Edythe Sterling
Edythe Sterling | |
|---|---|
| A smiling young white woman wearing a dark hat and a shimmery coat Edythe Sterling, from a 1916 publication | |
| Born | Edith May Kessinger October 1893 Leavenworth, Kansas |
| Died | June 5, 1962 (age 68) Los Angeles, California |
| Other names | Edythe Acord, Edythe Sterling-Billingsley, Edythe Younger |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouse(s) | Art Acord, Milo Billingsley, Clifford L. Younger |
Edythe Sterling (October 1893[1] – June 5, 1962), born Edith May Kessinger, was an American actress, stunt rider, and producer in silent films, mainly Westerns.
Early life and education
[edit | edit source]Edith May Kessinger was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the daughter of John Letcher Kessinger and Nettie Ryherd Kessinger. She left Kansas at age 15, to seek a career on the stage.[2]
Career
[edit | edit source]Sterling appeared in dozens of silent films from 1913 to 1923, many of them shorts or westerns,[3] including The Girl from Texas (1914), A Cattle Queen's Romance (1915), The Ghost Wagon (1915),[4] The Secret Man (1917) with Harry Carey, The Arizona Cat Claw (1919),[4] The One-Way Trail (1919),[5] Call of the West (1920), The Cowboy's Sweetheart (1920), The Fiddler of the Little Big Horn (1920), The Stranger of Canyon Valley (1922),[6] Crimson Gold (1923) and Danger (1923).[4]
Sterling had her own production company, and often had very active roles in her films, riding, fighting, shooting, and working with large animals.[7][8][9] For example, in The Girl Who Dared (1920), she plays a sheriff in a western town, battling cattle rustlers.[10] In The One-Way Trail (1919), she rescues her male co-star.[8][11] In another picture, Nancy's Birthright (1916), her title character struggles to overcome inherited "criminal tendencies".[12]
After her screen career ended, Sterling turned to live performances of riding stunts, for example in a "wild west" show in Los Angeles in 1923,[13] and a vaudeville act in 1924.[14][15] She also served a short jail sentence in Pasadena in 1923, for speeding and contempt of court.[16] She toured as director and "interpreter"[17] for a band of Hopi dancers from 1926 into the 1930s.[18][19][20] She traveled with a pet Arizona kit fox on these tours.[21]
Personal life
[edit | edit source]Sterling married fellow actor Art Acord in 1913;[22] they divorced in 1919.[23][24] In 1920 and 1921, there was a scandal when she and her married manager, L. T. Osborne, presented themselves as a married couple while traveling.[25][26] In 1926 she married Milo William Billingsley, a theatrical producer; they later divorced.[19] Her last husband was Clifford L. Younger. She died in 1962, at the age of 68, in Los Angeles, California. Her grave is in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood.[citation needed]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Sterling's birth year varies in sources, from 1886 to 1896. She is recorded in her parents' Kansas household as a six-year-old in the 1900 census, and her birthdate is given as October 1893; via Ancestry.
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External links
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