Gladys Walton on AllMovie

A former child actress who may have appeared in the first screen version of The Wizard of Oz, Fairylogue and Radio-Plays (1908), waif-like Gladys Walton became a star at Universal in the early '20s. While Priscilla Dean, the studio's top female attraction at the time, played more worldly women, Walton excelled in the same kind of roles that had made Mary Pickford the screen's foremost heroine. Walton's films had titles like Pink Tights (1920), Rich Girl, Poor Girl (1921; she played a dual role), Second Hand Rose (1922), and The Wild Party (1923). By 1923, however, Walton's career was already on the wane. She left films after the obscure The Ape (1928), in which she shared top billing with another Universal refugee, Ruth Stonehouse.