Francelia Billington

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Francelia Billington (1 February 1895 – 24 November 1934) was an early American silent-screen actress, and an accomplished camera operator.

Early life

Billington was in born in Dallas, Texas, the daughter of James Billington and his wife, musician Adelaide Bueter. She was born and raised on a ranch, allowing her to become an expert at horsemanship, which later served her in a movie career that was to consist of a number of Westerns. She attended school at a convent where, at a very early age, she began playing parts in plays. When she was 10 years old, she moved to New Orleans and continued her interest in outdoor activities, becoming quite accomplished at swimming, diving and rowing.

Career

She began working in films for the Kalem Company's West Coast studio in 1912, then she moved to Reliance-Majestic Studios the following year, and continued starring in films under its banner when D. W. Griffith became the studio's director-general. Billington made The Half Breed with Jack Pickford in 1913. The production was filmed at the old Majestic Studio on Boyle Heights.

Billington left Majestic in 1915, and following her association with the Palo Alto Film Corporation, where she worked with Nell Shipman, one of the most remarkable figures in film history, on the uncompleted film Wanda of the Red Street, she joined Universal. There she played leads for such directors as Rupert Julian and Rex Ingram. In 1917, she went over to The American Film Company in Santa Barbara to star in features directed by Edward Sloman. Her return to Universal in 1918 brought her a co-starring role in one of the silent film's true cinematic milestones, Erich von Stroheim's directorial debut, Blind Husbands. Billington played the wife and Sam De Grasse the husband. Although her performance brought praise from the critics, the Fates had no great roles waiting for Billington, and she continued in a mix of undistinguished melodramas, Westerns and action films.

Later years

Billington's level of film production slowed down with only five total films in 1918 and 1919. One of her 1920s features was a Western genre film with Tom Mix, entitled Desert Love. Later that year, she returned once again to Rex Ingram's directorship with Hearts are Trumps. Billington acted the role of Sybil Sayre in the first film made for the Ray Rockett Film Corporation, in 1920. She was cast with Betty Blythe in The Truant Husband (1921). The screenplay was based on a story penned by Albert Payson Terhune which had recently appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine. Billington supported Madge Bellamy in The White Sin (1924).

Marriage

In October 1920 Billington married Lester Cuneo at the Riverside Inn in Riverside, California. They resided at Cuneo's home in Beverly Hills, California. The couple appeared in fourteen films together, with their last two features in 1925, but apparently the marriage was on the rocks well before that. Despondent over the breakdown of the marriage and the downhill slide of his film career, Cuneo committed suicide by shooting himself on November 2, 1925, supposedly two days after his divorce from Billington became final.

Death

Billington's health was visibly declining at the beginning of 1934. She died from tuberculosis, there were no obituaries in the trade papers, and her death went unnoticed by the film industry and the public.