Evelyn Greeley

Evelyn Greeley's life before becoming a film star is somewhat mysterious, but she appears to have been born in Austria as Evelyn Huber in 1888. She later attended the University School for Girls in Chicago and the Frances Shimer Academy (now known as Shimer College), which offered high-level training in music and art. Greeley began her acting career on stage with the Poli Players stock company. She worked as an extra for Essanay Studios in Chicago for a year before getting her first credited role, in the 1915 Quality Pictures production The Second in Command (1915). Soon thereafter, she was signed by the World Film Corporation, appearing in about two dozen movies from 1917 to 1919, frequently starring opposite Carlyle Blackwell. After losing her World Film contract in 1920, Greeley appeared less frequently. She gave her last on-screen performance in _Bulldog Drummond (1922)_, and decided to take up the married life. Her first marriage, to fellow actor John Smiley, fell apart in a matter of months, but her second, to wealthy businessman James Rand, lasted for some 35 years. After Rand and Greeley divorced in 1960, she married Morgan Laity. She died in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 1975.