Josephine Hill on AllMovie

A former member of Gus Edwards' near-legendary vaudeville troupe, blonde American leading lady Josephine Hill came to prominence in the 1910s opposite Chaplin imitator Billy West. From low-budget slapstick comedy, it was on to low-budget B-Westerns, where Hill found a berth opposite Gower Gulch rebel Leo Maloney, a tireless mini-tycoon who not only produced, directed, and starred in his own films but often also contributed to the screenplays. Many believed Hill and Maloney to be man and wife offscreen as well, but Hill in fact married yet another low-budget cowboy star, Jack Perrin. An otherwise accomplished stunt woman, Hill came close to being clawed to death by a leopard during the filming of the 1922 serial A Dangerous Adventure, but in spite of such mishaps she remained almost fearless and was one of the best horsewomen in the business. Like so many of her contemporaries, Josephine Hill's career suffered at the advent of sound when Westerns and action adventures suddenly fell out of favor. When the genre regained its former popularity in the mid-'30s, she had already retired. Divorcing Perrin in 1937, Hill remarried and disappeared completely from performing.