Leora Spellman (born Leora Theresa Spellmeyer; July 13, 1888 or 1890 – September 4, 1945) was an American

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic compositio ...

performer and stage and film actress and the wife of

Charles B. Middleton Charles Brown Middleton (October 3, 1874 – April 22, 1949) was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, he appeared in nearly 200 films as well as numerous plays. Sometimes credi ...

. Born Leora Theresa Spellmeyer in

Bonne Terre Bonne Terre ( ) is a city in St. Francois County, Missouri, United States with a population of 6,864 at the 2010 census. Situated in the Southeast Missouri Lead District, lead mining shaped the history and character of the area from the earliest ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, she began singing on stage as a child, and as a young lady began working in vaudeville where she met and married fellow performer Charles Middleton in 1908. They then teamed up to create a vaudeville act billed as "Middleton and Spellmeyer." Using the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Laura Spellman, she worked primarily in live theatre, as did her husband, but in 1920 they made their

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

debut together in "''Wits vs. Wits''." However, she continued working on stage, and appeared in only two more films. Her husband eventually built a very successful career as a

character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to ...

in film, notably as " Emperor Ming" in the ''Flash Gordon'' serials. Although sixteen years his junior, Leora Spellman predeceased her husband by four years, dying in 1945 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wo ...

from a heart attack. She is interred in the

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a full-service cemetery, funeral home, crematory, and cultural events center which regularly hosts community events such as live music and summer movie screenings. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Ang ...

in Hollywood next to her husband. Although most published sources list the year of her birth as 1890, her gravestone indicates she was born in 1888. The 1900 US Federal Census indicates age 12, with a birth month and year of July 1887, on an information sheet dated June 11, 1900. Ancestry.com

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* * Vaudeville performers American stage actresses American silent film actresses Actresses from Missouri Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery 1890 births 1945 deaths 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American singers People from Bonne Terre, Missouri {{US-theat-actor-1890s-stub