Mrs. Anna Townsend (January 5, 1845[citation needed] – September 11, 1923) was a silent film actress who first turned to acting as a career very late in life. Featured in several Harold Lloyd films,[1] Townsend is probably best known for her role as Harold's good-hearted grandmother in Grandma's Boy (1922).[2] That film was developed around Townsend's personality.[3]
Early life and career
Townsend was born in Utica, New York. She moved from there to Los Angeles in 1885. Her film career began in 1919.[1]
According to a 1922 profile published in the Los Angeles Evening Express, Townsend's sole acting experience prior to her brief silent screen heyday was an even briefer pre-Civil War tour of duty with the Holman Light Opera Company.[4] This was in large part corroborated the following year by the Sacramento Bee, whose obituary for Townsend states that the actress's emergence "three years ago" constituted the first time "she [had] ever considered pursuing acting as a profession."[3]
Personal life and death
Married at least once and predeceased by her husband,[5] Mrs. Townsend died on September 11, 1923, at her home in Los Angeles,[6] apparently due to an unspecified illness contracted two months earlier while sightseeing at Yosemite National Park.[3]
She was survived, at the very least, by one grown child, a daughter.[7][6] Moreover, judging from a profile of Townsend published that spring, in which references made to both "grown-up children" and "grandchildren" figure prominently,[5] there were almost certainly additional survivors.
^Klepper, Robert K. (2005). Silent Films, 1877-1996: A Critical Guide to 646 Movies. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company. p. 290. ISBN978-0-7864-2164-0. Josephine Crowell as the mother-in-law does in Hot Water what Anna Townsend did for Grandma's Boy (1922); she steals the show in virtually every sequence she appears in.
^ ab"Grandma Adored at Roach Studio". Daily Gazette-Martinez. April 4, 1923. p. 4. Retrieved September 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Mrs. Anna Townsend [is] an adorable little lady who boasts of her seventy-nine summers. Mrs. Townsend is a widow who lives in a spic-and-span house, quite independent of her grown-up children. [...] She worked for two years at the studio before letting her children know about it. One day there was a family party at the theatre. 'Oh, there's our Granny,' one of the grandchildren cried.
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