Fanny Midgley (
November 26,
1879-
January 4,
1932) was an
American film actress of
Hollywood's early years, mostly in
silent films.
Midgley was born Fanny B. Frier in
Cincinnati, Ohio, making her move to Hollywood to pursue an acting career in the earliest days of film making, in 1911. Her first film role was alongside
Francis Ford in the earliest film version of the
Battle of the Alamo, titled
The Immortal Alamo, a film which today has no existing copies. She had another three film roles in 1912 and 1913, then in 1914 her career took off. In 1914 alone she had twenty seven film appearances. That included
The Sheriff of Bisbee, in which she starred alongside actress
Mildred Harris, the future mother of
Charlie Chaplin's first child. From 1915 through 1919 she would appear in another thirty two films, mostly in supporting roles. Her last film appearance during that period was the 1919 film
The Lottery Man, in which she starred alongside
Wanda Hawley and
Wallace Reid.
During the 1920s her career would slow somewhat, but she still stayed active, appearing in twenty two films between 1920 and 1926, with her biggest film role during that time being opposite
Rudolph Valentino in the 1922 film
The Young Rajah. From 1927 to 1929 her career almost completely halted compared to her previous years, with only five film appearances during that period, most notably opposite
Buddy Roosevelt in
The Cowboy Cavalier in 1928.