Frances Starr

Who was Frances Starr?

Frances Starr was a stage, film and television actress. She started in plays in 1901 in an Albany stock company, in which Lionel Barrymore and Alison Skipworth were members. She signed with David Belasco in 1906 and appeared in a small role with David Warfield in The Music Master.

In November 1906 she appeared along with another young actress, Jane Cowl, in The Rose of the Rancho. She achieved her breakout stage role in 1909 in Belasco's production of The Easiest Way. Starr continued to have a string of successes such as The Case of Becky and Shore Leave. Several of the plays she starred in were turned into early silent films often by Famous Players-Lasky.

She delivered a standout role as the wronged mother in the early talkie about newspaper corruption Five Star Final, her second of only three talkies. Lastly she appeared in This Reckless Age with Buddy Rogers and Richard Bennett. In the 1950s Starr appeared on the Kraft, Omnibus and Philco programs of early network television.