Adele Blood

Adele Mary Blood was an American actress born on April 23, 1886, in Alameda, California, to Ira E. Blood and Frances Emma Stewart. Her mother held a position within the Alameda school department. In her youth, Blood demonstrated skill as an equestrienne and maintained an interest in fashion. She died on September 13, 1936, in Port Chester, New York.

Blood's stage career began at the California Theatre in San Francisco, where she portrayed Marguerite opposite Lewis Morrison in his production of Faust. She went on to appear in additional theatrical productions including The Unmasking, All Rivers Meet the Sea, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Her role in the latter was with the stock company of actor and clergyman Edward Davis, who had previously served as pastor of the First Christian Church in Oakland, California. Blood and Davis married, though the union proved turbulent. She initiated divorce proceedings in 1914, naming actress Jule Power as co-respondent. Davis filed counter charges, naming Governor Earl Brewer of Mississippi as co-respondent against Blood. Blood ultimately prevailed in the divorce suit, after which she traveled on a tour of the Orient. She subsequently entered a brief marriage to an Englishman named Waddell Hope.

Blood performed in vaudeville venues throughout the country and spent five years starring in Everywoman. Her Broadway appearances spanned from 1914 to 1918 and included the productions He Didn't Want to Do It, Mile-a-Minute Kendall, and Boudoir. She also appeared in two motion pictures: The Devil's Toy in 1916 and The Riddle: Woman in 1920.

By December 1917, Blood had announced her retirement from performing. During this period she served as the devoted companion of her former foster mother, Susanna Holmes, referred to as the "Silver Queen," and was named an heir to Holmes's fortune. Blood later expressed the view that both wealth and social position fostered a philosophy of pessimism. She eventually returned to the stage upon accepting an offer from the Oriental company of Tim Frawley. In 1926, while in Kashmir, she met Colonel R.W. Castle, an English officer in the Indian service, to whom she became engaged, with a wedding planned in Calcutta.

On the night of September 13, 1936, Blood's seventeen-year-old daughter, Dawn, returned home to find her mother in conversation with two men in the living room. Blood excused herself and went upstairs, where a gunshot was heard shortly afterward. Dawn and the two men found Blood unconscious on the bedroom floor, having shot herself with a .52 caliber revolver. She died at a hospital hours later. Her possessions were subsequently auctioned and sold for one thousand dollars.