Anna Laughlin
American actress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anna Laughlin (October 11, 1883 – April 5, 1937[1]) was an American actress on stage and in silent films. In 1902, she became the first actress to play Dorothy Gale.
Anna Laughlin | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | October 11, 1883 Sacramento, California, U.S. |
| Died | April 5, 1937 (aged 53) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, NY) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouse |
Dwight V. Monroe
(m. 1904; died 1921) |
| Children | Lucy Monroe |
Early life
Anna Laughlin was born in Sacramento, California. She began appearing on stage as a "child elocutionist",[2] and then in vaudeville and touring companies.[3]
Career
Laughlin went to New York as a young teenager, and was in Broadway shows by 1900's The Belle of Bohemia. In 1902, at age 19, she played Dorothy Gale in a musical production of The Wizard of Oz that started in Chicago and ran on Broadway through 1904.[4] Other shows featuring Laughlin included His Majesty (1906), The Top o' th' World (1907),[5] Mama's Boy (1912), When Claudia Smiles (1914). She also had a solo variety show in 1909. "Miss Laughlin is such a demure, pretty, and winsome little body that her appearance alone is sufficient to please the most hardened playgoer or vaudeville attendant," commented a New York reviewer, "but when combined with her truly artistic singing, it is a treat that none can fail to enjoy.[6] In widowhood she had a brief comeback on Broadway in 1925, in The Fall Guy.[7]
Laughlin appeared in more than a dozen silent films, all made between 1913 and 1915, including The Rebellious Pupil (1913, a short), Northern Lights (1914), The Greyhound (1914), The Amazing Mr. Fellman (1915), and What Happened to Father (1915), Crooky Scruggs (1915) and The Crown Prince's Double (1916).[8]
Personal life
Laughlin married Dwight "Van" Monroe (1874-1921), a jeweler, in 1904.[9] They had a daughter, Lucy Monroe,[10] who became a noted singer.[11] Laughlin was widowed by 1925 and died by suicide from gas poisoning in 1937, in New York. She was 53 years old.[12]
In 2011, Anna Laughlin's personal copy of The Wizard of Oz was auctioned on eBay.[13]
