Cecil Spooner (January 29, 1875 – May 13, 1953) was an American stage and film actress, screenwriter, and film director.

Biography

Cecil Spooner was born on January 29, 1875, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Her mother, Mary Gibbs Spooner, ran a theater in Brooklyn. Spooner made her New York theater debut in 1903 in ''My Lady Peggy Goes to Town.'' She continued to appear on Broadway throughout the decade. Spooner married Charles E. Blaney, who had written several of the Broadway plays in which she appeared, in 1909. That same year, Spooner made her motion picture debut in the

Edison Studios Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then ...

adaptation of

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

's ''The Prince and the Pauper''. Spooner played the roles of the prince, Edward, and the pauper, Tom Canty. She was praised by a reviewer for ''

Moving Picture World The ''Moving Picture World'' was an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, from 1907 to 1927. An industry powerhouse at its height, ''Moving Picture World'' frequently reiterated its independence from the film studios. ...

'' for her ability to convey the distinctions between the two characters. In 1914, Spooner wrote, directed, and starred in the silent film ''

Nell of the Circus ''Nell of the Circus'' is a 1914 four-act drama film written, directed by, and starring actress Cecil Spooner. The film was based on a play Spooner had frequently starred in, in New York, called ''Polly of the Circus''. The film is thought to b ...

''. On December 9, 1914, Spooner was arrested at the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

theater that she managed for "indecency." The police and the local community had taken offense to the play Spooner had opened the night before, ''The House of Bondage'', and its treatment of "white slavery," a euphemistic term for sex trafficking. Spooner was released into the custody of her lawyer; she revised the play twice to remove the "objectionable" content, but the show ran for only eight performances and was reviewed negatively by theater critics. Spooner appeared in several films in the early 1920s, and she returned to Broadway in the late 1920s and early 30s. Her last known acting role was in a 1950 episode of the TV show ''

The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...

.'' Cecil Spooner died on May 13, 1953, in

Sherman Oaks Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...

, California.

Selected filmography

* '' One Law for the Woman'' (1924) * '' The Love Bandit'' (1924) * '' Peaceful Neighbors'' (1922) * ''

He's Bugs on Bugs He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

'' (1922) * ''

Money or My Life Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are ...

'' (1922) * '' The Decoy'' (1912) (A stage play written by Harry King Tuttle especially for her) * ''

'' (1914) (also writer and director) * ''

The Dancer and the King ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

'' (1914) * ''

Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister. Hanse ...

'' (1909) * ''

The Prince and the Pauper ''The Prince and the Pauper'' is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1547, ...

'' (1909)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spooner, Cecil 1875 births 1953 deaths Women film pioneers American film directors American women film directors American women screenwriters American film actresses Actresses from New York City 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American screenwriters