Beth Franklyn (1870s – March 5, 1956) was an American actress.
Early life
Franklyn was born in San Francisco in 1873 or 1875 (sources vary), the daughter of William Payne Barnes and Margaret Barnes.[1][2]
Career
By 1901,[3] Franklyn had joined the Albaugh Palace Theatre Company in Baltimore,[4][5] and was John Albaugh's leading lady for several years.[6][7] She was a member of Amelia Bingham's company in 1908.[8]
Franklyn's Broadway credits included roles in Shameen Dhu (1914),[9]The Revolt (1915),[10]Some Baby! (1915),[11]The Blue Envelope (1916),[12]The Love Drive (1917),[13]Pot Luck (1921), The New Poor (1924),[14][15] and A Slight Case of Murder (1935). Other stage appearances included roles in Chimmie Fadden (1896),[16]Sowing the Wind (1901),[3]Her Trial Marriage (1907), Alias Jimmy Valentine (1912),[17]The Blue Mouse (1912),[18]Nobody's Widow (1915),[19]The Girl of the Golden West (1915),[20][21]Oh Look! (1919) with the Dolly Sisters and Harry Fox,[6]Clarence (1921),[22]The Cat and the Canary (1922) with Florence Eldridge and Henry Hull,[23][24] and Butter and Egg Man (1927).[25] She was known for playing Irish characters.[26]
Franklyn appeared in a silent film, Nothing but the Truth (1920). She also directed school theatrical productions in Baltimore.[6] She favored the tango ("Let everybody dance the tango, if he or she sees fit to do it properly, and living with be better"), and women's suffrage, "but I do not believe in militancy. I think it is just horrid for women to fight," she commented in 1914.[27]
Personal life
Franklyn was reported to have secretly married to Richard Wallach in 1897.[28] She lived with Jane T. Pillsbury, "her companion and friend of 50 years".[29] She died in 1956 in Baltimore, in her eighties.[30]
