Kathlyn Williams

Acting · 0.3 popularity

Age

147

Movies

Born: May 30, 1879 – September 23, 1960
From: Butte, Montana, USA

Biography

Kathlyn Williams was born Kathleen Mabel Williams on May 31, 1879 in Butte, Montana, and the only child born to Joseph Edwin "Frank" Williams, a boarding house proprietor, and Mary C. Boe (1846–1908) of Welsh and Norwegian descent. Many biographies state her birth year as 1888; however, she is listed on the 1880 United States Census as being a year old. Williams displayed an early interest in becoming an actress in her youth which lead her to become a member of a community thespian group. She also joined the Woman's Relief Corps that allowed her to showcase her vocal prowess at local recitals. Williams began her career with Selig Polyscope Company in Chicago, Illinois and made her first film in 1908 under the direction of Francis Boggs. By 1910, she was transferred to the company's Los Angeles film studio. Williams played "Cherry Malotte" in the first movie based upon Rex Beach's 1906 novel The Spoilers in 1914, a role portrayed in subsequent versions by Betty Compson (1930), Marlene Dietrich (1942), and Anne Baxter (1955). In 1916, she starred in the thirteen episode adventure film serial, The Adventures of Kathlyn. She was busy throughout the silent film era but age and the advent of talkies saw her make only five sound films, the last in 1935. Kathlyn evolved from a comedian and serial player in silents to portraying character roles in the early 1930s. Williams was married three times. Although many biographies erroneously cite her first husband as being Victor Kainer, he was in fact named Otto H. "Harry" Kainer (1876–1952), who ran an import and export business on Wall Street in New York City. They were wed on October 2, 1903, and their son, Victor Hugo, was born in 1905. They supposedly divorced over Kainer's disapproval of his wife having an acting career, and Williams subsequently obtained a divorce from Kainer in 1909 in Nevada. On March 4, 1913, she married Frank R. Allen, also an actor, but the marriage was a failure from the start and lasted a little over a year. On June 30, 1914, she filed for divorce in Los Angeles and listed desertion as the reason as the failure of their marriage. She later married Paramount Pictures executive Charles Eyton on June 2, 1916, in Riverside, California. The Eytons eventually divorced in 1931. On December 29, 1949, Williams was involved in a deadly automobile accident, which claimed the life of her friend, Mrs. Mary E. Rose, while they were returning home from a social engagement in Las Vegas. As a result of the accident, Williams lost her right leg. On April 8, 1950, Williams sued the estate of Rose for $136,615, citing negligence and claiming that the automobile had inefficient brakes. In June 1951, Williams accepted the offer of $6,500 dollars from the Rose estate. Kathlyn Williams died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California in 1960. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Kathlyn Williams has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7038 Hollywood Blvd. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Works

91 films

We Can't Have Everything

1918

Just a Wife

192010.0

Single Wives

19248.0

Forbidden Fruit

19216.6

Souls for Sale

19236.3

Wedding Rings

19298.0

The Prince Chap

19207.0

The Spanish Dancer

19235.0

Her Kingdom of Dreams

19197.0

The Carpet from Bagdad

1915

The Painted Flapper

19248.0

Out of the Wreck

1917

The Enemy Sex

19248.5

The Single Standard

19295.9

Wanderer of the Wasteland

19248.0

A Man's Home

19217.0

Road to Paradise

19306.4

Our Dancing Daughters

19286.3

Blood Money

19337.1

Lines of White on a Sullen Sea

19094.2

Sally in Our Alley

192710.0

Trimmed in Scarlet

19237.0

The Adventures of Kathlyn

19131.0

When a Girl Loves

192410.0

Rendezvous at Midnight

193510.0

The Adventures of Kathlyn

19166.0

Her Purchase Price

19199.0

The Highway of Hope

1917

The Whispering Chorus

19186.4

Daddy Long Legs

19314.8

We Americans

19287.0

Back to the Primitive

19114.0

The Valiants of Virginia

1916

The Spoilers

19146.2

The World's Applause

19239.0

The Wanderer

19253.0

The City That Never Sleeps

19249.0

A Single Man

19299.0

Gold Is Not All

1910

Unholy Love

19324.0

A Virginia Courtship

192110.0

A Private Scandal

19217.0

Three Bags of Silver

1914

The Cost of Hatred

19171.0

Clarence

19229.0

The Warrior Maid

1914

Honeymoon Flats

192810.0

The Garden of Brides

1914

The Tree of Knowledge

19203.3

The Cruel Crown

1914

Morals

192110.0

In Old California When the Gringos Came

1911

Conrad in Quest of His Youth

19206.4

The Forged Parchment

1914

Hush

19219.0

Thor, Lord of the Jungles

19135.0

Sweet Alyssum

1915

The Best People

19259.0

The Spellbound Multitude

1914

Big Timber

1917

The House of His Master

19128.0

The Royal Slave

1914

Redeeming Love

1916

Lost in the Jungle

19115.0

Thou Shalt Not

1910

Locked Doors

19253.3

Life on the Border

19116.5

Captain Kate

19114.0

Thou Shalt Not Covet

1916

The Better Wife

19191.0

Broadway Gold

19237.0

A Girl Named Mary

19199.0

Into the Primitive

1916

The Wheels of Justice

1911

The Leopard's Foundling

1914

The U.P. Trail

19208.0

Chip of the Flying U

1914

The Thing We Love

1918

The Two Ordeals

1914

The King's Will

1914

Her Husband's Women

19298.0

The Two Orphans

1911

The Unwelcome Throne

1913

The Girl at the Cupola

19125.5

Dad's Girls

1911

The Flight of the Crow

1913

A Colonel in Chains

1914

The Witch of the Everglades

19116.5

1861

19115.5

The Rose of Old St. Augustine

19117.0

The Man from the East

191110.0