Ramona Langley

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Ramona Langley
Born(1893-07-09)July 9, 1893
Los Angeles, California, US
DiedNovember 11, 1983(1983-11-11) (aged 90)
Los Angeles, California, US
OccupationActress
Spouse(s)Clarence English (m. 1913; div. 1938)
Clare Woolwine (m. 1938–his death)

Ramona Langley (July 9, 1893 – November 11, 1983) was an American film actress who was active in Hollywood during the silent era. She was known primarily for her work in comedies for Universal and Nestor.[1][2][3]

Biography[edit]

A native of Los Angeles, Ramona was born in 1893 to John Langley and Mary Niles.[4] She would later tell reporters she was named after Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Ramona.[1]

In 1913, the same year she began appearing in one-reel films for the Nestor Comedy Company, she married industrialist Clarence English, and the pair relocated to a large ranch near Chihuahua, Mexico. Less than a year later, the pair evacuated their home and returned to Hollywood as a result of the Mexican Border War.[1]

Ramona was severely injured in 1914 on the set of the Universal Pictures film, She Was Only a Working Girl, after she and her male co-stars fell on a slippery concrete floor. Crushed under the weight of the men, Ramona suffered major internal injuries and was reportedly urged by director Al Christie to continue the shoot.[5] Despite lingering injuries that kept her in a sanatorium bed for months, the studio refused to compensate her for her suffering, and she was replaced in the finished film by Victoria Forde.[5][6]

After her recovery, she retired from filmmaking and focused on raising her three children. Eventually, in 1938, she and English separated.[7] That same year, Langley married her second husband, politician Clare Woolwine, in Lake Tahoe.[8] Woolwine died a year later after suffering a heart attack.[9]

Ramona died on November 11, 1983, in Los Angeles.

Select filmography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Price, Gertrude M. (24 Jan 1914). "Refugee from Mexico Becomes "Movie" Star!". The Sacramento Star. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  2. ^ Birchard, Robert S. (2009). Early Universal City. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-7023-5.
  3. ^ Grau, Robert (1914). The Theatre of Science: A Volume of Progress and Achievement in the Motion Picture Industry. Broadway publishing Company.
  4. ^ "The Unknown Touches the Heart". The Capital Journal. 17 May 1913. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  5. ^ a b "Motion Picture Actors Undergo Great Dangers". Marysville Evening Democrat. 7 May 1914. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  6. ^ "In Nestor Film". The Marion Star. 7 Feb 1914. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  7. ^ "Industrialist's Wife Granted Divorce in Reno". The Los Angeles Times. 13 Aug 1938. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  8. ^ "Lake Tahoe Rites Set Today". The Los Angeles Times. 12 Aug 1938. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  9. ^ "Former Nashville Resident Dies". Nashville Banner. 27 Oct 1939. Retrieved 2021-12-31.