May Kitson

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May Kitson (1863 – 1943), born Mary Morrell, was an American silent film character actor active between 1917 and 1925.

1 Family
2 Career
3 Filmography
4 References

[edit] Family

Kitson was born in London, England in 1863. Her family moved to New Jersey about 1870 when she was very young. Her father Samuel Howard Morrell died in a flu epidemic in New Jersey. She and her brother "Fanny" (Jackson) were orphaned. A friend of the family John William Kitson was granted guardianship.

May and William were married in 1882 and their first child Howard Waldo was born in March 1883; a daughter Velma May followed in 1887. Kitson was widowed in February 1888 (see New York Times Feb 8, 1888 "Death of Mr. Kitson"). It is presumed her husband's partner Robert Ellin and her brother-in-law Samuel James Kitson provided for her.

Kitson was widowed again following a brief marriage in 1896 and divorced her third husband Swan about 1909. She applied to the NY Court to change her name back to Mary Morrell Kitson.

In 1914 her son Waldo married Lela Cole Kitson a short story writer of western romances. In 1910 her daughter Velma married Commodore Byron McCandless a 1905 Naval Academy graduate.

[edit] Career

According to family oral history, Kitson was approached by a New York movie agent while selling "War Bonds" in a New York bank with "Have you ever thought of working in the movies?"^{[citation needed]}

Kitson died in 1943 in San Diego, California at her daughter's home. Her ashes are near her son Waldo's in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles formerly The Hollywood Cemetery, located opposite Paramount Studios, not to be confused with the one on the east coast.

[edit] Filmography

The Firing Line (1919) Constance Paliser
Come Out of the Kitchen (1919) Mrs. Daingerfield
The Burning Question (1919)
The Woman God Sent (1920)
Father Tom (1921) Mary
The Family Closet (1921) Mrs. Dinsmore
Flesh and Spirit (1922) Mrs. Wallace
Other Woman's Clothes (1922) Mrs. Roger Montayne
The New School Teacher (1924) Mrs. Buck

She was also in a film with Lionel Barrymore, whose title has been lost.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

May Kitson at the Internet Movie Database
New York Times Movie Review (12 May 1919) page 11
Guide to the Actors' Equity Association: Records 1913-1991 Allen, Miss Ray and May Kitson v. O'Brian Productions Father Tom (motion picture): Salary claims, 1921-1922[1]
Listing of known movies:

citwf.com

showbizdata.com

afi.com