Personal Info
Birth date
1902-09-17 (122 Years)
Day of death
1994-01-14
Gender
Female
Known for
Acting
Place of birth
Bar Harbor, Maine, USA
Also known as
-Esther Ralston
Biography
Esther Ralston (September 17th, 1902- January 14th, 1994) was an American silent film star. She began her career as a child actress in a family vaudeville act named "The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America's Youngest Juliet". She then went on to appear in a few small silent film roles, including one alongside her brother in the 1920 film adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. Ralston gained attention as Mrs. Darling in the 1924 film adaptation of Peter Pan. Her most well known sound picture was To the Last Man in 1933.
Filmography
Our Five Daughters
NYR
Overview:
Our Five Daughters is a daytime soap opera that ran on NBC from January 2, 1962, until September 28, 1962. The show was written by Leonard Stadd and directed by Paul Lammers, and aired for a half hour, five days a week, at 3:30 PM EST, right after Young Doctor Malone. The show starred former silent film icon Esther Ralston, whose career had faded with the advent of sound in the late 1920s; she had lost most of her money and had been working as a sales clerk before finding some acting roles here and there. One of them was a brief appearance on the daytime courtroom drama The Verdict Is Yours. Verdict producer Eugene Burr liked what he saw and offered her the lead role in his new soap, Our Five Daughters. Ralston played Helen Lee, mother of five daughters, whose husband Jim was critically injured in an accident. He became an invalid and the abrupt change caused havoc for his wife and children. The show did not gain a significant audience and was ended after several months, on the same day The Brighter Day ended its run. Jacqueline Courtney, who played daughter Ann Lee, went on to much fame on other daytime shows such as The Edge of Night, Another World, and One Life to Live.Tales of Tomorrow
6
Overview:
Tales of Tomorrow is an American anthology science fiction series that was performed and broadcast live on ABC from 1951 to 1953. The series covered such stories as Frankenstein, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Thomas Mitchell as Captain Nemo, and many others featuring such performers as Boris Karloff, Brian Keith, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Bruce Cabot, Franchot Tone, Gene Lockhart, Walter Abel, Leslie Nielsen, and Paul Newman. The series had many similarities to the later Twilight Zone which also covered one of the same stories, "What You Need". In total it ran for eighty-five 30-minute episodes.The Kid
8.153
Overview:
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.Letter of Introduction
5.667
Overview:
An aging actor, trying to make a comeback on Broadway, is surprised when his estranged daughter shows up. It seems that she is an actress and is also trying to make it on Broadway. He tries to re-establish his relationship with her while also trying to hide the fact that she is his daughter from the press.To the Last Man
5.7
Overview:
In Kentucky just after the Civil War, the Hayden-Colby feud leads to Jed Colby being sent to prison for 15 years for murder. The Haydens head for Nevada and when Colby gets out of prison he heads there also seeking revenge. The head of the Hayden family tries to avoid more killing but the inevitable showdown has to occur, complicated by Lynn Hayden and Ellen Colby's plans to marry.Sadie McKee
7
Overview:
A maid has romances with a two-timer, a boozing millionaire and the master of the house.Lonely Wives
4.6
Overview:
A highly respectable lawyer becomes a sexual animal after working hours; His live-in mother-in-law tries to keep him in line. When an actor-impersonator comes to see him, the two switch lives.The Marriage Circle
6.4
Overview:
An unhappily married couple moves to Vienna, where the wife’s married best friend lives, and soon, sparks fly between the wife and the best friend’s husband.Rome Express
6.2
Overview:
The theft of a famous painting leads to murder and many suspects on a plush train speeding from Paris to Rome.Romance in the Rain
NYR
Overview:
The publisher of a tabloid-type romance magazine decides to get some publicity by sponsoring a "Cinderella and Prince Charming" contest.Peter Pan
6.967
Overview:
Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.San Francisco Docks
6
Overview:
Longshoreman Johnny Barnes is in love with Kitty Tracy, barmaid at her father's waterfront saloon, and he beats up Cassidy, a crooked politician who has been annoying her. Cassidy is murdered that night and Johnny is jailed for the crime. Kitty, her father Andy Tracy, and waterfront-priest Father Cameron believe Johnny is innocent but all evidence points to his guilt.Children of Divorce
5.9
Overview:
A young flapper tricks her childhood sweetheart into marrying her. He really loves another woman, but didn't marry her for fear the marriage would end in divorce, like his parents'. Complications ensue.Reunion
NYR
Overview:
Newspapers around the world proclaim the birth in Moosetown, Canada of the 3,000th baby brought into the world by the doctor, John Luke, known for delivering the famous Wyatt quintuplets. To honor the doctor on his retirement and to publicize their town, the Moosetown chamber of commerce decides to hold a reunion of all the babies delivered by the doctor, some of whom have become famous.The Butterfly Man
NYR
Overview:
Sedgewick Blynn is determined to marry a rich woman. One night he saves a child from a fire. Bessie Morgan, an heiress charmed by his act of heroism, promises to marry him, but at the last minute her father forbids it. Soon after, Blynn receives a telegram informing him of the death of his mother, and he realizes that he has wasted his life.Hollywood Boulevard
2.5
Overview:
With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.Streamline Express
4.7
Overview:
A disparate group of people meet as passengers on a superspeed train crossing the U.S. Aboard are a seductive blackmailer and the stage director he intends to frame, a woman chasing her husband who is running away with the blackmail victim, and the stage director's feisty leading lady.Tin Pan Alley
4.75
Overview:
Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England, and Katy joins her after the boys give a new song to Nora Bayes. All are reunited when the boys, now in the army, show up in England.The Girl from Mandalay
3
Overview:
John Foster and Kenneth Grainger are a couple of Englishmen stationed at a teak wood post. When Foster's fiancée, Mary Trevor, writes him that their engagement is off, he goes off to Mandalay.Forced Landing
NYR
Overview:
In this high-flying mystery set aboard a cross-country flight to New York, some of the passengers are kidnappers who are trying to locate a hidden cache of loot. Unfortunately, something goes wrong during the trip and the pilots must land the plane in the Arizona desert during a terrible storm. There all of the passengers and crew find cramped accommodations in a lonely farmhouse where murder, mystery and mayhem occur.Wolves of the North
NYR
Overview:
Serialized adventures of fur trappers in the Pacific Northwest, as they fight Indians, the elements and each other.Old Ironsides
6.2
Overview:
An embellished account of the 1803 expedition by famed frigate U.S.S. Constitution--a.k.a. "Old Ironsides"--against the Barbary pirates then terrorizing American shipping, focusing on the crew and passengers of a fictional merchant ship, The Esther, who fall afoul of the same pirates and thus become involved with the Constitution's mission.The Marines Are Coming
4.5
Overview:
Expelled from his lieutenancy in the Marine Corps, Bill Traylor reenlists as a private. His unit is sent to a Latin American country where a rebel leader called The Torch promotes insurrection. There Traylor encounters again Captain Benton, the man responsible for his disgrace and his rival for the love of a girl.Oliver Twist
6.3
Overview:
Oliver's mother, a penniless outcast, died giving birth to him. As a young boy Oliver is brought up in a workhouse, later apprenticed to an uncaring undertaker, and eventually is taken in by a gang of thieves who befriend him for their own purposes. All the while, there are secrets from Oliver's family history waiting to come to light. Written by Snow LeopardAs Good as Married
7
Overview:
When a boss proposes marriage to his secretary, she discovers that the arrangement is solely for tax purposes.Figures Don't Lie
NYR
Overview:
Figures Don't Lie is a showcase for the physical charms of lovely Esther Ralston, who in one scene proves the accuracy of the title by donning a fetching one-piece bathing suit. The main story concerns wise-guy insurance salesman Richard Arlen, who through a combination of hard work and sheer gall lands a job as sales manager. But he can't land heroine Ralston, who has remained cool to his charms ever since he tried to make a play for her on the street. A lost film.The Blind Goddess
NYR
Overview:
Even though Big Bill Devens is a powerful politician, he still sticks to his working man's roots. His wife walked out on him 20 years before and his daughter, Moira, believes she is dead. Moira falls in love with Hugh Dillon, a handsome young attorney, and Devens gets him a job in the district attorney's office. One night, Devens' wife, now an old, decrepit woman known as Aileen Clayton, returns to ask forgiveness.Acting
1999Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl as Self (archive footage)
1993The Silent Feminists: America's First Women Directors as Herself
1962Our Five Daughters (194 Episodes) as Unknown
1951Tales of Tomorrow (1 Episode) as Unknown
1946Jungle Terror as Valarie Shields
1940San Francisco Docks as Frances March
1940Tin Pan Alley as Nora Bayes
1938Slander House as Ruth De Milo
1938Letter of Introduction as Mrs. Sinclair (uncredited)
1938The Spy Ring as Jean Bruce (as Jane Carleton)
1937The Mysterious Pilot as Vivian McNain
1937Jungle Menace as Valerie Shields
1937As Good as Married as Miss Danforth
1936We're in the Legion Now as Louise Rillette
1936Reunion as Janet Fair
1936Hollywood Boulevard as Flora Moore
1936The Girl from Mandalay as Mary Trevor
1935Forced Landing as Ruby Anatole
1935Streamline Express as Elaine Vincent
1935Together We Live as Jenny
1935Shadows of the Orient as Viola Avery
1935Ladies Crave Excitement as Miss Winkler
1935Mister Dynamite as Charmian Dvorjak
1934Strange Wives as Olga
1934The Marines Are Coming as Dorothy Manning
1934Romance in the Rain as Gwen de la Rue
1934Sadie McKee as Dolly
1933By Candlelight as Baroness von Ballin
1933To the Last Man as Ellen Colby
1933Black Beauty as Leila Lambert
1932After the Ball as Elissa Strange
1932Rome Express as Asta Marvelle
1931The Prodigal as Antonia Farraday
1931Lonely Wives as Madeline Smith
1929The Mighty as Louise Patterson
1929The Wheel of Life as Ruth Dangan
1929Betrayal as Vroni
1929The Case of Lena Smith as Unknown
1928The Sawdust Paradise as Hallie
1928Half a Bride as Patience Winslow
1928Something Always Happens as Diana Mallory
1928Love and Learn as Nancy Blair
1927The Spotlight as Lizzie Stokes / Olga Rostova
1927Figures Don't Lie as Janet Wells
1927Ten Modern Commandments as Kitty O'Day
1927Children of Divorce as Jean Waddington
1927Fashions for Women as Céleste de Givray and Lola Dauvry
1926Old Ironsides as Girl
1926The Quarterback as Louise Mason
1926The Blind Goddess as Moira Devens
1926The American Venus as Mary Gray
1925Womanhandled as Molly Martin
1925A Kiss for Cinderella as Fairy Godmother
1925The Best People as Alice O'Neil
1925The Trouble With Wives as Dagmar
1925The Lucky Devil as Doris McDee
1925Beggar on Horseback as Cynthia Mason
1925The Little French Girl as Toppie Westmacott
1924Peter Pan as Mrs. Darling
1924$50,000 Reward as Carolyn Jordan
1924Wolves of the North as Madge Chester
1924All's Swell on the Ocean as Holly Malloy
1924The Heart Buster as Rose Hillyer
1924The Marriage Circle as Miss Hofer
1924Jack O'Clubs as Unknown
1923The Rivals as Unknown
1923Blinky as Mary Lou Kileen
1923The Victor as Chewing gum baron's daughter
1923The Prisoner as Marie
1922Oliver Twist as Rose Maylie
1922The Lone Hand as Unknown
1922Remembrance as Beatrice
1922The Further Adventures of Yorke Norroy as Unknown
1922Pure and Simple as Unknown
1921Crossing Trails as Helen Stratton
1921The Kid as Extra in Heaven Scene (uncredited)
1920The Butterfly Man as (uncredited)
1920Huckleberry Finn as Mary Jane Wilks