Mary Charleson

Charleson was born in Dungannon in Ireland to George Charleson, a hairdresser, and Jane Steele.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Birth Certificate of Mary Charleson|url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1890/02435/1906160.pdf|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=10 July 2020|website=Irish Genealogy}} She was part of a theatrical family, related to the actress Kate Price. Charleson's family moved to California while she was still at school. Intent on following in the family tradition, Charleson took to the stage when she completed her schooling. Her first performance was with the Grand Opera Stock Company playing a variety of parts. She worked with a number of companies on the Pacific coast and then began her career in the silent film.{{cite book|author=Leonhard Gmür|title=Rex Ingram: Hollywood's Rebel of the Silver Screen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VjkgAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA153|date=14 November 2013|publisher=epubli|isbn=978-3-8442-4601-8|pages=153–}}

File:Mary Charleson 1919.jpg

When started in the films her first film was The Ancient Bow in 1912 by the Vitagraph Company of America. The main highlights of her career are The Strange Story of Sylvia Gray (1914), by Vitagraph, The Road o'Strife in 1915 by the Lubin Manufacturing Company, Satan's Private Door in 1917 by the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company and Upstairs and Down (1919), by the Selznick Pictures Corporation.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Charleson worked with names like Rex Ingram and Rollin S. Sturgeon.

In March 16, 1918, Charleson gave birth to Henry B. Walthall's baby Mary Patricia. {{cite book|author=George A. Katchmer|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Silent Film Western Actors and Actresses|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VnGeCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA120|date=8 May 2002|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-0905-8|pages=120–}}, and in Nov 15, 1918, Walthall divorced from his wife Isabel Fenton (Irene Fenton) in Chicago, and 5 days later, Walthall married Mary Charleson in Indiana. Mary Patricia Walthall later had some small film roles but she married an engineer from Buenos Aires and left the industry.{{cite web|url=https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/sooner/articles/p21-27_1941v13n10_OCR.pdf|title=Sooner Magazine Roll Call|page=22}}

After the Western Human Stuff in 1920 by Universal Pictures, Charleson left acting to focus on her husband's business and became one of the forgotten stars of the silent era.{{cite book|author=Anthony Slide|title=Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=plpL_xdI6NoC&pg=PT305|date=12 September 2010|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-2708-8|pages=305–}}

Mary Charleson died in Los Angeles, California on 3 December 1961 and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Hollywood.{{cite book|author=Daniel Blum|title=Screen World 1962|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ukFl5C_3npMC&pg=PA219|date=1 January 1962|publisher=Biblo & Tannen Publishers|isbn=978-0-8196-0303-6|pages=219–}}

• The Road to Yesterday; or, Patio Memories of Days, directed by Rollin S. Sturgeon (1912)
• The Smoke from Lone Bill's Cabin, directed by Rollin S. Sturgeon (1913)
• The Intruder, directed by Maurice Costello and Wilfrid North (1913)
• The Education of Aunt Georgiana, directed by Maurice Costello and Robert Gaillard (1913)
• The Acid Test, directed by Maurice Costello and Robert Gaillard (1914)
• Mr. Barnes of New York, directed by Maurice Costello and Robert Gaillard (1914)
• The Strange Story of Sylvia Gray (1914)
• What Happened to Jones, directed by Fred Mace (1915)
• The Silent Accuser, directed by Joseph Kaufman (1915)
• The Country That God Forgot, directed by Marshall Neilan (1916)
• Passers By (1916)
• The Truant Soul, directed by Harry Beaumont (1916)
• The Little Shoes, directed by Arthur Berthelet (1917)
• Burning the Candle, directed by Harry Beaumont (1917)
• Satan's Private Door, directed by J. Charles Haydon (1917)
• The Saint's Adventure, directed by Arthur Berthelet (1917)
• His Robe of Honor, directed by Rex Ingram (1918)
• Humdrum Brown (1918)
• With Hoops of Steel (1918)
• The Long Lane's Turning
• Upstairs and Down, directed by Charles Giblyn (1919)
• Human stuff (1920)

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• {{cite news |title=She's not Contrary: Mary Charleson Admits New York Is Nicest Town in East |work=New-York Tribune |date=12 April 1914 |page=9 |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1914-04-12/ed-1/seq-29/#date1=1910&index=9&rows=20&words=Bunny+John&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=New+York&date2=1917&proxtext=John+Bunny&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1}}

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• {{IMDb name|0153185}}

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Category:1890 births

Category:1961 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:20th-century Irish actresses

Category:Irish silent film actresses

Category:People from Dungannon

Category:Irish emigrants to the United States

Category:Actors from County Tyrone