Frances Carson

Frances Carson (April 1, 1895 – October 20, 1973) was an American actress who worked on stage and in film across a career spanning three decades. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she began acting and modeling professionally while still in her teens.

Carson's stage career encompassed work both on Broadway and in London's West End. Her Broadway appearances began in 1914 with Poor Little Thing, in which she performed alongside her husband, British actor Eric Blind, whom she had married the previous year. Subsequent Broadway credits included The White Feather (1915), The Riddle: Woman (1918–1919), The Hottentot (1920), The Bad Man (1920), The Scarlet Man (1921), The Blue Lagoon (1921), Two Married Men (1925), Potiphar's Wife (1928), The First Law (1929), Slightly Scandalous (1944), and The Visitor (1944). Her Broadway work continued through 1944, a span of thirty years.

In London, Carson built an equally substantial stage career. Her West End credits included Glamour (1922), The Love Habit (1923), R.U.R. (1923, opposite Basil Rathbone), The Last Warning (1923), Havoc (1924), The Happy Hangman (1925), The Silver Fox (1925), Virginia's Husband (1926), Aloma: A Tale of the South Seas (1926–1927), These Internationals (1928), and The Barker (1928). A notable London engagement came in 1926 when she played Salome in Leonid Andreyev's Katerina alongside John Gielgud; her costume for the role was considered sufficiently revealing that a censor required her to wear a shawl during performances. Carson also worked as a playwright, co-writing The Unknown Woman, which was produced in London in 1927.

Her public profile extended beyond the stage. Her costumes attracted attention in fashion columns, and British Pathé filmed a short newsreel in 1924 featuring Carson having her fingernails painted by artist Arthur Ferrier. That same year she attended a séance with P. G. Wodehouse, Hannen Swaffer, and Donald Calthrop, and believed she received contact from her late husband during the session. Noël Coward recorded seeing her dining with Irving Berlin and Elsie Janis at the Algonquin Hotel. A 1917 critical notice by Giles P. Cain observed that Carson possessed "decided marks of individuality of speech and manner."

Carson also maintained a film career, appearing in Java Head (1934), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Smilin' Through (1941), Two-Faced Woman (1941), Saboteur (1942), Framing Father (1942), Scattergood Rides High (1942), and Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Three of these films — Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, and Shadow of a Doubt — were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Her husband Eric Blind died suddenly of pneumonia in 1916, three years after their marriage. By 1940 Carson was living in Los Angeles with fellow actress Blanche Yurka. She died on October 20, 1973, at the age of 78. A 1920 photograph of Carson is held in the collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.