Clara Kimball Young
| Clara Kimball Young | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Clarisa Kimball September 6, 1890 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | October 15, 1960 (aged 70) Woodland Hills, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1912–1941 |
| Spouse(s) |
James Young (19?? – 1919) Dr. Arthur Fauman (1928 – 1937) |
Clara Kimball Young (September 6, 1890 – October 15, 1960) was an American film actress, who was highly regarded and publicly popular in the early silent film era.
Clarisa Kimball was born in Chicago to Edward M. and Pauline (née Maddern) Kimball, travelling stock actors. She made her stage debut at the age of three, and throughout her early childhood travelled with her parents and acted with their theater company. She attended St. Francis Xavier Academy, Chicago. Afterwards she was hired into a stock company and resumed her stage career, travelling extensively through the United States and playing various small town theaters.
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.
In the new medium of motion pictures, and without much screen competition, Clara Kimball 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 most popular leading ladies at Vitagraph and placed at number seventeen in a public popularity poll. Unfortunately, many of Young's films from her early period with Vitagraph are now lost.
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 Clara Kimball Young and Earle Williams into first place in the popularity polls and Young was immediately signed to a contract with legendary pioneering Hollywood mogul Lewis J. Selznick.
After a string of successful roles, Young was firmly 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 rivalling that of other early luminary actresses of the era: Mary Pickford, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Pearl White, Edna Purviance, and Mabel Normand.
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