Frances Carson (April 1, 1895 – October 20, 1973) was an American actress on stage and in films, including three
Alfred Hitchcock films.
Early life
Carson was from
Philadelphia, and started acting and modeling professionally in her teens.[1][2]
Career
Carson was an actress known for stage work in New York and London, and for film roles.[3][4] She performed on
Broadway in shows including Poor Little Thing (1914) with her husband Eric Blind, The White Feather (1915), The Riddle: Woman (1918-1919), The Hottentot (1920),[5]The Bad Man (1920),[6][7]The Scarlet Man (1921), The Blue Lagoon (1921),[8]Two Married Men (1925), Potiphar's Wife (1928), The First Law (1929), Slightly Scandalous (1944), and The Visitor (1944).
In London, Carson appeared in Glamour (1922), The Love Habit (1923), R.U.R. (1923, with
Basil Rathbone)[9]The Last Warning (1923), Havoc (1924), The Happy Hangman (1925), The Silver Fox (1925), Virginia's Husband (1926), Aloma: A Tale of the South Seas (1926–1927), These Internationals (1928), and The Barker (1928).[10][11] When she played
Salome in
Leonid Andreyev's Katerina in 1926, with
John Gielgud, her revealing costume prompted a censor to insist that she wear a shawl on stage.[12] She also co-wrote a play, The Unknown Woman; it was produced in London in 1927.[13]
Her costumes were photographed and described in fashion columns.[2][14] Critic Giles P. Cain noted in 1917 that "Miss Carson has some decided marks of individuality of speech and manner that bespeak her realization of the fact that merely being natural on the stage is no sign of any very great merit."[15]Noël Coward mentioned seeing Carson dining with
Irving Berlin and
Elsie Janis at the
Algonquin Hotel.[16]British Pathé made a short newsreel about Carson having her fingernails painted by artist
Arthur Ferrier in 1924.[17] Also in 1924, she attended a
séance with
P. G. Wodehouse,
Hannen Swaffer, and
Donald Calthrop, and believed that she was contacted by her late husband on this occasion.[18]
Carson married British actor Eric Blind in 1913;[22][23] he died suddenly from pneumonia in 1916.[18] She was living with fellow actress
Blanche Yurka in Los Angeles in 1940,[24] and died in 1973, aged 78 years.
References
^"New Ingenue is Coming". San Francisco Call. November 6, 1913. p. 8. Retrieved April 11, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^
ab"This Dainty Foot Marks Real Time". Los Angeles Herald. August 13, 1912. p. 3. Retrieved April 11, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^
abBradley, Herbert Dennis (1925).
The wisdom of the gods. London: T. Werner Laurie. pp. 68–71.
^The Women's University Club (January 1942).
Motion Picture Reviews. Media History Digital Library. Los Angeles, The Women's University Club. p. 9.
^The Women's University Club (May 1942).
Motion Picture Reviews (1942). Media History Digital Library. Los Angeles, The Women's University Club. p. 6.
^The Women's University Club (April 1942).
Motion Picture Reviews (1942). Media History Digital Library. Los Angeles, The Women's University Club. p. 9.
^The Players. New York: The Players Club. 1917. p. 96.