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Anna Townsend
Townsend (right) with Harold Lloyd in Grandma's Boy
Born	(1845-01-05)January 5, 1845 Utica, New York
Died	September 11, 1923(1923-09-11) (aged 78) Los Angeles, California, US
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1913-1923
Children	1

Mrs. Anna Townsend (January 5, 1845 – 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, Townsend is probably best known for her role as Harold's good-hearted grandmother in Grandma's Boy (1922). That film was developed around Townsend's personality.

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.

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. 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 ever considered pursuing acting as a profession."

Personal life and death

Married at least once and predeceased by her husband, Mrs. Townsend died on September 11, 1923, at her home in Los Angeles, apparently due to an unspecified illness contracted two months earlier while sightseeing at Yosemite National Park.

She was survived, at the very least, by one grown child, a daughter. Moreover, judging from a profile of Townsend published that spring, in which references made to both "grown-up children" and "grandchildren" figure prominently, there were almost certainly additional survivors.

Filmography

References

1. ^ "Aged Film Actress Is Dead Here". Los Angeles Times. September 12, 1923. p. II 10.
2. Klepper, Robert K. (2005). Silent Films, 1877-1996: A Critical Guide to 646 Movies. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-7864-2164-0. 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.
3. ^ "Anna Townsend, Screen's Best Known Grandma, Dead". The Sacramento Bee. September 29, 1923. p. 39. Retrieved April 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "'Grandma' Anna Townsend Is 79, Spry as Cricket". Los Angeles Evening Express. June 10, 1922. p. 9. Retrieved April 6, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
5. ^ "Grandma Adored at Roach Studio". Daily Gazette-Martinez. April 4, 1923. p. 4. Retrieved September 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Mrs. Anna Townsend 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.
6. ^ "Anna Townsend, Actress, Dies". The Times Herald. Michigan, Port Huron. September 12, 1923. p. 1. Retrieved March 28, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
7. "Anna Townsend". The New York Times. September 13, 1923. p. 19. Retrieved April 5, 2023.

External links

• Anna Townsend at IMDb

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• American film actresses
• American silent film actresses
• 20th-century American actresses
• Actresses from New York (state)
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