Winona Winter | |
---|---|
Born | 1889 Huntsville, Alabama, U.S. |
Died | April 27, 1940 (aged 50–51) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Actress |
Winona Winter (1889 — April 27, 1940) was an American vaudeville performer and silent-film actress.
Winona Winter was the daughter of minstrel songwriter William Banks Winter and Clara Demming Newman Winter. She had two younger brothers.[1] Winter acted as a child, in The Little Tycoon (1895) in Detroit. In 1901, her skull was examined by phrenologists in a published case study, which found her to be gifted, especially in humor and memory.[2]
In vaudeville Winter was best known for "soubrette" parts,[3] as a singing comedian,[4] and as a ventriloquist.[5] She performed with Will Rogers in Rochester in 1908, in New York in 1910, and in Chicago in 1912,[3] and was associated with Harry Lauder's company in 1922.[1] She was still performing on vaudeville in 1928, with an act she called "Broadway-o-grams", a selection of short character sketches and celebrity impersonations.[6]
Winter appeared in four Broadway musical productions: The Little Cherub (1906-1907), He Came from Milwaukee (1910),[7] The Fascinating Widow (1911),[8] and The Broadway Whirl (also called The Century Midnight Whirl) (1921).[9]
She played "Sally" in the silent film The Man from Mexico (1914).
Winter married Norman L. Sper, a sports announcer. They had a son, Norman L. Sper Jr., born in 1925.
In 1940, Winter died in Los Angeles, California. Winter was 51.[10] Winter is buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in California.