Volume III: Biographies

TAYLOR, Julia M. **

Actress (1910-1911)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Julia M. Taylor, a well-known stage star, was an important actress in Thanhouser films in 1910 and 1911.

Biographical Notes: Born on September 20, 1878, Julia Marie Taylor was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She entered a vaudeville and stage career and was a popular actress for many years.

The April 6, 1911 issue of The Moving Picture News told of the actress: "Miss Julia Marie Taylor, leading lady of the Thanhouser Company, hails from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and her very first theatrical engagement was as a leading woman, playing in that capacity for Creston Clarke in classic repertory. She then became identified with the celebrated Fawcett stock company, of Baltimore, and among her greatest successes there was Lady Babbie, which she played for eight weeks. Miss Taylor then appeared in leading feminine parts with such artists as Richard Mansfield, in The Merchant of Venice, Walter Edwards in The Redemption of David Corson, S. Miller Kent in Fighting Bob, Frank Gilmore in The Liars, Orrin Johnson in The Man of the Hour, and was made a feature of Keith's Philadelphia stock company."

By early 1911 Julia M. Taylor appeared in Thanhouser films. At the time she was a well-known Broadway actress. Like many other stage players, she occasionally worked in films, although she was never a full-time member of the Thanhouser stock company. A notable role was Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (released in two reels, September 1 and 8, 1911). A note in the February 17, 1912 issue of The Moving Picture World stated that she was no longer with the New Rochelle studio.

She married Wallace Worsley (a stage and film director; he died in 1944). Her son, Wallace Worsley, Jr., had a cameo appearance at the age of two in a Thanhouser film. She died in Hollywood on December 4, 1976. She was survived by her son, Wallace Worsley, Jr. (who did not use the "Jr." after his father's death), who was a production manager at Universal at the time, a grandson, a granddaughter, and two great grandchildren.

Wallace Worsley Remembers: The following information was provided by Wallace Worsley, son of Wallace Worsley and Julia M. Taylor: "My mother and father met at the American Academy of Dramatic Art on 14th Street in New York. Dad was in the class of 1900. I believe Mother was in the next one. They had a rather romantic courting. For two years after graduation they were in separate road companies most of the time. Mother was leading woman - Shakespearean repertory - with Richard Mansfield, Creston Clarke, and Leo Dietrichstein, among others. Dad was with Willie Collier first, then in Pride of Jenico, Checkers, and other productions. Of course they knew each other's itineraries, and they often played the same theatres on the road. Whoever played a theatre first would leave a love note in some dressing room hiding place which the other searched for on arrival.

"They were married on September 18, 1904, and I was born in 1908 at Mother's family home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. For the next several years I was with Mother at all times, even on the road. She took her mother with her, in fact fare and keep for my grandmother was negotiated in all her contracts. When both Mother and Dad were working in New York we had an apartment on the Upper West Side, and I was supervised by either my grandmother, Marie Brackenridge Taylor, or, after she passed on, my grandfather, Charles Ferdinand Taylor. In 1915, my father was offered a contract as an actor at the Brunton Studios in Hollywood. A year later he directed his first picture, and in 1917 Mother and I moved to California."

Thanhouser Filmography:

1910: Love and the Law (12-13-1910)

1911: The Vote That Counted (1-3-1911), The Norwood Necklace (2-10-1911), Robert Emmet (3-17-1911), Weighed in the Balance (4-21-1911), The Poet of the People (4-25-1911), The Pillars of Society (5-2-1911), The Stage Child (5-23-1911), The Declaration of Independence (7-4-1911), The Court's Decree (7-7-1911), Two Little Girls (7-21-1911), Cupid the Conqueror (8-11-1911), Romeo and Juliet, Part I (9-1-1911), Romeo and Juliet, Part II (9-8-1911)

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