Ethel Fleming

Ethel Fleming (December 27, 1890 – December 26, 1965) was an American actress and swimmer born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Barton Evans Fleming and Sara A. Kennedy. She had an older brother, Clayton Evans Fleming, born in 1887. Fleming grew up in New York City and received her education in Cleveland.

Before pursuing a career on stage, Fleming was known as an accomplished endurance swimmer, earning the informal title of "the surf girl" for spending as many as four hours daily in the water during summer months. She was recognized in her home community of Staten Island for swimming distances of up to seven miles before being retrieved by boats, and was widely regarded as strong and athletic with a keen interest in outdoor sports.

Fleming began her acting career around 1909, initially working as a chorus girl. Her Broadway debut came in October 1910 with the musical The Summer Widowers at the Alvin Theater, which marked the first occasion she traveled outside New York City with a theatrical company. The production took the company as far as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her parents expressed concern about her touring until they were assured that the company's members were carefully chaperoned.

In 1918, Fleming appeared in a stage production of The Pretender, taking on a leading role opposite actor William Desmond. She later reunited with Desmond in the 1923 production of The Fighting Pretender, again in a leading capacity. Her film career began with Famous Players, and she also took on roles in Fox and Edison productions. Among her more prominent film credits were The Pretender, The Silent Rider, and Smiles. Her partial filmography includes East Lynne (1916), Under Cover (1916), The Kiss (1916), Love Insurance (1919), Smiles (1919), and The Wonderful Thing (1921).

Fleming met actor William Courtleigh Jr. during the summer of 1915 while visiting Los Angeles to study screen acting. The two encountered each other on multiple occasions over a short period, and after a courtship of just three weeks, Courtleigh suggested on an impromptu day off that they obtain a marriage license. Fleming recalled the event as having happened with unexpected speed, noting that she was directed to sign a document by a clerk before fully registering what was occurring. The couple married on July 25, 1915, in Long Beach, California, and were living together in a bungalow by August of that year. Courtleigh died of pneumonia in 1918.

In April 1921, Fleming was reported to have consumed carbolic acid while riding in a taxi with fellow film actor Joseph King. She was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in a dangerous condition. Fleming maintained the incident was accidental and declined to discuss it further with reporters, though one account suggested the act may have been connected to despondency over a lack of employment.