Lillian Marta Golden (about 1880 – January 2, 1940) was an American stage and film actress, writer, and

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

performer, associated with the films of

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

Career

Film

Golden made her film debut in the 1915 Charlie Chaplin-directed short ''Work''. She appeared in approximately seven motion pictures, often in comedies directed and starring Chaplin. She recalled injuries while performing film stunts involving roller skates attached to her back, a head injury from a prop gun, underwater scrapes, cheese in her eyes, and hairpulling. Her last appearance in a motion picture was in the 1928

Edwin Carewe Edwin Carewe ( Chickasaw Nation, March 3, 1883 – January 22, 1940) was a Native American motion picture director, actor, producer, and screenwriter. Early life and education Jay John Fox was born on March 3, 1883, in Gainesville, Texas. H ...

-directed drama ''

Revenge Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...

'', starring

Dolores del Río María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete (3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983), known professionally as Dolores del Río (), was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin Am ...

Stage

Golden co-starred in a play in San Francisco in 1910. She co-led the Golden-Raynes musical comedy company with her first husband, J. A. Raynes; the troupe included

Roscoe Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel ...

and

Lon Chaney Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often gr ...

. She had "an exceedingly good program" when she performed in Honolulu in 1914; also in 1914, she took over a role in ''The Merry Gambol'' from

Marie Dressler Leila Marie Koerber (November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934), known professionally as Marie Dressler, was a Canadian-born stage- and screen-actress and comedian, popular in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood in early silent film, silent an ...

. She appeared on vaudeville programs in a musical comedy act with

Truly Shattuck Truly Shattuck (July 27, 1875 – December 6, 1954) was a soubrette star of vaudeville, music halls, and Broadway whose career began in tragedy and ended in relative obscurity. Early life Truly Shattuck was born at San Miguel, San Luis Obisp ...

in 1916. During the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, H1N1 subtype of the influenz ...

, when the theaters in San Francisco were closed as a public health measure, Golden organized actresses to volunteer with the

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. In the 1930s, Martha Golden Duffy was stage director at Westminster Avenue School in

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, whe ...

, and organized vaudeville-style benefit shows.

Writing

Golden worked at the ''

Pittsburgh Dispatch The ''Pittsburgh Dispatch'' was a leading newspaper in Pittsburgh, operating from 1846 to 1923. After being enlarged by publisher Daniel O'Neill (editor), Daniel O'Neill it was reportedly one of the largest and most prosperous newspapers in the Un ...

'' as a young woman, writing for the newspaper's women's page. She wrote a playlet, ''The Nut'', which was produced at the Orpheum in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

in 1915. She also wrote and starred in ''The Pickpocket'', performed by her own company in 1918, at San Francisco's Hippodrome. In 1927 she wrote a song, "I Wonder What the End Will Be." She wrote and starred in ''Good Night Nurse: A Satire on Eugenics'', performed at the Westminster Avenue School in 1930. She wrote and starred in a one-act comedy, ''Neighbors,'' at Venice High School in 1931.

Personal life

She married English-born composer and conductor John Arthur Raynes in 1910, and divorced him in 1915. She remarried to Charles Arthur Duffy in 1918; they adopted a daughter, Jean. Golden lived in Venice, California, in the late 1920s and 1930s. She died in San Francisco in 1940, at the age of 60.

Filmography

References

External links

* * ''Work'' (1915) at Internet Archive * ''A Woman'' (1915) at Internet Archive * ''The Adventurer'' (1917) at Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Golden, Marta 1940 deaths American film actresses American silent film actresses 20th-century American actresses American stage actresses Actresses from Pennsylvania 1880s births