Edna Goodrich

(1883-1971)

Beautiful and audacious, Edna Goodrich made her mark on Broadway in 1903 in "The Runaways" following it up with the smash hit, "The Rollicking Girl." A willful, extravagant personality, her marriage to the eccentric comedian-actor Nat Goodwin was newspaper fodder, particularly after the marriage fell apart and Goodwin attempted to renege on a $1,700,000 prenuptial settlement he had made upon her. (She later attempted to novelize the affair). Often on the road, she worked the London stage, returning only after all the publicity from the divorce playing the heroine in "Evangeline," and earning the critical comment that she looked somehow less convincing in simple dresses than in modish high fashion. She went from Broadway to vaudeville, and when she saw that the tide of opinion was moving against her, jumped into the films. During World War I she made eighteen feature films playing the lead. She retired in 1918. David S. Shields/ALS