Winifred Greenwood on AllMovie

One of the most popular stars of early films, blonde Winifred Greenwood was the leading lady of two pioneer movie producers, Selig Polyscope Company in Chicago and American in Santa Barbara, CA. A former stock company actress who had toured with Sapho and Camille, Greenwood made her Broadway debut in the musical Zig Zag Alley. In films from 1910, she played Auntie Em to Bebe Daniels' Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) and was one of The Two Orphans (1911). Kathlyn Williams played the other orphan in this early screen version of the old barnstormer and together they became Selig's first major stars. Defecting to the American company in 1913, Winifred embarked on a long association with leading men Ed Coxen and George Field, appearing in numerous melodramas filmed in picturesque Santa Barbara. She married Field later that year, a union that lasted until 1918. By then, her career had waned and she would only appear sporadically in films between stage assignments in the 1920s. Long in retirement, Winifred Greenwood died at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA.