Bessie Eyton on AllMovie

A soulful-looking brunette, pioneering screen actress Bessie Eyton (née Harrison) was the domineering centerpiece of the 1916 Civil War extravaganza The Crisis, based on Winston Churchill's sprawling novel. At 12 reels, this story of a willful Southern belle was in many ways the Gone With the Wind of its day and Bessie Eyton was at the height of her popularity. She had come to the screen in 1911 as Hobart Bosworth's leading lady and remained with the Selig company until its demise in 1918, appearing opposite such virile matinee idols as Thomas Santschi, Tom Mix, and Wheeler Oakman. In 1915, she divorced her husband, Selig producer Charles Eyton (1871-1941), who then married Kathleen Williams, Bessie's great rival and her co-star in the first and most famous screen version of Rex Beach's The Spoilers (1914). Bessie Eyton's period was decidedly the 1910s prior to America's involvement in World War I, but she made sporadic screen appearances until 1925, returning in the 1930s as a dress extra. Late in the decade, Eyton reportedly had a terrible row with her mother, walked out of her Hollywood home, and was never seen or heard from again. Her brother spent a minor fortune searching for her but was unsuccessful.