrives in time to obtain the contract and is then sent by company president Henry Wells to St. Louis to establish a branch office.
Hold 'Em Navy
Girl
Two football players fight over the same girl.
Exclusive
When Mountain City racketeer Charles Gillette is acquitted, he arrives at the Mountain City World newsroom and vows revenge on the Better Government Committee who put him behind bars. Members of the committee include Colonel Bogardus, owner of the World , Horace Mitchell, a candidate for mayor, and Mr. Franklin, a department store owner. First Gillette buys a rival newspaper, the Sentinel , and offers a pricey editorship to World newsman Ralph Houston, who refuses the offer on principle. That evening, Ralph and his partner, Tod Swain, are greeted at home by a creditor, and Vina Swain, Ralph's fiancée, is furious to find out he turned down Gillette's offer. When she learns Ralph went into debt to put her through college, she warns Gillette of a police raid and pays back Ralph's debt with Gillette's renumeration. When Ralph orders Vina not to work for Gillette, she breaks their engagement.
Artists & Models
Seamtress (uncredited)
An ad man gets his model girlfriend to pose as a debutante for a new campaign.
Easy Living
Undetermined Secondary Role (uncredited)
J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.
Make Way for Tomorrow
Customer (uncredited)
At a family reunion, the Cooper clan find that their parents' home is being foreclosed. "Temporarily," Ma moves in with son George's family, Pa with daughter Cora. But the parents are like sand in the gears of their middle-aged children's well regulated households. Can the old folks take matters into their own hands?
Waikiki Wedding
Tourist (uncredited)
Tony Marvin is a laid back but incredibly successful promoter and fair-haired boy for J. P. Todhunter's pineapple company located in beautiful Hawaii. He gets the company to sponsor a contest in which the winner gets a Hawaiian vacation and is obligated to write articles on the islands which, when published, will constitute a publicity coup for the company. Unfortunately, Georgia Smith, the winner, feels lonely and isolated in the Islands and wants to return to the States. With help from buddy Shad Buggle Tony tries to romantically divert Georgia without letting her know his true motivation.
Rich Relations
Mrs. Blair
A secretary finds herself being romanced by a "ladies man". What she doesn't know is that it's her boss who really loves her.
The Accusing Finger
A proud, pro-capital punishment district attorney with a 90% execution rate, finds himself wrongly convicted of murdering his estranged wife and sentenced to die. The woman he loves and his investigator rival for her affections rally to find the real killer, while he is confronted by the misery of life on death row.
Hollywood Boulevard
Undetermined Minor Role (uncredited)
With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.
Let's Fall in Love
Star
A carnival girl pretends to be Swedish in order to win a movie role.
Private Jones
Mrs. Winthrop (uncredited)
After America enters World War I, young William "Bill" Jones tries to avoid military service by telling the draft board that he is the sole supporter of his family and is employed by businessman Roger Winthrop, his sister Helen's boss.
Secrets
Audrey Carlton
In the 1860s, Mary Marlowe defies her father's wishes to marry a British lord and runs away with clerk John Carlton as he heads West to make his fortune. Mary and John endure the difficult journey and settle into a small cabin, then face the hostilities of a cattle rustling gang, as well as the tragic loss of their only son. With Mary's help, John defeats the gang, which propels him to political power that, over the years, gradually erodes the once-happy marriage.
The All-American
Mrs. Bowen
The story of the rise and fall of an All-American football player.
The Crooked Circle
Yvonne
A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occultists.
Thrill of Youth
Alice Fenwick
Chet Thayer returns to his family and the loving arms of his long suffering sweatheart Marcia. Not being the faithful type he soon falls under the spell of the town vamp Jill Fenwick.
Call of the Circus
A retired circus clown, Herbert Rawlinson, finds love entering his life when he marries a member of the circus troupe, Ethel Clayton and the adoption of an orphaned circus girl, Joan Wyndham. Later his wife thinks he does not love her and she leaves him. He embarks on a quest to win her back.
Hit the Deck
Mrs. Payne
A sailor finds himself the object of a cafe owner's affections.
The Princess from Hoboken
Mrs. O'Brien
To enliven their business, the O'Tooles, restaurant owners in Hoboken, New Jersey, transform their restaurant into the Russian Inn when they hear that a famous Russian princess is stranded in Chicago. Sheila, the daughter, is persuaded to impersonate the princess, who unfortunately arrives at the restaurant on opening night.
Risky Business
Mrs. Stoughton
A domineering mother sets out to break up the romance and possible marriage of her daughter, Cecily Stoughton, with Ted Pyncheon by several contrived devices and bringing in other candidates more to her liking.
Sunny Side Up
Cissy Cason
Sunny sings in the streets to obtain funds for a country outing. A theatre owner hears her and takes her up. During a fishing trip Sunny is about to accept the theatre owner's proposal of marriage when his estranged wife turns up...
Merry Widower
The Hunter's Wife
Julius loses his wife to Rudy because he's too busy going on hunting trips. But when she arranges to meet with a fortune teller, Julius hatches a plan to win her back.
Lightnin'
Margaret Davis
Set in a hotel straddling the border between California and Nevada, this early John Ford comedy follows a female hotel owner's efforts to turn a profit and get some work out of her husband.
If I Were Queen
Ruth Townley
While studying in Paris, Princess Oluf of Kosnia (Andree LeJon) befriends an American girl, Ruth Townley (Clayton), and gives her a locket bearing her name and the royal coat of arms. When Ruth accidentally drops the locket off a balcony, it is returned by a handsome stranger. Back home in Kosnia, Oluf wants to get married, but her choice of mate is challenged by Valdemir, the ruler of a neighboring principality (Warner Baxter).
For the Defense
Anne Woodstock
Singer Anna Woodstock loses her voice, but a visit to a hypnotist, Dr. Joseph Kasimir, brings it back. What Anna doesn't realize is that her illness was purely psychosomatic and Kasimir is a swindler.
The Cradle
Margaret Harvey
A socialite couple thinks only of themselves. When they become bored with one another, they divorce and marry others (several times). The person who suffers most from their cavalier outlook on life is their cute little daughter Mary Jane Irving.
Beyond
Avis Langley
Avis Langley's dying mother begs her to look after Avis's errant brother and continues after death to reappear in spirit form to remind Avis of her promise. Avis follows her brother to New Zealand in hopes of protecting him from his own ways, but on the trip tragedy apparently strikes.
Sham
Katherine Van Riper
Based upon a description in a film publication,[3] Katherine Van Riper (Clayton) is an extravagant young society girl who is very much in debt, and her wealthy aunts and uncle refuse to give her any money. Katherine is desperate enough that she is considering marrying the wealthy Montee Buck (Hiers), although she is in love with the westerner Tom Jaffrey (Fillmore), who says he is poor. Finally, Katherine decides to sell the famous Van Riper pearls, pay off her debts, and marry Tom. However, upon examination the jewelry turns out to be paste, with her father having sold the genuine pearls several years earlier before his death. Montee is assured by the aunts that Katherine will marry him and tells this to Tom. Tom is about to leave town when Uncle James (Ricketts) steps in and pays off Katherine's debts, leaving the niece free to marry Tom.
The Price of Possession
Helen Carston
After Jim Barston is mysteriously killed in Australia, his wife, Helen, lays claim to the estate of Gerald Mortimer Barston in England, asserting that her husband was the missing son and heir. In reality, Jim was the cousin of the true heir, who is also named Jim Barston. Despite having no legal proof, Helen convinces the trustees to accept her claim and is installed as mistress of the manor. Jim Barston appears and proves his identity, although Helen initially believes him to be an impostor.
The Sins of Rosanne
Roseanne Ozanne
Roseanne (Ethel Clayton) has grown up near some diamond mines in South Africa. As a child, she became ill and a Malay nurse, Rachel Bangat (Fontaine La Rue) promised to cure her. That she did, but she also worked some voodoo on the child, who, as a grown up now displays a powerful desire for diamonds and the ability to throw evil curses on those who displease her.
A City Sparrow
Milly West
A drama starring Ethel Clayton. Milly West (Clayton) is a dancer who has her heart bent on stardom. She has an admirer in country boy Tim Ennis (Walter Hiers), who lives in the same boarding house as she does, but she turns down his marriage proposal. During a performance, Milly is injured and can't get her strength back to get another gig. Hughie Ray (William Boyd), a pal of Tim's, comes to town and offers to take Milly back to the country to recuperate. She takes him up on his offer and after she has been there a while he proposes. But Milly has been told that her injury makes it impossible for her to bear children; since she knows that Ray loves kids she tries to leave him.
Crooked Streets
Gail Ellis
Gail Ellis, a secretary, accompanies Professor Silas Griswold and his wife to China on an expedition to acquire antique vases. Curiosity draws her to the Shanghai slums where, unknown to Gail, her driver is participating in a scheme to abduct her. Gail escapes, but in the process is accosted by drunken sailors. Luckily, Rupert O'Dare, a young Englishman, is nearby and rescues Gail. He escorts her back to the hotel where he discloses his identity as a British secret service agent and proceeds to arrest the Griswolds for smuggling opium in antique vases. Gail then reveals herself as a member of the United States Secret Service and the two agents fall in love.
A Lady in Love
The 13th Commandment
Disillusioned by the transience of wealth when her father's bank balance can no longer support his family's posh lifestyle, and when her fiancé Clay Wimborn admits that he has gone into debt to shower her with presents, Daphne Kip determines to become financially independent.
A Sporting Chance
Carey Brent
A young lady takes on a convict as her chauffeur, believing him to be a burglar. In reality, however, he is an innocent broker.
The Witch Woman
Stolen Hours
Diana Lester
During a raid on a gambling establishment run by her father, Cosmo Lester, Diana Lester rescues Hugh Carton, a member of the English Parliament and a candidate for the Cabinet. Hugh gratefully offers Diana a position as his sister's companion, and soon, the two fall desperately in love.
The Volunteer
Self - Cameo Appearance
Madge Evans, World Film Corp. juvenile star, is sent to her Quaker grandparents, Timothy and Tabitha Mendenhall, when her father and mother go to serve in World War I. After bidding farewell to the World stars, Madge goes to her grandparent's home where she experiences stern discipline.
The Dormant Power
The Stolen Paradise
Yankee Pluck
Polly Pollard
Once a wealthy man, John Pollard now resides in reduced circumstances in Washington, D.C. with his pretty daughter Polly. Despite the poor conditions, Polly manages to move in good social circles and meets multimillionaire George Singleton and Lieutenant Richard Travers, at the home of Mrs. Madison Derwent. Also at the Derwent mansion is Baron Wootchi, a Japanese diplomat trying to obtain valuable plans that are in Travers' possession. Old Pollard owes Singleton money and tries to persuade his daughter to marry the millionaire. Polly refuses and accepts Travers' proposal instead, until her father informs her that Singleton can seize their house unless Polly pays off the debt by becoming his wife. Meanwhile the Baron offers Pollard $50,000 to produce the documents in Travers' keeping. Pollard steals the papers and goes to a roadhouse to turn them over to the Baron. Discovering the theft, Polly follows and confronts the Baron at gunpoint.
Man's Woman
Violet Galloway
A 1917 silent drama film
The Web of Desire
Grace Miller
When his wife Grace inherits her father's stock, John Miller, the president of the Western Power and Development Company, becomes a millionaire and moves to New York with his family. Beset by business problems, Miller pays little attention to his wife, and Grace, feeling neglected, takes up with a bohemian set. Among her new acquaintances she meets Stuart Mordant, the attorney for Thomas Hurd, a business rival of Miller's. Grace seeks refuge from loneliness in Mordant, who makes a bargain with Hurd to gain control of her husband's company for half a million dollars.
The Bondage of Fear
Vesta Wheatley
Vesta Wheatley is the daughter of a Virginia physician; John Randolph is a New Yorker who buys a tract of land from her father. Vesta and John fall in love, get married, and move to New York. They are followed, however, by a persistent old flame of Vesta's, Dick Mortimer. He tracks her down to a mountain cabin, where she is alone. A burglar breaks in on the two, and Dick is killed trying to protect Vesta. The burglar blackmails Vesta until she finally becomes desperate and shoots him in her own home.
The New South
Georgia Gwynne, as an adult
The New South is a silent 1916 drama.
The Hidden Scar
Janet Hall
Janet Hall (Ethel Clayton) is "wronged" by Henry Dalton (Montagu Love) and becomes pregnant. She has the child and begs Dalton to marry her but he refuses. However, when he comes to a sudden end, he leaves her with a cottage and a small income. Then she meets and falls in love with Dale Overton (Irving Cummings), a minister who's fond of preaching the virtues of charity and forgiveness.
Husband and Wife
Doris Baker
When Doris Baker spends her husband Dick into serious debt, he embezzles funds from the bank where he works to cover some speculative investments. He is joined in these plans by one of the bank's directors, but when Doris unknowingly snubs the director's wife, he pulls out his aid. Dick finds himself in serious trouble, and then Doris leaves him after an argument. She is about to leave for the Orient with her daughter Bessie, a friend, Mrs. Prescott, and an admirer, Patrick Alliston, but they are stopped at the station because Dick is believed to be with them. He isn't, and his difficulties drive him to an aborted suicide attempt. Doris finally wakes up to what is going on and reconciles with Dick. The bank examiner looks over the books and helps Dick get back on his feet, much to the director's chagrin.
A Woman's Way
Marion Livingston
Marion Livingston, daughter of General Livingston, boss of the Elsinore coal mines, rescues Jack Stanton, a young superintendent of the mines, from a mob of miners led by Jim Saunders, who were enraged at his having ordered them to work after it had been found that the mine is dangerous. Jack's brother, Harold, a young district attorney, comes to visit him and falls in love with Marion.
His Brother's Wife
Helen Barton
The Great Divide
Ruth Jordan
The Jordans, Phil and Ruth, accompanied by Philip's wife, Polly, and Dr. Winthrop Newbury, a suitor for Ruth's hand, bid old Mrs. Jordan good-bye at the station of Milford Corners, Mass., and depart for the west, to work over some unredeemed desert land, which was left to the Jordans by their dead father. Arriving in the west, they take up their work, but it proves anything but a success. On the brink of the Great Divide lives Stephen Ghent, an untamed and untrained man of the west, and on account of his manner is respected by the habitués of Miller's saloon and dance hall in the town, which he and two of his acquaintances in the persons of Pedro, a half-breed Mexican, and Dutch, a brutal type of the west, frequent.
The Wolf
The Lion and the Mouse
Shirley Rossmore / Sarah Green
Silent film drama...
When the Earth Trembled
Dora Sims
A mother with two young children survives the San Francisco earthquake disaster.
Just Maine Folks
Ethel Walters
Out in the farm-lands near Portland, the Widow Walters lives with her daughter Ethel. As far as affections are concerned, those of the widow are confined to her daughter, until Squire Lang, a fat old widower, with his son Harry, moves onto the adjoining farm. One day Harry leaves his plowing, when he catches sight of Ethel. They rush to the gate to exchange felicities, but the squire wants Harry to return to his plowing, and the widow desires Ethel to resume her housework.
The Tout's Remembrance
Agnes Dudley - the Storekeeper's Daughter
"Bullets" Brown, the hero of our story, is a rare track tout, and a true type or this particular parasite.
Pilgrim's Progress
Elizabeth - Bunyon's Wife
Consists of two parts: Part One: The Life of John Bunyon (2 reels); Part Two: The Pilgrim's Progress (3 reels).
Her Own Money
Mildred Carr
After five years of marriage, Mildred comes to the realization that her husband, Lew, is going nowhere in the real estate business. Mildred, however, has managed to squirrel away two thousand dollars from the household budget -- enough to buy a home. But it turns out that Lew needs just that sum to avoid a financial disaster