Winifred Westover

Active - 1916 - 1930  |   Born - Nov 9, 1899   |   Died - Mar 18, 1978   |   Genres - Drama, Romance, Adventure

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Biography by AllMovie

A blonde starlet of the 1910s, who had a bit in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916) and appeared opposite both DeWolf Hopper and Douglas Fairbanks, Winifred Westover is best remembered as the leading lady who finally landed Western star William S. Hart. Their film together was John Petticoats (1919) and as he apparently was wont to do, the perpetually smitten Hart proposed marriage. Having previously been turned down by Jane Novak and Anna Q. Nilsson, the austere star was reportedly taken aback when Westover accepted and the union, which produced a son, William S. Hart Jr., lasted only five years. On screen, Westover was the typical blushing ingenue and was almost always cast opposite robust leading men such as William Russell, Buck Jones, and Conway Tearle. She even did a couple of films in Sweden but retired to raise her son in 1923. With the assistance of her ex-husband, Westover made a comeback in Lummox (1930), in which she played an immigrant maid. Unfortunately, the melodrama was not well received and she left films for good.