Charlotte Walker

Charlotte Ganahl Walker (December 20, 1876 – March 23, 1958) was a Broadway theater actress.[2]

For the singer formerly known as Charlotte Walker, see Lotta Hedlund.

Charlotte Walker
Walker in 1902 Broadway play The Crisis
Born
Charlotte Ganahl Walker

(1876-12-20)December 20, 1876 or 1878
Galveston, Texas, U.S.
DiedMarch 23, 1958(1958-03-23) (aged 81)
Kerrville, Texas, U.S.
Resting placeOld City Cemetery, Galveston County, Texas, U.S.[1]
OccupationActress
Years active1900–1941
Spouse(s)Dr. John Haden (1896–div.1903?)
Eugene Walter (m.1908–div.1923)
Children2, including Sara Haden

Early life

Charlotte Ganahl Walker was born on December 20, 1876 in Galveston, Texas to Edwin A. Walker (1849–1889) and Charlisa (De Ganahl) Walker (1855–1934).

Walker as sketched by Marguerite Martyn, 1910

Stage actress

Walker made her stage debut as a teen in 1893. At nineteen 1895 she performed in London, England in a comedy called The Mummy and in the same year performed with Richard Mansfield. Later, she returned to her native Texas after marrying and had two children. She returned to the stage in 1901 and appeared with James A. Herne. She was a leading lady with James K. Hackett from 1901-1905. In 1907 she appeared in the Broadway hit The Warrens of Virginia whose cast also had Gladys Smith (later Mary Pickford) and Cecil B. DeMille. She appeared as June in Trail of the Lonesome Pine, in 1911.[3] She would later reprise the role in Cecil B. DeMille's 1916 film Trail of the Lonesome Pine. David Belasco noticed her in On Parole. He signed her for starring roles in plays The Warrens of Virginia, Just a Wife, and Call The Doctor. Each of the Belasco productions was staged prior to World War I.

She continued to act on the Broadway stage. In 1923 she played with Ethel Barrymore in The School For Scandal. It was produced by the Player's Club.

Films

Walker's motion picture career began in 1915 with Kindling and Out of the Darkness. Sloth (1917) is a five-reeler which features Walker. In the third reel of this film she plays a youthful Dutch maid who is about sixteen years old. The setting is an old Dutch settlement on Staten Island, New York. The theme stresses the perils of indolence to a nation of people. It cautions against permitting luxury to replace the simple life led by America's forebears. In her later silent film work Walker can be seen in The Midnight Girl (1925) starring alongside a pre-Dracula Bela Lugosi. The Midnight Girl is one of Walker's few silents that survives.

As a film actress Walker continued to perform in films into the early 1930s. Her later screen performances include roles in Lightnin' (1930), Millie (1931), Salvation Nell (1931), and Hotel Variety (1933).

Personal life

Walker married her first husband, Dr. John B. Haden, on November 16, 1896 in New York City. With him she had two daughters, Beatrice Shelton Haden (born 1897) and Katherine Haden (b. 1899), who was known as the actress Sara Haden. After her divorce, she returned to the stage. Dr. Haden died in 1930. Her second husband, Eugene Walter, was a playwright who adapted the novel The Trail of the Lonesome Pine for the Broadway stage. The second marriage also ended in divorce in 1930.

Charlotte Walker died in 1958 at a hospital in Kerrville, Texas at age 81.

Filmography
Pardners (1917)

Silent

Sound

References
Notes
  1. Accustomed to her Face
  2. Charlotte Walker; North American Theatre Online site offered to most colleges and universities for free
  3. Great Actors and Actresses of the American Stage: In Historic Photographs, p.43 #111 c.1983 edit. by Stanley Appelbaum..Retrieved August 8, 2018
Bibliography
  • Janesville Daily Gazette, Monday, October 23, 1916, Page 6.
  • The New York Times, "Charlotte Walker, Actress, Dies at 81; Star on Broadway in World War I Era".
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