CLAIRE WINDSOR

Claire Windsor (born Clara Viola Cronk) was an actress from the 1910s to the 1940s. She was born in Kansas in 1892, and as a teen, studied voice and piano in Seattle. She went to Hollywood at the start of the 1920s, and she changed her birth date to 1895, so she would be younger! It worked, because she got the lead in Lois Weber's "What Do Men Want?" in 1921, and she was one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1922. In 1921, she changed her name from Clara Cronk to Claire Windsor, because screenwriter Frances Marion correctly told her that "Clara Cronk" was no name for a movie star! In the early 1930s, with her movie career waning, she performed with Al Jolson in his stage shows, and pretty much retired soon after. Some of her movies include: Kiss of Araby, Money Talks, and The White Desert. She passed away in 1972 at the age of 80.