Sylvia Ashton (January 26, 1880 – November 18, 1940) was an American film actress of the

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized 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) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

era. Ashton was born in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. She bore a heavyset resemblance to

Jane Darwell Jane Darwell (born Patti Woodard; October 15, 1879 – August 13, 1967) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. With appearances in more than 100 major movies spanning half a century, Darwell is perhaps best remembered for her p ...

and like Darwell was playing mother and grandmother roles, though more famously than Darwell in the silents, while still in her 30s and 40s. In 1912, Ashton was an actress in D.W. Griffith's stock company. After that, she acted for Famous Players–Lasky. For years she was a regular member of

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most co ...

's troupe of character actors. She appeared in more than 130 films between 1912 and 1929. She retired from movies almost immediately at the dawn of

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

, one of her later films being the part-sound film ''

The Barker ''The Barker'' is a 1928 American part-talkie pre-Code romantic drama film produced and released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., acquired in September 1928. The film was directed by George Fitzmaurice and stars Mil ...

'' (1928). Sylvia Ashton

Ashton died on November 18, 1940, aged 60.

Partial filmography

* '' The Nick of Time Baby'' (1916) * '' Matching Dreams'' (1916) * '' Viviana'' (1916) * '' A Sanitarium Scramble'' (1916) * '' Haystacks and Steeples'' (1916) * '' Whose Baby?'' (1917) * ''

Old Wives for New ''Old Wives for New'' is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is based on the 1908 novel of the same title by David Graham Phillips. The initial release of the film was delayed for fear that local censors would ...

'' (1918) * '' We Can't Have Everything'' (1918) * '' A Pair of Silk Stockings'' (1918) * '' The Goat'' (1918) * '' Fuss and Feathers'' (1918) * '' Don't Change Your Husband'' (1919) * '' Peggy Does Her Darndest'' (1919) * '' For Better, for Worse'' (1919) * '' Men, Women, and Money'' (1919) * ''

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretar ...

'' (1920) * '' Mrs. Temple's Telegram'' (1920) * '' Sweet Lavender'' (1920) * '' Jenny Be Good'' (1920) * '' Why Change Your Wife?'' (1920) * '' Thou Art the Man'' (1920) * '' The Soul of Youth'' (1920) * '' Conrad in Quest of His Youth'' (1920) * ''

Sham Sham may refer to: Arabic use * Al-Sham or Shām (شام), the Arabic term for the Greater Syria region, known in English as the Levant or the eastern Mediterranean, which includes the modern countries of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus ...

'' (1921) * '' Hold Your Horses'' (1921) * '' Garments of Truth'' (1921) * '' The Snob'' (1921) * '' Saturday Night'' (1922) * '' For the Defense'' (1922) * '' Our Leading Citizen'' (1922) * '' While Satan Sleeps'' (1922) * ''

Manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

'' (1922) * '' Youth to Youth'' (1922) * ''

The White Flower ''The White Flower'' is a 1923 American silent romantic drama film written and directed by Julia Crawford Ivers and starring Betty Compson and Edmund Lowe. Ivers' son, James Van Trees, was the film's cinematographer. Set in Hawaii, the film ...

'' (1923) * ''

Desire Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of affa ...

'' (1923) * ''

Greed Greed (or avarice, ) is an insatiable desire for material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions) or social value, such as status or power. Nature of greed The initial motivation for (or purpose of) greed and a ...

'' (1924) * '' Dancing Days'' (1926) * '' Women's Wares'' (1927) * '' Cheating Cheaters'' (1927) * '' Ladies' Night in a Turkish Bath'' (1928) * ''

'' (1928) * '' The Head Man'' (1928) * '' The Crash'' (1928) * '' Bachelor's Paradise'' (1928) * '' Queen Kelly'' (1928) * '' The Leopard Lady'' (1928)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashton, Sylvia 1880 births 1940 deaths American silent film actresses Actresses from Denver 20th-century American actresses