Francelia Billington

Francelia Billington was born in Dallas, TX, and raised on a ranch. She became an expert horseman, and was on stage from an early age. The pretty young Texan made the journey to Hollywood and became a star of westerns and melodramas, first working with the Kalem Film Co. in 1912 and then moving on to Reliance-Majestic and Thanhouser the following year. She starred in many films for legendary director D.W. Griffith and later joined Universal Pictures, where she worked with such directors as Rupert Julian and Rex Ingram (she didn't confine herself to just horse operas, though. One of her best roles was in Erich von Stroheim's epic Blind Husbands (1919)). She also starred alongside her husband Lester Cuneo in many westerns in the 1920s (he committed suicide after their marriage broke up in 1925). She died of tuberculosis in 1934, at the tragically young age of 39.