Clara Kimball Young

Clara Kimball Young in 1909

Edith Matilda Clara Kimball was born in Chicago on September 6, 1890, the only child to Edward Kimball and Pauline Madeline Kimball (née Garrette, 1860–1919), both of whom were traveling stock actors. She made her stage debut at the age of three, and throughout her early childhood traveled with her parents and acted with their theater company. She attended St. Francis Xavier Academy in Chicago. Afterward, she was hired into a stock company and resumed her stage career, traveling extensively through the United States and playing in various small town theaters.[3]

Early in her career, she met and married a fellow stock company and known Broadway actor named James Young. Young's previous wife had been the songwriter/lyricist Rida Johnson Young. After sending a photograph to Vitagraph Studios, Clara Kimball Young, as she was then known, and her husband were both offered yearly contracts in 1912.[2]

Clara Kimball Young as Marguerite Gautier in Camille, 1915

In the new medium of motion pictures, and without much screen competition, Young's star at Vitagraph rose quickly. Young was predominantly cast in one and two reel roles as the virtuous heroine. By 1913, she had become one of the more popular leading ladies at Vitagraph and placed at number 17 in a poll of public popularity. Unfortunately, many of Young's films from her early period with Vitagraph are now lost.[4]

In 1914, Vitagraph released the drama My Official Wife, which starred Young as a Russian revolutionary and was directed by her husband James Young and co-starred the popular leading man Earle Williams. The film, which is now lost, was an enormous success and launched Young and Earle Williams into first place in the popularity polls, and Young immediately was signed to a contract with pioneering mogul Lewis J. Selznick.[2]

Young, c. 1916

After a string of successful roles, Young was established as one of the chief attractions of World Film Corporation and her husband James was now a much sought-after director. By 1915, Young's popularity was equivalent to that of Mary Pickford, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Pearl White, Edna Purviance, and Mabel Normand.[5]

She became involved in a much publicized affair with Selznick, culminating in a 1916 divorce suit accusing her of alienation of affection. James Young finally obtained a final decree on April 8, 1919 on grounds of desertion.[6]

Clara Kimball Young, with Clara Kimball Young Film Corporation, October 1916

Selznick quickly formed the Clara Kimball Young Film Corporation, installing himself as president, and formed Selznick Productions to distribute her films and those of some other independent producers. After only four films with Selznick however, the personal and business relationship began to sour, and Young struggled to extricate herself from all business arrangements with Selznick, accusing him of defrauding her of her profits through a series of dummy corporations and by electing himself president of her company while not permitting her any input in her business affairs.[2]

In 1917, Young became involved in an affair with Harry Garson, with whom she then teamed in a business venture. Garson had little experience in the motion picture business, and as a result, Young's career began to sputter. Although she remained a popular actress into the early 1920s, Young suffered at the inexperience and alleged mismanagement and apathy of Garson.[2] In her 1921 diary, Young wrote "It will be wonderful to get out of debt and finish these three pictures for equity. I feel as though I had my head on a block and was waiting for the axe to descend at any moment."[7]

Young in May 1919

Starring in Charge It for Equity Pictures (1921)

She began suffering a series of press attacks for her business dealings and personal relationship with Garson. By 1925, her stardom began to fade, and she made her last silent film Lying Wives. Young spent the remainder of the 1920s performing in vaudeville, and in 1928 quietly married Dr. Arthur Fauman. The advent of sound briefly revived her career, and she appeared in several featured roles for RKO Radio Pictures and Tiffany Studios with only modest success, appearing only in bit parts including a Three Stooges short, and extra roles in mostly lower budget pictures and having a stint on radio. One of her bigger roles is in the murder mystery The Rogues Tavern (1936) where she plays a sweet but fussy motherly woman who is hiding a very big secret.

She retired from acting in 1941.[8]

Young underwent minor surgery to correct a chronic bronchial problem in March 1960.[9] She did not recover her health after the surgery, and became increasingly frail. Young died of a stroke at the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, California on October 15, 1960.[8] Her remains were cremated, and she was interred at Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[10] For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Young was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6513 Hollywood Blvd.[11]

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  The Common Law, 1916
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  Advertisement (1916)
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  The Dark Silence, 1916
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  The Foolish Virgin, 1916
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  The Rise of Susan, 1917
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  Advertisement, 1917
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  Advertisement, 1917
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  Advertisement, 1917
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  Advertisement, 1917
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  Advertisement, 1917
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  The Price She Paid, 1917
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  The Marionette, 1918
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  Shirley Kate, 1918

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Clara Kimball Young.

• Clara Kimball Young at IMDb
• Clara Kimball Young at the Women Film Pioneers Project
• Clara Kimball Young at Find a Grave
• The Clara Kimball Young Website
• Silent Era People
• Silent era pose of Clara Kimball Young (moviecard)