by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
A former stock company actress who had toured vaudeville with a popular "playlet," blonde, aristocratic-looking Claire Whitney entered films in 1909 with the Biograph company in New York City. By 1912, she was starring for Madame Alice Guy-Blaché at Solax in New Jersey and in 1914, appeared with Stuart Holmes in Life's Shop Window, the very first feature film to be released by Fox. Already a supporting actress by 1916, she appeared opposite Theda Bara in both East Lynne (1916} and Under Two Flags and then settled into a long career playing mostly professional women: lawyers, matrons, nurses, and so on. She retired in 1950.
