Jobyna Ralston

Jobyna Ralston, born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston on November 21, 1899, in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, was an American actress who worked in both stage and film. She was the daughter of Joseph Lancaster Raulston and Sarah E. Kemp Raulston, and was named after actress Jobyna Howland. Her mother, a portrait photographer, directed her daughter toward a career in show business from an early age. Ralston had a younger brother, Edward Angus, born in 1905.

Her first stage appearance came at age nine, when she performed as Cinderella at the grand opening of the Wilson Theatre and Opera House in 1909. Around 1915, she attended acting school in New York, where she subsequently worked as a chorus dancer and singer in Broadway productions. Her Broadway debut came in 1921, when she appeared in the musical Two Little Girls in Blue at age twenty-one. Comedian Max Linder saw her perform and encouraged her to pursue work in Hollywood, where she appeared in several of his films. That same year she co-starred in Humor Risk, a short comedy film intended to serve as the Marx Brothers' film debut, which became a notable lost film. Director Hal Roach also began casting her in one-reel comedies during this period. In 1922, as her mother's health declined and medical expenses mounted, Ralston left the stage to focus on screen work.

In 1923, the film industry named Ralston one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, an annual recognition given to promising up-and-coming actresses. That year she starred opposite silent comedian Harold Lloyd in Why Worry?, beginning a working relationship that spanned seven feature films over the following five years. She became closely associated with Lloyd through these performances and the on-screen chemistry the two shared.

Working as a freelance actress, Ralston co-starred with Richard Arlen in Wings in 1927, the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film also featured Clara Bow, Gary Cooper, and Buddy Rogers, and Ralston held a featured role throughout. That same year she appeared in Special Delivery alongside Eddie Cantor, one of eleven additional motion pictures in which she starred during this period. Her film career concluded after two early sound productions. Her final talking picture, Rough Waters, released in 1930, featured her acting opposite Rin Tin Tin.

Ralston was married twice. Her first marriage was to childhood beau John Campbell. In 1927 she married actor Richard Arlen, whom she had met on the set of Wings. The couple had one child, actor Richard Arlen Jr., and the family appeared together in Hollywood on Parade #A-4. Ralston and Arlen divorced in late 1946.

During the final five years of her life, Ralston suffered from rheumatism and experienced a series of strokes. She died on January 22, 1967, from pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of sixty-seven.