Ynez Seabury
{{Short description|American actress (1907–1973)}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ynez Seabury
| image = File:Ynez Seabury (1928).jpg
| alt = Photo of actress Ynez Seabury
| caption = Seabury in 1928
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|06|26|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Portland, Oregon, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1973|04|11|1907|06|26|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| resting_place = Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1911–1940
| spouse = {{marriage|Walter William Costello|1928|1929|reason=div}}
| father = Forrest Seabury
| relatives = Samuel Seabury (great-great-grandfather)
}}
Ynez Seabury (June 26, 1907 – April 11, 1973) was an American actress of the stage, silent and early sound film era. She began her career as a child actor, making her screen debut in D. W. Griffith's The Miser's Heart (1911). She appeared on Broadway and occasionally appear in films during the early sound era. Her last credited feature film appearance was in Cecil B. DeMille's North West Mounted Police (1940).
Biography
=Early life=
Ynez Seabury was born June 26, 1907 in Portland, Oregon to actors Charlotte and Forrest Seabury.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34013654/the-capital-times/|work=The Capital Times|title=New Screen Star Hails From West|date=December 20, 1922|page=14|via=Newspapers.com}} Her father was a prominent stage actor from Oakland, California, and a direct descendent of Samuel Seabury, while her maternal great-grandfather, Louis Mario Peralta—a founder of the city of Oakland—was sent to San Francisco from his native Spain by King Charles III.{{Cite journal|journal=Hollywood|pages=34–35|date=August 26, 1922|title=Seabury Plays Judas|volume=11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhpSAAAAYAAJ&dq=ynez+seabury+oakland&pg=RA8-PA35|via=Google Books}}
Seabury had an itinerant childhood due to both of her parents' careers as performers. At age two, Seabury won the prize for "Prettiest Baby" at the Scranton Times{{'}}s baby show in Luna Park.{{cite journal|journal=New York Dramatic Mirror|page=8|date=July 23, 1909|title=News of the Stock Companies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f_JNAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA8|via=Google Books}}
=Career=
File:Ynez_Seabury,_juvenile_opera_singer_(SAYRE_9326)_(cropped).jpg
File:Kate Bruce and Ynez Seabury in The Sunbeam.jpg in The Sunbeam (1912)]]
Seabury was acting in movies by the age of 4, debuting as Little Kathy in D. W. Griffith's The Miser's Heart (1911). Seabury appeared in numerous films for Griffith from 1911 to 1912, including A Woman Scorned, The Voice of the Child, Billy's Stratagem, For His Son, The Sunbeam, A String of Pearls, and The Root of Evil. In 1912, she made her debut on Broadway in Racketty-Packetty House.{{cite web|work=Internet Broadway Database|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/ynez-seabury-59453|title=Ynez Seabury|access-date=September 17, 2021}} In June 1912, Seabury appeared opposite her father in a Portland-based stage production of Madame Butterfly for the Baker Stock Company.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85505209/the-oregon-daily-journal/|work=The Oregon Daily Journal|date=June 23, 1912|page=34|title=Madame Butterfly at Orpheum|via=Newspapers.com}}
Due to her darker features, Seabury was frequently cast in ethnic roles, portraying Italians and Native Americans. In 1924, she starred as a Native American woman in Red Clay (1924), a film which starred William Desmond and Albert J. Smith. The plot was constructed around an Indian's education and his subsequent social ostracism. In her role as the Indian maid Miss Seabury earned acclaim for the "very fine emotional quality" of her work.
In March 1928, she subsequently participated in His Blossom Bride, a romantic drama of the stage produced by Richard Walton Tully, premiering at the Mason opera house in Los Angeles in March 1928. The scenery and lighting for the play showed an opening prologue in the Painted Desert of Arizona and the Hopi Indian reservation.{{cite news|work=Los Angeles Times|title=Indian's Social Problems Theme of Program Feature|date=December 31, 1924|page= B12}} Members of the Hopi tribe were adopted by Seabury, who portrayed the Indian heroine. Seabury was revered by the Hopi because of her understanding of their lives and ambitions.{{cite news|work=Los Angeles Times|title=Machines Take Hopis on Tour of Los Angeles|date=March 18, 1928|page=G8|via=Newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85504900/the-los-angeles-times/}} Before serving as background actors in the production, twenty-nine tribesmen and their chief toured Los Angeles in Cadillacs and La Salles.
On November 3, 1928, she wed broker Walter William Costello.{{cite news|work=Los Angeles Times|title=Actress To Be Wedded To Broker|date=November 2, 1928|page=A1}}
In 1937, she was a member of the cast of the CBS Radio Theater dramatization of Brewster's Millions, which featured Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone.
=Later years and death=
Seabury died in Sherman Oaks, California on April 11, 1973. She is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale, California.{{Cite book|page=673|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons|last=Wilson|first=Scott|date=August 19, 2016|edition=3rd|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn= 978-1-476-62599-7}}
Partial filmography
class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
! Year ! Film ! Role ! Director ! Notes ! class="unsortable"| {{abbr|Ref.|Reference}} |
scope="row"| 1911
| {{sortname|The|Miser's Heart}} | Little Kathy | {{Sortname|D. W.|Griffith}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
---|
scope="row"| 1911
| {{sortname|A|Woman Scorned|A Woman Scorned (1911 film)}} | The Doctor's Child | {{Sortname|D. W.|Griffith|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1911
| {{sortname|The|Voice of the Child}} | The Child | {{Sortname|D. W.|Griffith|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1912
| Billy's Stratagem | Billy's Sister | {{Sortname|D. W.|Griffith|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1912
| Child at Soda Fountain | {{Sortname|D. W.|Griffith|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1912
| {{sortname|The|Sunbeam|The Sunbeam (1912 film)}} | Little Sunbeam | {{Sortname|D. W.|Griffith|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1912
| {{sortname|A|String of Pearls|A String of Pearls (film)}} | Italian Shoemaker's Daughter | {{Sortname|D. W.|Griffith|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1912
| {{sortname|The|Root of Evil|The Root of Evil (film)}} | Granddaughter | {{Sortname|D. W.|Griffith|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1923
| {{sortname|Slander|the Woman}} | Indian Girl | {{Sortname|Allen|Holubar}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1923
| Mey Wang | {{Sortname|Joseph|De Grasse}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1924
| Uncredited | {{sortname|David|Smith (director)}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1924
| {{sortname|When|A Girl Loves|When a Girl Loves (1924 film)}} | Fania | {{sortname|Victor|Halperin}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1925
| {{sortname|The|Calgary Stampede}} | Neenah | {{sortname|Herbert|Blaché}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1925
| {{sortname|Ship|of Souls|The Ship of Souls (film)}} | Annette Garth | {{sortname|Charles|Miller|Charles Miller (director)}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1927
| Red Clay | Minnie Bear Paw | {{sortname|Ernst|Laemmle}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1929
| Dynamite | Mrs. Johnson's daughter | {{sortname|Cecil B.|DeMille}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1930
| Babo | {{sortname|Cecil B.|DeMille|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1932
| {{sortname|The|Drifter|The Drifter (1932 film)}} | Yvonne | {{sortname|William A.|O'Connor|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1936
| {{sortname|The|Invisible Ray|The Invisible Ray (1936 film)}} | Celeste | {{sortname|Lambert|Hillyer}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1938
| {{sortname|The|Girl of the Golden West|The Girl of the Golden West (1938 film)}} | Wowkle | {{sortname|Robert Z.|Leonard}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
scope="row"| 1940
| Mrs. Shorty | {{sortname|Cecil B.|DeMille|nolink=yes}} | | style="text-align:center;"| |
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Further reading
- Los Angeles Times, "From Old Family", December 2, 1925, Page III 17.
- Los Angeles Times, "Years Roll Backward for Stage Actor", May 12, 1927, Page A9.
- Los Angeles Times, "Tully Drama Is Polished", March 18, 1928, Page C13.
- Los Angeles Times, "Brewster's Millions", February 15, 1937, Page A15.
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{IMDb name|0780425}}
- {{IBDB name}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seabury, Ynez}}
Category:American child actresses
Category:American film actresses
Category:American people of English descent
Category:American people of Spanish descent
Category:American silent film actresses
Category:American stage actresses
Category:Actresses from Portland, Oregon
Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)