Elizabeth "Bessie" Toner (1885-1951) was a motion picture and theater actress in the early 20th century.
Toner was married to actor Harry Childs by 1904. They were in the play The Sign of the Cross which toured beginning in the fall of 1904.
She was in the cast of The College Widow , a comedy satire of college life, produced by George Ade. The theatrical presentation was performed at the McDonough Theater in Oakland, California in November 1906. Louise Rutter appeared in the title role.
The Henry Wilson Savage Company, with the troupe of The College Widow, arrived in Portland, Maine by boat on August 24, 1906. The comedy was given in Portland before audiences at the Jefferson Theater. It also was staged in Kennebec County, Maine, at the Opera House. The stock company's travels took them west to Fresno, California and Winnipeg, Manitoba, in addition to Oakland.
In August 1908 she replaced Laura Nelson Hall in the role of Pamela, in a production of Girls at Daly's Theater on Broadway. A Clyde Fitch farce, the comedy made the run of the Shubert Theater chain. It was presented in La Crosse, Wisconsin in October 1908 prior to an engagement in St. Louis, Missouri.
Toner acted at the Union Square (New York City) Theatre of Benjamin Franklin Keith in Tricked in April 1913. She was joined on stage by actor Albert Gran.
Toner made The Broken Toy, a two-reel heart interest drama with Violet Mersereau, in 1915. The movie is about a dancer who marries a millionaire and fears that he will no longer love her if she loses her ability to dance.
She plays a bar maid in the National Film Corporation of America movie Tarzan of the Apes (film) (1918). Filmed at Griffith Park, the production took six months to complete. Elmo Lincoln and Enid Markey are the leading actors in the cast.
Toner's other screen credits are for The Turn of the Tide (1914), Human Hearts (1914), The Millionaire Engineer (1915), An All Around Mistake (1915), and The Romance of Tarzan (1918).
With the advent of radio and motion picture sound, Toner established a successful second career in her later years as a voice teacher.
Elizabeth Toner married S. Russell Chesley, a businessman and socialite in 1914. She had two sons, Harry Childs Jr., from her first marriage, and Russell Chesley Jr., from her second. She moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1918 to pursue her acting career. Her grandson, Russell H. Chesley, is an entertainment industry executive and motion picture writer and producer
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is the American Film Institute's list ranking the top 25 male and 25 female greatest screen legends of American film history and is the second list of the AFI 100 Years... series.
Bess Meredyth was a screenwriter and silent film actress. The wife of film director Michael Curtiz, Meredyth wrote The Affairs of Cellini (1934) and adapted The Unsuspected (1947). She was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Bessie Barriscale was an American actress who gained fame on the stage and in silent films.
The Northern League was a name used by several minor league baseball organizations that operated off and on between 1902 and 1971 in the upper midwestern United States and Manitoba, Canada. The name was later used by the independent Northern League from 1993 to 2010.
Naomi Weston Childers, was an American silent film actress whose career lasted until the mid-20th century.
Enid Markey was an American theatre, film, radio, and television actress, whose career spanned over 50 years, extending from the early 1900s to the late 1960s. In movies, she was the first performer to portray the fictional character Jane, Tarzan's "jungle" companion and later his wife. Markey performed as Jane twice in 1918, costarring with Elmo Lincoln in the films Tarzan of The Apes and The Romance of Tarzan.
Helen Gilmore was an American actress of the stage and silent motion pictures from Louisville, Kentucky. She appeared in over 140 films between 1913 and 1932.
Gladys Hulette was an American silent film actress from Arcade, New York, United States. Her career began in the early years of silent movies and continued until the mid-1930s. She first performed on stage at the age of three and on screen when she was seven years old. Hulette was also a talented artist. Her mother was an opera star.
Gail Kane was an American stage and silent movie actress.
Rida Johnson Young was an American playwright, songwriter and librettist. In her career, Young wrote over 30 plays and musicals and approximately 500 songs. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Some of her better-known lyrics include "Mother Machree" from the 1910 show Barry of Ballymore, "Italian Street Song", "I'm Falling in Love with Someone" and "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" from Naughty Marietta, and "Will You Remember?" from Maytime.
Bessie Eyton was an American actress of the silent era. Eyton appeared in 200 films between 1911 and 1925. From 1911 to 1918, the period when the majority of her films were made, she was under contract to Selig Polyscope Company.
Blanche Lillian Deyo was an American dancer, actress, and singer who performed in multiple theatrical venues -- Broadway, vaudeville, burlesque, ballet, and international variety theaters—throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Edna Goodrich was an American Broadway actress, Florodora girl, author, and media sensation during the early 1900s. At one point, she was known as one of America's wealthiest and best dressed performers. She was married to Edwin Stacey of Cincinnati, Ohio, and later Nat C. Goodwin.
Charles Gardner Sullivan was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was a prolific writer with more than 350 films among his credits. In 1924, the magazine Story World selected him on a list of the ten individuals who had contributed the most to the advancement of the motion picture industry from its inception forward. Four of Sullivan's films, The Italian (1915), Civilization (1916), Hell's Hinges (1916), and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), have been listed in the National Film Registry.
Minnie Dupree was an American stage, film, and radio actress. During the Great Depression, she helped organize the Stage Relief Fund to assist unemployed actors and actresses.
(not to be confused with -->Emily Ann Wellman)
Cheerful Givers is a 1917 American silent comedy-drama film produced by the Fine Arts Film Company and distributed by Triangle Film Corporation. The film stars Bessie Love and Kenneth Harlan.
The Heiress at Coffee Dan's is a 1916 American silent comedy-drama film produced by the Fine Arts Film Company and distributed by Triangle Film Corporation. It starred Bessie Love and was directed by Edward Dillon.
The Little Boss is a 1919 American silent romantic comedy film directed by David Smith and produced by Vitagraph Studios. The story and screenplay were by Rida Johnson Young, and it starred Bessie Love and Wallace MacDonald.
Estella (Stella) Hammerstein was an American actress. She was sometimes billed as Stella Steele.