Edwina Booth

Edwina Booth (born Josephine Constance Woodruff; September 13, 1904 – May 18, 1991) was an American actress. She is best known for the 1931 film Trader Horn, during the filming of which she contracted an illness which effectively ended her movie career.

Early life and discovery She was born in Provo, Utah on September 13, 1904, to James Lloyd Woodruff and Josephine Booth Woodruff. She was the oldest of their five children. Her father was a doctor. She suffered from hypoglycemia, which left her with little energy and kept her from completing any full year of school. Her family moved to Venice, California, in 1921 due to her father contracting influenza. As a young adult, Woodruff watched many movies during her free time.

When Booth left the United States, she had a fever of 104. She fainted that evening during dinner, and was put in the care of Olive Carey, the wife of actor Harry Carey, who had accompanied him to the shoot. (In an interview with Dick Cavett in 1973, Katharine Hepburn said Booth contracted schistosomiasis, and incorrectly stated that Booth had died.) At night, she suffered from insomnia and blinding headaches. She claimed she had been forced to sunbathe nude for extended periods during filming. amounting to at least $600,000 in today's money.

Booth's acting career never recovered. Neither MGM nor the other major studios had any intentions of employing her, which created an opportunity for producer Nat Levine of the low-budget Mascot Pictures. Levine saw a chance to capitalize on the success of Trader Horn by reuniting its stars Harry Carey and Edwina Booth for two adventure serials, The Vanishing Legion and The Last of the Mohicans. The films were successful within their limited market, but failed to propel Booth's movie career forward.

Later years In 1935, Booth and her father went to Europe to seek medical treatment. When she returned to the United States, she was confined to a dark room. She refused to talk of her time as a movie star later in her life. Booth withdrew completely from the public eye, although she continued to receive fan mail for the rest of her life. She declared that she would be dedicating all of her future leisure and a large proportion of her earnings to the alleviation of human suffering, "My years of illness have not been wasted," she informed the local press. "I have learned to love mankind." She became more active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and worked in the Los Angeles California Temple.

Marriages Booth was married three times. All the unions were childless. Anthony Shuck, her first husband, had their marriage annulled soon after her return from Africa. She married her second husband, Urial Leo Higham, on November 21, 1951; he died in 1956. Her third husband was Reinold Fehlberg. They were married from 1959 until his death in 1983. There were many false rumors and reports of her demise until her actual death on May 18, 1991.

She died of heart failure in Long Beach, California. and is buried in Santa Monica's Woodlawn Cemetery.

Filmography