Edna Foster

Edna Foster was born in Boston in 1900 to Anne Louise Ramsell Foster and Conrad Houteling Foster. Conrad Foster was a theater owner and eventual mayor of Traverse City, Michigan.{{Cite book |last=Horak |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_wNYCwAAQBAJ&dq=motography+magazine+edna+foster&pg=PT31 |title=Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908–1934 |date=2016-02-26 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=9780813574844 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=3 Apr 1940 |title=Former Traverse City Mayor Dies |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/363130456/?terms=%22conrad+foster%22 |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2019-08-31 |website=The Herald-Press |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Who Was Con Foster? |url=https://www.traverseticker.com/news/who-was-con-foster/ |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=Traverse City News & Events}} He had been in the entertainment business since 1889 and assistant treasurer for Ringling Brothers circus for 14 years."Forum: Obituaries". Variety. Apr 17, 1940. 138, 6. p. 55.

Foster acted in films for the Biograph Company. She played both boys and girls in film.{{Cite book |last=Horak |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7COdcQAACAAJ |title=Not So Silent: Women in Cinema Before Sound |date=2010 |publisher=Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis |isbn=978-91-86071-40-0 |editor-last=Soderbergh Widding |editor-first=Astrid |editor-link=Astrid Söderbergh Widding |language=en |chapter=Edna "Billy" Foster, the Biograph Boy}} She received critical attention for her work "as one of the best known boy impersonators" in film.{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/ThePhoto-playReviewAug.-nov.1915 |title=In Answer to Yours |publisher=The Photo-Play Review |year=1915 |language=English}} She was sometimes professionally known as "Billy Foster;" she selected the name herself.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=16 Aug 1916 |title=Theatricals |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-wilmington-morning-star-theatrical/125252295/ |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2019-08-31 |website=The Wilmington Morning Star |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Keil |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJ1QDwAAQBAJ&q=%22billy+foster%22+vaudeville+biograph&pg=PA285 |title=A Companion to D. W. Griffith |year=2018 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9781118341254 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=18 Oct 1914 |title=In Movie Land |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-miss-flora-foster/125252079/ |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2019-08-31 |website=The Chicago Tribune |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBBCAQAAIAAJ&q=motography+magazine+edna+foster |title=Films in Review |date=1975 |publisher=National Board of Review of Motion Pictures |language=en}}

Edna Foster's older sister Flora Foster, also an actress, died of heart failure as a teenager. Both sisters attended boarding school in New York near Biograph's studios while their father remained in Chicago.{{Cite journal |date=July 4, 1914 |title=Biograph Kids Are Wonderful Girls: Chicago Exhibitor's Daughters |url=https://ia800701.us.archive.org/20/items/motography12elec/motography12elec_djvu.txt |journal=Motography |pages=3–4}}

Foster's favorite stage actress was Blanche Sweet. She and her sister both enjoyed working with D.W. Griffith and Harry Carey. She enjoyed sewing, ragtime music, baseball, rugby, and dancing; her sister stated that Foster had aspirations for a career in ballet. She was reportedly a protégé of Elizabeth Kingston of the Kingston Entertainers."Where is Edna Foster?" The Billboard. Apr 3, 1920. 32, 14. p. 22. In 1922, she was working as assistant treasurer for Minksy's Burlesque."Burlesque Reviews" Minksy's Burlesque". The Billboard. Nov 11, 1922. 34, 45. p. 34.

She had grey eyes. When she was fourteen, she had blonde hair she wore bobbed. She was described as a "pretty, slender brunette" in a 1922 issue of The Billboard.

Edna Foster married Frank Otto Schleip on March 8, 1921, but she separated from him and was living under her maiden name by 1925. She and Schleip divorced on January 6, 1927. Foster had a daughter, Anna, around the time of her divorce; she and her daughter were known by the surname Carella.{{Cite book |last=Horak |first=Laura |url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/0cwexgqmo52bhhz/NastyWomen_Booklet_Integrated_v1.pdf |title=Cinema's First Nasty Women |publisher=Kino Lorber |year=2023 |chapter=Edna "Billy" Foster}}

According to her father's obituary, Edna Foster was living in New York City in 1940.

• Men and Women (1914)
• The Escape (1914)
• A Nest Unfeathered (1914)
• The Little Tease (1913)
• A Misappropriated Turkey (1913)
• With the Enemy's Help (1912)
• A String of Pearls (1912)
• The Sunbeam (1912)
• The Transformation of Mike (1912)
• For His Son (1912)
• The Battle (1911)
• The Adventures of Billy (1911)
• A Country Cupid (1911)
• The Lonedale Operator (1911)

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Category:Actresses from Boston

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:1900 births

Category:Year of death missing

Category:American child actresses