Josephine Crowell

Josephine Bonaparte Crowell (January 11, 1859 – July 27, 1932) was a Canadian actress whose career spanned theater, vaudeville, and silent film. Born in Barrington, Nova Scotia, she was the only child of Captain Nathan Crowell and Susan E. Shepherd. Over the course of her professional life, Crowell accumulated credits across multiple performance disciplines, appearing in more than 90 films between 1912 and 1929.

Crowell began her theatrical career in 1879 and went on to perform in vaudeville as well. Her Broadway work brought her to the stage in 1902, when she appeared in Captain Molly, playing the role of Mrs. Pitcher.

She transitioned into film in 1912 with The School Teacher and the Waif, and by 1919 had accumulated approximately 50 screen appearances, a significant portion of which were short films. Among her most prominent early film work were two productions directed by D.W. Griffith: the 1915 historical drama The Birth of a Nation, in which she portrayed Mrs. Cameron, and the 1916 epic Intolerance, in which she played Catherine de' Medici.

Crowell remained active throughout the 1920s. In 1920 she appeared alongside Gladys Brockwell in Flames of the Flesh and completed six additional film appearances that same year. Between 1921 and 1929 she took on 34 more roles, including Hot Water, in which she played Harold Lloyd's mother-in-law, and the 1925 production The Splendid Crime, starring Bebe Daniels. Her final screen appearance came in the 1929 Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy film Wrong Again, after which the arrival of sound film brought her career to an end.

Earlier in her career, Crowell had married actor Emile La Croix. She was living in Amityville, New York at the time of her death, and died on July 27, 1932, at the Brunswick Home in Amityville at the age of 73.