Claire's credited film debut was in To Please One Woman (1920) following four uncredited roles. Her break came when she was spotted by Paramount's director and producer Lois Weber, who signed her to co-star with Louis Calhern in The Blot (1921). Then in 1922 the newly formed Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers named Claire a WAMPAS baby star. That same year she signed a contract with Goldwyn Pictures Corporation.
Throughout the twenties, Claire's career progressed rapidly and she was often cast as a denizen of high society. Interestingly, this is in stark contrast to her role in The Blot as the daughter of a lowly paid professor living on the poorer side of town. She was cited for her sophisticated fashion sense, and became a trend-setter of twenties fashion. Her films included Born Rich (1924) and A Son of the Sahara (1924), both co-starring Bert Lytell, whom Claire would marry in 1925 and divorce two years later, Dance Madness (1926) with Conrad Nagel, and as a jewel thief opposite Victor Mclaglen in Captain Lash (1929). Unfortunately, Claire did not fair well with the advent of talkies. Of her 58 films, only seven were made after 1930, with none to any acclaim. In her later years, Claire devoted herself to painting.
Claire died in 1972 Los Angeles, California. She has a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd.
Photoplay magazine - May 1922
Frame captures from The Blot
Photoplay magazine - June 1927A bit ironic to see Claire hawking wedding rings the year of her second divorce.
Stars of the Photoplay - 1930
Undated postcardClaire Windsor - What do you think - Allure?
7 comments:
In remarkable coincidence, I am currently dubbing my VHS onto DVD and am looking at Claire Windsor right now in the 1925 MGM Studio Tour short.
Stacia, I went through the dubbing process a couple of years ago and discovered people I had not realized had some role in a particular film - kinda fun.
BTW, I have to say that after watching The Blot, I would categorize Claire as being more charming than alluring, at least in that film.
I am glad to see that you got Claire's birthplace correct and the birth year of 1892 is verrifyable in the 1900 Federal Census, Kansas, Mitchell County, Cawker City under the parent's names of George and Rosella Cronk. The birth years of Ola and her sister Nellie are given. The last picture on this web page is not of Claire. I saw it up on eBay recently but have never seen it before in all my research of Claire for our local museum. By the way, Claire (Ola) was still two years old when the Cronk family moved to Cawker City to open a general merchandise store.
Another tidbit, "Claire" was 22 when she got married the first time. Once in Hollywood, she never gave her correct age and even claimed that her first marriage failed because she was only 16 years old ! Even her tombstone does not have dates on it.
I'll have to check that last image, because all the pictures come from my own files - original magazines, postcards and films. Not sure where that one is at this point, but I'll try to track it down. Thanks for the additional information on Claire and her wily birthday antics :-)
The questionable photo above is of Anna Q. Nilsson and not Claire Windsor. You can verrify it through the Hemetsphere store on eBay where they are selling reprints of the same photo.
ANON, yup and verified with the images I have of Anna Q. Color her gone from here and will return when I actually put up an Anna Q. post :-)
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