Claire Windsor

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Claire Windsor (photo by Albert Witzel, circa 1923)

Claire Windsor (actually Clara Viola Cronk ; born April 14, 1892 in Phillips County , Kansas , † October 24, 1972 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actress of the silent film era .

Life

Claire Windsor was born the younger of two children to merchant George Edwin and Rosella Fearing Cronk and grew up in the Cawker City Ward from 1895 , where the family ran a shop called Cronk and Fearing . Windsor's parents had their roots in Scandinavia . She graduated from high school in Topeka in 1907 , then attended drama school in Seattle and then studied fine arts at Washburn University . In 1910 the wealthy family moved to Seattle.

In 1913 Windsor played her first theater role in Seattle in the musical Jappyland . During this time she met her future husband Willis Bowes from Denver , whom she married in 1914. Their son David Willis Bowes Jr. was born in 1916. In 1920 the couple separated and Windsor lived together with the child again with their parents. To support the family, the young actress applied to film studios, but initially only received extras. That all changed after she was discovered by the influential director and producer Lois Weber , who helped her land a contract with Paramount Pictures .

Windsor's most famous film appearances of the silent film years include the female lead in the drama The Blot from 1921. In total, she was seen in 60 silent and sound film productions, in which she mostly played leading roles in the 1920s, then mostly supporting roles. Windsor had one of her last major appearances in 1932 as Alice in Self-Defense .

Claire Windsor was known for her affairs with her male co-stars, which were widely followed by the tabloids. Among other things, she had a relationship with Charles Rogers, who was twelve years her junior . In 1925 Windsor married the actor Bert Lytell , but this marriage was also divorced after two years. In the following years, the actress had more affairs with influential people, which sparked several scandals. She was unsuccessfully sued by the wife of a lawyer from Boston on the grounds that she had "stolen" her husband.

With the advent of talkies, Claire Windsor, like many other actors of the silent film era, found it difficult to find new roles. She appeared in several sound films in the 1930s, but failed to achieve her old popularity. In the following years she therefore increasingly worked as a stage actress, including on a joint tour with Al Jolson in The Wonder Bar . In 1945 Windsor finally ended her career and from then on worked as a painter. Two years earlier she had registered her stage name as her official name, and her son also called himself “Windsor” from then on.

Claire Windsor last lived in Los Angeles, where she died of a heart attack on October 24, 1972 at the age of 80 (74 according to some contemporary obituaries) in Good Samaritan Hospital. The actress was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park . Her son died just a year later at the age of 57. For her services to the film world, Windsor received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1919: Eyes of Youth
  • 1920: In the Heart of a Fool
  • 1920: To Please One Woman
  • 1921: What's Worth While?
  • 1921: Too Wise Wives
  • 1921: What Do Men Want?
  • 1922: Grand Larceny
  • 1922: One Clear Call
  • 1922: Fools First
  • 1922: Brothers Under the Skin
  • 1923: The Eternal Three
  • 1923: Little Church Around the Corner
  • 1923: Rupert of Hentzau
  • 1923: Souls for Sale
  • 1924: Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model
  • 1924: A Son of the Sahara
  • 1924: For Sale
  • 1924: The Dixie Handicap
  • 1924: Born Rich
  • 1925: The Denial
  • 1925: The White Desert
  • 1925: Just a Woman
  • 1925: The Lady Who song
  • 1925: Souls for Sables
  • 1926: Dance Madness
  • 1926: Money Talks
  • 1926: Tin Hats
  • 1927: A Little Journey
  • 1927: The Claw
  • 1927: The Bugle Call
  • 1927: Foreign Devils
  • 1927: The Frontiersman
  • 1928: Nameless Men
  • 1928: Fashion Madness
  • 1928: Satan and the Woman
  • 1928: The Grain of Dust
  • 1928: Domestic Meddlers
  • 1929: Captain Lash
  • 1929: Midstream
  • 1932: Self-Defense
  • 1933: The Constant Woman
  • 1933: Kiss of Araby
  • 1934: Cross Streets
  • 1938: Barefoot Boy
  • 1945: How Doooo You Do !!!

Web links

Commons : Claire Windsor  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claire Windsor. In: cawkercitykansas.com. December 19, 2009, accessed September 16, 2019 .
  2. ↑ CLAIRE WINDSOR, ACTRESS, 74, DEAD. In: The New York Times . October 25, 1972. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Claire Windsor. In: Find a Grave . October 29, 1998. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Windsor, Claire
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cronk, Clara Viola (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Phillips County , Kansas
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1972
Place of death Los Angeles , California