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Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland.
Her mother, a portrait photographer, carefully groomed her daughter for a show business career. At the age of nine she gave her first stage performance playing the “Prince” in the school play “Cinderella” during the grand opening ceremony for the Wilson Theatre/Opera House in downtown South Pittsburg in 1909.
Around 1915, Jobyna attended acting school in New York and later danced chorus and sang in Broadway productions, her first being Two Little Girls in Blue. This production marked her Broadway debut, when she was 21.
Comedian Max Linder saw her on stage and persuaded her to go to Hollywood, where she appeared in a number of his films. Jobyna traveled to California in late 1921 where she played extras for a while before landing the role of leading lady in 1923 to comedian Harold Lloyd of silent-film-fame.
She abandoned the stage for the screen in 1922 when her mother's health began to decline, and she needed to make more money to help pay the medical bills. She later played the part of “Sylvia Lewis” in the motion picture “Wings”, which starred Jobyna’s future husband, Richard Arlen. The film was the first to ever receive an Oscar film award.
After marrying Arlen in 1927, Jobyna began to wind down her acting career and made her last film appearance in 1931. In 1933, she became a mother after the birth of the Arlen’s son that May.
Jobyna appeared in over 100 films during her acting career. During the last five years of her life Ralston suffered from rheumatism and had a series of strokes. She died in Los Angeles, California, January 22, 1967 from complications of pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. She was 67 years old.
Biography:
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Categories: United States of America, Notables | Notables | Actors | San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California