Cleo Madison
| Cleo Madison | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 26, 1883 Bloomington, Illinois, United States |
| Died | March 11, 1964 (aged 80) Burbank, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actress, screenwriter, producer, and director |
| Spouse(s) | Don Peake (1916-19??) |
Cleo Madison (March 26, 1883 – March 11, 1964) was a theatrical and silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director who worked heavily in early Hollywood in a career spanning from the late 1910s to the mid-1920s.
Madison began her career on the stage. By 1910, she had begun performing as part of a theatre troupe known as the Santa Barbara Stock Company in California. In 1913, she was contracted by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company to begin appearing in feature films. Madison established a name for herself as an actress with performances in films such as The Trey o' Hearts (1914). She is also considered a pioneering female director with a number of shorts and two feature films, A Soul Enslaved (1916) and Her Bitter Cup (1916), to her credit.
She made several efforts to set up a production company before leaving show business in 1924. She died from a heart-attack in 1964 at the age of 80.
Cleo Madison was born Lulu Bailey in Bloomington, Illinois on March 26, 1883. She attended Illinois State Normal University (which became Illinois State University in 1965) in Normal, Illinois. After completing her education, she moved to California in order to pursue her dream of performing professionally.
She began her acting career on stage with the Santa Barbara Stock Company. She made her first professional appearances on the stages of the Burbank Theatre and the Belasco in 1911. She played the role of the mother in Captain Swift. In March 1912 she debuted as the leading female player in Ernest Shipman's stock company in Phoenix, Arizona; her first production was When We Were Twenty-One. She toured on vaudeville briefly.
In 1913 Madison signed with Universal Pictures and achieved star status the following year in The Trey o' Hearts (1914), a 15-episode film serial for Universal. Madison played three roles in the serial, portraying both the protagonist, Judith Trine, and the villain, her evil twin Rose, as well as the twins' mother.
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