Elita Proctor Otis
{{Short description|American actress}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Elita Proctor Otis
| image = Elita Proctor Otis.jpg
| caption = portrait of Proctor Otis
| nationality = American
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1860}}
| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1927|08|10|1860}}
| death_place = Pelham, New York, U.S.
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1909{{endash}}1926
| spouse = William C. Camp
| relatives = Redfield Proctor (great-uncle)
}}
Elita Proctor Otis (1851 or 1860 – August 10, 1927) was an American actress.{{cite news|date=August 15, 1927|title=Elita Proctor Otis Dies. Once Prominent Actress Had Been an Invalid for 12 Years|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9802E5DA103FE03ABC4D52DFBE66838C639EDE&legacy=true}} She had a long distinguished stage career before her foray into early silent films. In 1909 she may have been the first actress to play Nancy Sikes on screen in a Vitagraph produced version of Oliver Twist.Pictorial History of the Silent Screen by Daniel Blum c. 1953 pg. 14
Early years and career
She was born around 1860 in Cleveland, Ohio.The 1870 census lists an "Ella P. Otis" born in 1860 and this may be her. Her parents were married on 14 September 1860. She listed herself as age 30 on 27 June 1901 on her marriage license. This would have her born in 1874. In the 1920 census her age would have her born in 1871. IMDB and IBDB use "1851" but the primary source for that information is not known. Her father, William Henry Otis,{{cite book |last1=Browne |first1=Walter |last2=Koch |first2=E. De Roy |title=Who's Who on the Stage ... |date=1908 |publisher=W. Browne & F. A. Austin |pages=336–337 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c9c6AQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Elita+Proctor%22+actress&pg=PA336 |access-date=June 12, 2021 |language=en}} was a banker.{{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=James |last2=Londré |first2=Felicia Hardison |title=Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism |date=2017-11-22 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-0786-7 |page=502 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pro7DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Elita+Proctor+Otis%22&pg=PA502 |access-date=June 12, 2021 |language=en}} Redfield Proctor, who was a senator from Vermont, was her great-uncle.
Otis's stage debut came with the Kemble Dramatic Society.{{cite news |title=Elita Proctor Otis at the Columbia |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79453088/elita-proctor-otis/ |access-date=June 12, 2021 |work=The Brooklyn Citizen |date=February 15, 1903 |page=16|via = Newspapers.com}} She made her professional debut as Ernestine Echo in Crust of Society at the Globe Theatre in Boston.{{cite news |title=Theatres This Week |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79453467/elita-proctor-otis/ |access-date=June 12, 2021 |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=April 27, 1902 |page=8|via = Newspapers.com}}
Broadway plays in which Otis performed included The House of Bondage (1914), Potash and Perlmutter (1913), Are You a Crook? (1913), The Purple Road (1913), The Greyhound (1912), The Three Romeos (1911), The Girl from Rector's (1909), Mary's Lamb (1908), Society and the Bulldog (1908), The Little Michus (1907), About Town (1906), The Two Orphans (1904), In the Midst of Life (1902), The Brixton Burglary (1901), Quo Vadis (1900), Woman and Wine (1900), and A Ward of France (1897).{{cite web |title=Elita Proctor Otis |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/elita-proctor-otis-55263 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308032741/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/elita-proctor-otis-55263 |archive-date=March 8, 2021}}
Later years and death
Otis was married to William C. Camp.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Thorne wins in $100,000 suit |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/06/13/archives/mrs-thorne-wins-in-100000-suit-court-throws-out-cyrus-r-shipmans.html |access-date=June 12, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=June 13, 1926 |page=26}}{{cite news |title=William C. Camp |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/12/08/archives/william-c-camp-member-of-prominent-chicago-family-dies-on-coast-at.html |access-date=June 12, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=December 8, 1935 |page=N 11}}
For the last 12 years of her life she was an invalid. She died on August 10, 1927, in Pelham, New York. Her funeral was held at the Church of the Transfiguration on August 17, 1927, and she was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.{{cite news |title=Ella Proctor Otis Rites |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/08/18/archives/elita-proctor-otis-rites-services-for-actress-held-in-church-of-the.html |access-date=June 12, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=August 18, 1927 |page=21}}
Filmography
- Adventures of a Drummer Boy (1909) (credited as Elita Otis)
- Oliver Twist (1909) as Nancy Sykes
- Les Misérables (Part I) (1909) aka The Galley Slave
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1909) as Hippolyta
- The Great Diamond Robbery (1914) as Mother Rosenbaum
- The Greyhound (1914) as 'Deep Sea Kitty' Doyle
- The Triflers (1920) (as Olita Otis) as. Effie Stilwell
- Under Northern Lights (1920) (credited as Oleta Ottis) as Madge Carson
- The Torrent (1921) (credited as Oleta Ottis) as Anne Mayhew
- While the Devil Laughs (1921) (credited as Oleta Ottis) as Pearl De La Marr
- The Secret of the Hills (1921) (credited as Oleta Otis) as Mrs. Miltimore
- The Infidel (1922) (credited as Oleta Otis) as Miss Parliss
- Refuge (1923) (credited as Olita Otis) as The Princess
- Miss Nobody (1926) (credited as Oleta Otis) as Miriam Arnold
- The Lost Express (1926) as Mrs. Arthur Standish
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Elita Proctor Otis}}
- {{IMDb name|0652898}}
- {{IBDB name|55263}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otis, Elita Proctor}}
Category:19th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century American actresses