Mrs. Anna Townsend (January 5, 1845 – September 11, 1923) was a silent film

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

who first turned to acting as a career very late in life. Featured in several

Harold Lloyd Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many Silent film, silent comedy films.Obituary ''Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influent ...

films, Townsend is probably best known for her role as Harold's good-hearted grandmother in '' Grandma's Boy'' (1922). That film was developed around Townsend's personality.

Early life and career

Townsend was born in

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

. She moved from there to Los Angeles in 1885. Her film career began in 1919. According to a 1922 profile published in the ''

Los Angeles Evening Express The ''Los Angeles Herald-Express'' was one of Los Angeles' oldest newspapers, formed after a combination of the '' Los Angeles Herald'' and the '' Los Angeles Express''. After a 1962 combination with Hearst Corporation's '' Los Angeles Examine ...

'', Townsend's sole acting experience prior to her brief silent screen heyday was an even briefer pre-

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

tour of duty with the Holman Light Opera Company. This was in large part corroborated the following year by the ''

Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

'', whose obituary for Townsend states that the actress's emergence "three years ago" constituted the first time "she adever considered pursuing acting as a profession."

Personal life and death

Married at least once and predeceased by her husband, Mrs. Townsend died on September 11, 1923, at her home in Los Angeles, apparently due to an unspecified illness contracted two months earlier while sightseeing at

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The p ...

. She was survived, at the very least, by one grown child, a daughter. Moreover, judging from a profile of Townsend published that spring, in which references made to both "grown-up children" and "grandchildren" figure prominently, there were almost certainly additional survivors.

Filmography

References

External links

* 1845 births 1923 deaths American film actresses American silent film actresses 20th-century American actresses Actresses from New York (state) {{US-film-actor-1840s-stub