Josie Sedgwick

Active - 1917 - 1932  |   Born - Mar 13, 1898   |   Died - Apr 30, 1973   |   Genres - Western, Drama, Comedy

Share on

Biography by AllMovie

Brunette, convent-educated Josie Sedgwick began her professional career as a member of "The Five Sedgwicks," a vaudeville family act that also included brother Edward Sedgwick and sister Eileen Sedgwick. The former became a director at Universal and the latter blossomed into a major serial queen and action heroine of the early '20s. Although never quite equaling the popularity of Eileen, Josie made her own impact on the serial screen, co-starring with champion prize-fighter Jack Dempsey in Daredevil Jack (1920) and opposite Charles Hutchison ("The Bravest Daredevil of the Screen") in Double Adventure (1921). Both were directed by the young W.S. Van Dyke and Josie proved as fearless as her leading men. Scores of low-budget Westerns followed and Sedgwick went on to star opposite such legendary cowboy heroes as Hoot Gibson, Buck Jones, and William Desmond. She retired in 1926 returning only to play Bob Steele's mother (in flashback sequences) in the ultra-low-budget Son of Oklahoma in 1932. In her later years, Josie shared a home with sister Eileen and their nonagenarian mother. In retirement, neither sister wished to discuss their screen careers.