Esther Ralston
Encyclopedia
Esther Ralston was an American movie actress whose greatest popularity came during the silent era.

Early life and career

Ralston started as a child actress in a family vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 act which was billed as "The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America's Youngest Juliet." From this, she appeared in a few small silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 roles before gaining attention as Mrs. Darling in the 1924 version of Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...

.

In the late 1920s she appeared in many films for Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

, at one point earning as much as $8000 a week, and garnering much popularity, especially in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. She appeared mainly in comedies, often portraying spirited society girls, but she also received good reviews for her forays into dramatic roles. In 1962, she had a leading role in the short-lived daytime drama, Our Five Daughters
Our Five Daughters
Our Five Daughters is a daytime soap opera which ran on NBC from January 2, 1962–September 28, 1962. The show was written by Leonard Stadd and directed by Paul Lammers, and aired for a half hour, five days a week, at 3:30 PM EST, right after Young Doctor Malone.The show starred former silent film...

.

Retirement

Despite making a successful transition to sound, she was reduced to appearing in B-movies by the mid-1930s, leading to her retirement. By the time she settled down in 1941, she had made over 100 movies. During the mid-1950s as Mrs. Esther Lloyd, a grandmother, she worked in the Seventh Church of Christ Scientist in New York. Happy with her life, Ralston expressed no desire to make a comeback.

Esther Ralston died in Ventura, California
Ventura, California
Ventura is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States, incorporated in 1866. The population was 106,433 at the 2010 census, up from 100,916 at the 2000 census. Ventura is accessible via U.S...

 on January 14, 1994 of a heart attack.

She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 (6664 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...

) for her popular work in motion pictures.

Family relationships

She is of no known relation to fellow silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 actress Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston was an American stage and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland...

. She was the aunt of television/stage/radio/recording artist Bob Ralston
Bob Ralston
Robert Ralston is an American pianist and organist who performed on television's The Lawrence Welk Show from 1963 to 1982....

 and the great-great aunt of stage and television actor Field Cate
Field Cate
Field Adreanus Cate is an American actor. He is best known to date for his series-regular role playing Young Ned on the dramedy Pushing Daisies.- Biography :...

.

Selected filmography

  • The Kid
    The Kid (1921 film)
    The Kid is a 1921 American silent dramedy film written by, produced by, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin, and features Jackie Coogan as his adopted son and sidekick. This was Chaplin's first full-length movie...

     (1921)
  • The Lone Hand
    The Lone Hand (1922 film)
    The Lone Hand is a 1922 Western film directed by B. Reeves Eason and featuring Hoot Gibson.-Cast:* Hoot Gibson - Laramie Lad * Marjorie Daw - Jane Sheridan* Helen Holmes - Margie Vanney* Hayden Stevenson - Buck...

     (1922)
  • The Prisoner
    The Prisoner (1923 film)
    The Prisoner is a 1923 drama film directed by Jack Conway and featuring Boris Karloff.-Cast:* Herbert Rawlinson - Philip Quentin* Eileen Percy - Dorothy Garrison* George Cowl - Lord Bob* June Elvidge - Lady Francis* Lincoln Stedman - Dickey Savage...

     (1923)
  • The Phantom Fortune
    The Phantom Fortune
    The Phantom Fortune is a 1923 film serial directed by Robert F. Hill.-Cast:* William Desmond - Larry Barclay* Esther Ralston - Mary Rogers* Lewis Sargent - Speck O'Dawn* Harry De Vere - Graham Alexander* George Webb - Alexander Owens...

     (1923)
  • Blinky
    Blinky (film)
    Blinky is a 1923 comedy-Western film directed by Edward Sedgwick and starring Hoot Gibson.-Cast:* Hoot Gibson - Geoffrey Arbuthnot Islip * Esther Ralston - Mary Lou Kileen* Mathilde Brundage - Mrs. Islip...

     (1923)
  • The Marriage Circle
    The Marriage Circle
    The Marriage Circle is a 1924 silent film produced by Ernst Lubitsch and Warner Brothers with direction by Lubitsch and distribution by the Warners. Based on the play Only a Dream by Lothar Schmidt, the screenplay was written by Paul Bern...

     (1924)
  • Wolves of the North
    Wolves of the North
    Wolves of the North is a 1924 Northern drama film serial directed by and starring William Duncan. This serial is considered to be a lost film.-Cast:* William Duncan - Alan Gray* Edith Johnson - Helen Mears* Joseph W...

     (1924)
  • Peter Pan
    Peter Pan (1924 film)
    Peter Pan is a 1924 adventure silent film released by Paramount Pictures, the first film adaptation of the play by J. M. Barrie. It was directed by Herbert Brenon and starred Betty Bronson as Peter Pan, Ernest Torrence as Captain Hook, Mary Brian as Wendy, and Virginia Browne Faire as Tinker Bell...

     (1924)
  • A Kiss for Cinderella
    A Kiss for Cinderella (film)
    A Kiss for Cinderella is a silent fantasy taken from the stage play by James M. Barrie. The film stars Betty Bronson and Tom Moore and was made at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens...

     (1926)
  • Old Ironsides
    Old Ironsides (1926 film)
    Old Ironsides is a silent film starring Charles Farrell, Esther Ralston, Wallace Beery, and George Bancroft.-Production background:The movie was directed by James Cruze in a widescreen process that Paramount promoted as "Magnascope"....

     (1926) with Wallace Beery
    Wallace Beery
    Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...

     and Charles Farrell
    Charles Farrell
    Charles Farrell was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor...

  • The American Venus
    The American Venus
    The American Venus is an American feature film directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Esther Ralston, Ford Sterling, Edna May Oliver, Lawrence Gray, Fay Lanphier, Louise Brooks, Kenneth MacKenna, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and released by Paramount Pictures. Brooks appears, in her first credited...

     (1926)
  • Children of Divorce
    Children of Divorce
    Children of Divorce is a silent film, directed by Frank Lloyd from an adaptation of Owen Johnson's novel, written by Adela Rogers St. Johns, Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton.-Plot:...

     (1927)
  • The Case of Lena Smith
    The Case of Lena Smith
    The Case of Lena Smith is an American film directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Esther Ralston and James Hall, and released by Paramount Pictures...

     (1929)
  • Betrayal
    Betrayal
    Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations...

     (1929)
  • Rome Express
    Rome Express
    Rome Express is a British film directed by Walter Forde and written by Sidney Gilliat and Clifford Grey. -Cast:*Esther Ralston - Asta Marvelle*Conrad Veidt - Zurta*Harold Huth - George Grant*Frank Vosper - M...

     (1932; made in the UK)
  • To the Last Man
    To the Last Man (1933 film)
    To the Last Man is a 1933 western film directed by Henry Hathaway. The screenplay by Jack Cunningham was based on a story by Zane Grey. The film is about a feud between the Colby and the Hayden families, initiated in the hills of Kentucky and continued in the West after the Civil War...

     (1933)
  • Sadie McKee
    Sadie McKee
    Sadie McKee is a 1934 motion picture, directed by Clarence Brown, and starring Joan Crawford, Gene Raymond, Franchot Tone and Edward Arnold. In the film, Crawford plays the title character—a young working girl suffering through three troubled relationships on her road to prosperity.-Synopsis:Sadie...

     (1934)
  • Reunion (1936)
  • Jungle Menace
    Jungle Menace
    -External links:* * * **...

    (1937)

External links

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