Mary Marsden Young (June 21, 1879 – June 23, 1971)[1] was an American stage, film and television actress whose career spanned the first sixty years of the 20th century. She started her career in the theatre and ended playing elderly ladies in film and lastly on television.[citation needed]

Mary Young
Mary Young in Shock (1946)
Born
Mary Marsden Young

(1879-06-21)June 21, 1879
DiedJune 23, 1971(1971-06-23) (aged 92)
Other namesMary Marsden Young
Mrs. John Craig
Miss Mary Young
OccupationActress
Years active1899-1968
SpouseJohn Dickey Craig
Children2
L to R: Mary Young, John Barrymore, Frank Campeau Believe Me, Xantippe a 1913 hit Broadway play

Her first Broadway credit was in 1899. On stage she scored a memorable hit in 1913 playing opposite John Barrymore in the stage version of Believe Me, Xantippe. 1924 saw her on Broadway in Dancing Mothers opposite John Halliday and Helen Hayes, who played the daughter later made famous by Clara Bow in a silent film. Beginning in 1905, Young and her husband, actor John Craig, operated Boston's Castle Square Theatre for 21 years.[2]

She was approaching 60 in 1937 when she made her first Hollywood movie. She made many television appearances in the 1950s and 1960s. Her last television appearance was in a 1968 episode of Gomer Pyle.[citation needed]

She and her husband, actor John Craig,[3][4] had two children, the eldest of whom, Harmon Bushnell Craig, was killed at 22 while serving in World War I.[5] Their other son, John Craig Jr., died in Los Angeles in 1945.

After several years of illness, Young suffered a fatal heart attack in La Jolla, California, on June 23, 1971, aged 92.[2][6]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ Silent Film Necrology 2nd edit. c. 2001 by Eugene M. Vazzana
  2. ^ a b "Obituaries: Mary Marsden Young". Variety. June 30, 1971. p. 63. ProQuest 962905956.
  3. ^ Legendary Locals of Boston's South End, page 57, by Hope J. Shannon c.2014 ISBN 978-1-4671-0112-7 Retrieved June 30, 2017
  4. ^ National Magazine: An Illustrated American Monthly, Volume 36 April 1912-September 1912 by Arthur Wellington Brayley, Arthur Wilson Tarbell, Joe Mitchell Chapple
  5. ^ Goldsmith, Louie. "The Sagamore - "Serve my country to the last stitch": Honoring alumni lost in World War 1". thesagonline.com.
  6. ^ Evelyn Mack Truitt, Who Was Who On Screen 2nd edit. p. 503, c. 1977
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