Jobyna Howland

Jobyna Howland (March 31, 1880 – June 7, 1936) was an American stage and screen actress.

Early years Howland was born on March 31, 1880, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Career

Having performed as an amateur actress, Howland left her Denver, Colorado, home to seek professional work on stage. In December 1897, Howland appeared in A Milk White Flag at the Tacoma Theater in Tacoma, Washington. She also performed in San Francisco. There, she joined a company headed by Clay Clement and went on tour with him.

She decided to try her luck in film and moved to a Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr.) bungalow in Beverly Hills which was maintained by Hernando, a Navajo servant who liked to sample Howland's makeup. She appeared in a few silent pictures, but this medium did not seem to suit her booming, direct and distinct voice. In sound films, she typically played the kind of roles she had mastered on the stage, the domineering but dependable support. Her appearances in the comedies of Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey are some of her best known.

Howland's Broadway debut came as Queen Flavia in Rupert of Hentzau (1899), and her final Broadway role was Amy Bellaire in O Evening Star (1936).

Personal life and death Howland married Arthur Stringer in 1903, but the marriage didn't last and was dissolved in 1914. She bore no children.

On June 7, 1936, Howland was found dead at age 56 on the kitchen floor of her home. Police attributed her death to heart disease. She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Filmography Her Only Way (1918) The Way of a Woman (1919) Second Youth (1924) Honey (1930) The Cuckoos (1930) Dixiana (1930) The Virtuous Sin (1930) A Lady's Morals (1930) Hook, Line and Sinker (1930) Stepping Sisters (1932) Big City Blues (1932) as Serena Cartlich Once in a Lifetime (1932) Rockabye (1932) Silver Dollar (1932) (uncredited) Topaze (1933) The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble (1933) The Story of Temple Drake (1933) Meet the Baron (1933) (uncredited) Ye Olde Saw Mill (1935) (short)