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 (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. 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 Tho ...

adaptation of

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

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

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

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 Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Se ...

. 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 a ...

.''

Death

Cecil Spooner died on May 13, 1953, in

Sherman Oaks Sherman Oaks (founded in 1927) is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, California within the San Fernando Valley region. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population densit ...

, California.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

References

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