Florence Deshon
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Short description|American actress (1893–1922)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Florence Deshon
| image =Duds (1920) - 3.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Deshon in 1920
| birthname = Florence Danks
| birth_date = {{birth date|1893|7|19}}
| birth_place = Tacoma, Washington, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1922|2|4|1893|7|19}}
| death_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
| death_cause = Inert gas asphyxiation
| othername = Florence Deschon}}
Florence Deshon (born Florence Danks; July 19, 1893{{spaced ndash}}February 4, 1922) was an American motion picture actress in silent films. Born in Tacoma, Washington, Deshon began her film career in 1915, appearing in The Beloved Vagabond, and would later star in numerous pictures for Samuel Goldwyn and Vitagraph Studios between 1918 and 1921. She was romantically involved with writer Max Eastman and actor Charlie Chaplin. Deshon died of gas asphyxiation in her New York City apartment.
Early life
Florence Deshon was born Florence Danks in Tacoma, Washington, to Samuel Danks, a musician and union organizer from Wales, and Flora Caroline Spatzer, a pianist of Austro-Hungarian descent.{{sfn|Warren|2011|p=163}}{{cite book|title=Max Eastman: A Life|author=Irmscher, Christoph|pages=122–2|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0-300-22256-2}} She lived in Washington with her parents and older brother, Walter, until the family moved to New York City around 1900, as her parents pursued musical careers.
In 1913, she became acquainted with writer Max Eastman in Greenwich Village, and the two became romantically involved.{{sfn|Warren|2011|pages=163–4}}
Career
Deshon appeared in more than twenty silent films, beginning in 1915 with The Beloved Vagabond. In 1919, while living in New York, she was summoned by Samuel Goldwyn to Los Angeles, California, and offered her work in his studio.{{sfn|Warren|2011|p=164}}
Deshon played in features for Vitagraph Studios until 1921. Her final film credit was in the role of Sally McTurk in The Roof Tree, directed by John Francis Dillon. She returned to New York City with her mother in December 1921, hoping to continue her work in films there.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0221204 IMDB entry]
File:FlorenceDeshon.jpg, Florence Deshon, 1921, bromide print. J. Paul Getty Museum{{cite web |last1=Craig |first1=David J. |title=California pictorialists come into focus at BU Art Gallery exhibition |url=https://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2004/01-23/arts.html |website=B.U. Bridge |publisher=Boston University |access-date=21 April 2022 |date=23 January 2004 |quote=Vol. VII, No. 17}}]]
Personal life
In addition to her relationship with Eastman, Deshon had a purported romantic relationship with Charlie Chaplin while living in Los Angeles and purportedly "commuted from coast to coast" between the two men.{{sfn|Wetzsteon|2007|p=65}}
Death
On February 4, 1922, Deshon was found unconscious on the third floor of her apartment building at 120 West Eleventh Street. A window was open in her bedroom, but illuminating gas flowed from an opened jet. A newspaperwoman, Minnie Morris, found Deshon when she returned to the building. An ambulance took Deshon to St. Vincent's Hospital, but attempts to revive her were unsuccessful. She died the following afternoon, aged 28. Deshon's apartment had been subleased from Doris Stevens, who was married to Dudley Field Malone. The couple were honeymooning in Europe at the time of the actress' death. She died five days after William Desmond Taylor, who overshadowed her.
A medical examiner concluded Deshon's death was accidental. However, rumors persisted among her circle of friends and acquaintances that she might have committed suicide, and several biographers, including Ross Wetzsteon{{sfn|Wetzsteon|2007|p=65}} and Christoph Irmscher, have described her death as such. An unsubstantiated comment from a neighbor had it that she had recently argued with a person who came to her apartment. Having recently broken off their relationship, Eastman claimed that Deshon had no reason to kill herself and that her death was accidental; he had come across her on the street on the afternoon before her death when they spoke briefly before going their separate ways. That evening, Eastman heard that she had been rushed to hospital whilst he was watching a theatre performance. He went to St. Vincent's and gave blood, but the attempt to revive Deshon was futile.
Filmography
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Works cited
- {{cite book|last=Warren|first=Beth Gates|year=2011|title=Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles|publisher=Getty Publications|isbn= 978-1-606-06070-4}}
- {{cite book|last=Wetzsteon|first=Ross|year=2007|title=Republic of Dreams: Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910–1960|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn= 978-1-416-58951-8}}
Further reading
- New York Times, "Actress Dies Of Poison Gas", February 5, 1922, p. 3
- New York Times, "Eastman Denies Rift With Miss Deshon", February 6, 1922, p. 3
- {{cite book | author=Michael G. Ankerich | author-link=Michael G. Ankerich | title=Hairpins and Dead Ends: The Perilous Journeys of 25 Actresses Through Early Hollywood| publisher=BearManor | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-62933-201-7}}
External links
{{Portal bar|United States|New York City|Film}}
{{commons category}}
- {{IMDb name|0221204}}
- [http://www.moma.org/collection/works/55271 Photograph (1921) by Margrethe Mather], Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art
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Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:Accidental deaths in New York (state)
Category:Actresses from Tacoma, Washington
Category:American silent film actresses
Category:American people of Austrian descent
Category:American people of Welsh descent