Frances Howard Goldwyn (née McLaughlin; June 4, 1903 – July 2, 1976) was an American actress. She was the second wife of producer

Samuel Goldwyn Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor an ...

, and the paternal grandmother of actors

Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

and

John Goldwyn John Howard Goldwyn (born August 10, 1958) is an American film producer. Biography Goldwyn was born on August 10, 1958, in Los Angeles, California, the son of producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr., and his wife, film and stage actress Jennifer Howard. ...

Early life

Frances Howard McLaughlin was born in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

, or

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

, in 1903 to Helen Victoria (née Howard) and Charles Douglas McLaughlin. She was raised as a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Her mother, nicknamed "Bonnie", had been raised a Quaker but converted to Catholicism, predeceasing her daughter by only five years. Her father was reportedly a grandson of Irish nationalist politician

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

. Howard had two sisters and a brother.

Career

Howard began her professional career at age 16 with a stock theater company. When she was 21, Howard portrayed a

flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered accepta ...

on Broadway in ''The Intimate Stranger''. She followed that part with another flapper role in ''The Best People''. Paramount signed her to a five-year contract, and she co-starred in the film ''The Swan''. She also appeared in ''Too Many Kisses'' (1925). She had the contract canceled when she decided to marry.

Personal life

Howard married Samuel Goldwyn, more than two decades her senior, on April 23, 1925. They remained married until Goldwyn's death on January 31, 1974. They had one son,

Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Samuel John Goldwyn Jr. (September 7, 1926 – January 9, 2015) was an American film producer. Early life Samuel Goldwyn Jr. was born on September 7, 1926, in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Frances Howard (born Frances Howard McL ...

; their grandsons are actors

and

Death

On July 2, 1976, at the age of 73, Howard died in Beverly Hills, California more than a year after being diagnosed with advanced cancer, for which she refused treatment which would have required invasive and disfiguring surgery. She was interred next to her husband at

Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original and current flagship location of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries, a chain of six cemeteries and four additional mortuaries in Southern Cal ...

Filmography

Howard made four films between 1925 and 1935: * ''

Too Many Kisses ''Too Many Kisses'' is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by Paul Sloane that is based on the John Monk Saunders story "A Maker of Gestures."

'' (1925) as Yvonne Hurja * ''

The Swan A swan is a bird of the genus ''Cygnus'' (true swans) or ''Coscoroba'' (coscoroba swans). Swan, swans, or The Swan may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Film and television * ''The Swan'' (1925 film), a 1925 silent film * ''The Swa ...

'' (1925) as Alexandra, The Swan * ''

The Shock Punch ''The Shock Punch'' is a 1925 American silent boxing drama film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It starred Richard Dix and Frances Howard. Plot Coming face-to-face with a couple of ruffians, champion bo ...

'' (1925) as Dorothy Clark * ''

Mary Burns, Fugitive ''Mary Burns, Fugitive'' is a 1935 American drama film directed by William K. Howard. Sylvia Sidney plays a small-town coffee-shop owner who falls for a gangster, ends up in prison and then released in a scheme to trap him. Plot Mary Burns (S ...

'' (1935) as Landlady

Legacy

The Hollywood Branch Library in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles is named for Howard and acts as an archival repository for many

film history The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art, visual art form created using history of film technology, film technologies that began in the late 19th century. The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. ...

collections. The library was funded by The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation in 1982 after the predecessor building was destroyed in an arson fire.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Frances 1903 births 1976 deaths American people of Irish descent American film actresses American silent film actresses Actresses from Omaha, Nebraska Catholics from Nebraska Catholics from California People from Greater Los Angeles Deaths from cancer in California Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) 20th-century American actresses Goldwyn family University of Nebraska alumni