Roberta Arnold

File:Scene from "The First Year" featuring Frank Craven and Roberta Arnold.jpg in The First Year]]

She made her professional debut around age 17 in 1910 at the Los Angeles Belasco Theatre, as a non-speaking extra in a production of Forty-five Minutes from Broadway.{{Cite news|date=June 11, 1911|title=Three Los Angeles Girls Fill Three Important Places in Three Local Stock Companies. Do You Know Any of Them?|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH19110611.2.378&srpos=8&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Roberta+Arnold%22-------1|access-date=|work=Los Angeles Herald|page=5}}{{cite magazine|last=Harding|first=Allan|date=March 1924|title=It took Roberta Arnold Eight Weeks to Open a Door|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ss1ZAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA34|volume=97|issue=3|pages=34, 129–132|magazine=The American Magazine}}{{cite news|date=December 25, 1921|title=Roberta and Grace Of 'The First Year' Now Firm Friends|work=New-York Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75721722/new-york-tribune/|via=Newspapers.com}} She joined Oliver Morosco's stock company, where her productions included Peg o' My Heart and The Bird of Paradise supporting Carlotta Monterey.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=April 4, 1916|title=The Bird of Paradise Interesting and Well-acted Dramatic Novelty|work=Evening Times-Republican|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85049554/1916-04-06/ed-1/seq-9/|access-date=|issn=}}{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=March 2, 1919|title=The Rise of Roberta|pages=3|work=The Washington Herald|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1919-03-02/ed-1/seq-17/|access-date=|issn=}} She had a part in Upstairs and Down (1916){{Cite news|last=|first=|date=February 2, 1915|title=Says She Prefers Comedy to Eating: Miss Roberta Arnold Relates Some of Her Experiences|pages=9|work=The Sun and the New York Herald|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030273/1920-02-15/ed-1/seq-43/|access-date=|issn=}} which was the most popular Los Angeles play of the season before coming to New York,{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=September 17, 1916|title=Morosco Offers New Comedy, Upstairs and Down, for Opening of the Belasco|work=The Washington Herald|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1916-09-17/ed-1/seq-15/|access-date=|issn=}} marking Arnold's Broadway debut.

She had leading roles in Adam and Eva (1916), and in The First Year, opposite Frank Craven who also wrote it.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=November 21, 1920|title=Happy in First Unmarried Role: Miss Roberta Arnold, Leading Woman for Frank Craven, Has Something to Say|pages=6|work=The New York Herald|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045774/1920-11-21/ed-1/seq-38/|access-date=|issn=}} She played her role, Grace Livingston, for more than a year, and said of the character, "Grace Livingston, as created by Mr. Craven, is human and real – a genuine person". Her other roles included in Chicken Feed, and Pig Iron.{{cite news |date=October 17, 1925 |title=Roberta Arnold Given Star Role |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75721577/the-san-francisco-examiner// |work=The San Francisco Examiner |via=Newspapers.com}} Her role in the 1925 play Pig Iron was said by the San Francisco Examiner to be "the opportunity of her career". She was in the silent film Sands of Life.{{cite book|author1=Jean-Jacques Jura|author2=Rodney Norman Bardin II|title=Balboa Films: A History and Filmography of the Silent Film Studio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQ9eCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA251|date=August 13, 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-0901-0|page=251}}

The magazine The Independent wrote that Arnold is a corker and that the "subtle little meanings she makes her lines suggest sets the comedy down in The School for Scandal class."{{cite book|title=The Independent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0RJAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA29-PA3|year=1917|page=3}} Time wrote of Arnold, "You either like her or you don't. Most people do."{{cite magazine|magazine=Time|title=The Tantrum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wuiqBOhbo_4C&pg=RA35-PA16|date=September 15, 1924|publisher=Time Incorporated|page=16}}

Arnold was born Minerva Bussenius in San Francisco, California, and moved to Los Angeles as an infant. Her father was a Southern California businessman and her mother was an officer in the Native Daughters of the Golden West.{{cite news |title=Miss Minerva Bussenius a Bride |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19111230.1.6&srpos=1&e=-------en--20--1-byDA.rev-txt-txIN-%22Minerva+Bussenius%22-------1 |work=San Bernardino Sun |date=December 30, 1911 |page=6}} She took the name Roberta Arnold feeling her original name "too great a handicap on stage" so she used the first name of her father (Robert) and the name of an uncle (Arnold). She wanted to be an actress since she was 7 years old. She spent her childhood with her parents in Los Angeles. Arnold kept a scrapbook of pictures that had to do with theatre when she was a child, with it later becoming an inspiration to her and her "most precious possession". Her parents thought that she was not serious about becoming an actress. When she was 14 years old, Arnold made the announcement that she "was going to be an actress" and her mother burned her scrapbook in a bonfire as a result. Her sister Carolyn also acted briefly under the name Carolyn Arnold, before marrying a French nobleman.{{cite news |title=Count D'Oyley, 21, Weds Actress, 23; Son of Marquess and Marchioness D'Oyley of Paris, Marries Carolyn Arnold. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/03/09/archives/count-doyley-21-weds-actress-23-son-of-marquess-and-marchioness.html |work=The New York Times |date=March 9, 1922}}

She married actor Herbert Rawlinson on January 1, 1912.{{cite magazine|title=News concerning the state|magazine=The Grizzly Bear|url=https://archive.org/details/grizzlybe101911111912nati/page/n111/mode/2up|date=February 1912|volume=10|issue=4|publisher=|page=17}} In 1922, her husband sued her for desertion and they became divorced.{{cite news |date=April 30, 1922 |title=Petite Dorothy Clark, Center Of Mother's Strange $200,000 Action Against Herbert Rawlinson, Anxious To Clear Name|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53975772/the-washington-times/ |work=The Washington Times |via=Newspapers.com}} She later married aviator and stunt pilot Frank J. Lynch, whom she divorced in 1927,{{cite news |title=Frank J. Lynch, Film Stunt Flier, Killed in Crash |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39469082/daily-news/ |work=Daily News |date=December 5, 1932 |location=New York |pages=46}} and in 1929 she married the playwright and screenwriter John Willard.{{cite news |title=Tony Marteletti and Fern Henry are Wed |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86076141/1929-07-06/ed-1/seq-6/ |work=Las Vegas Age |date=July 6, 1929 |pages=6 |quote=John Willard and Minerva B. Lynch, both of New York City}}{{cite news |title=Roberta Arnold in Play |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7163849/8-jan-1930-roberta-arnold-rejoins/ |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=January 8, 1930 |page=33}}{{cite book |editor-last=Parker |editor-first=John |title=Who's Who in the Theatre |date=1939 |publisher=Pitman Publishing Corporation |location=New York |page=1548 |edition=9th |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhointheatre1939park/page/1548/mode/2up|oclc=1036973910}} She died in August 1966, and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.{{cite news |title=Willard, Minerva B. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39028197/obituary-for-minerva-b-willard/ |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=August 30, 1966 |pages=25}}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Roberta}}

Category:1896 births

Category:American stage actresses

Category:Actresses from Los Angeles

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:1966 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from San Francisco

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)