Ethel Clayton

Silent-screen actress Ethel Clayton was a convent-educated girl from Champaign, IL, who sought work as a stage actress after finishing her education. She secured small parts here and there, but hit the big time when she went to work for the Frawley Organization, which had several touring stock companies. She got small parts at first but then began getting bigger ones until finally she was getting star billing. Howver, the advent of motion pictures soon piqued her curiosity, and a visit to a film studio aroused her interest even more. Producer Siegmund Lubin offered to star her in one of his productions, she consented--"just this one, though"--and made her film debut in "The Great Divide". However, after she saw the completed film, she consented to do another, The Lion and the Mouse (1914), and soon she had given up the stage altogether in favor of pictures. It was the beginning of a career that lasted more than 30 years and comprised more than 180 films. Her last one was The Perils of Pauline (1947), in which she had an uncredited bit part, after which she left the screen. She died in Oxnard, CA, in 1966.