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One of producer Adolph Zukor's much-heralded Famous Players, Carlotta Nillson starred as Leah Kleschna, a four-reel screen version of a then-popular play by C.M.C. McClellan. Known at one point in her career as "The American Duse," the actress was given a sumptuous production and a popular leading man in the dashing House Peters. Madlaine Traverse, "a lovely brunette star," was added for sex appeal and Nillson received excellent reviews. But audiences stayed away and Leah Kleschna proved her only film. Born in Sweden but reared in Minnesota, Nillson had played Mrs. Elvestad in Minnie Maddern Fiske's legendary 1904 production of Hedda Gabler, becoming a star in her own right two years later in the western play The Three of Us. After her brief sojourn in films, Nillson appeared in Quo Vadis, Mary Stuart, and the incendiary (and soon banned) Deborah. By the early '20s, however, her roles had become minor and she fell victim to unscrupulous charlatans who managed to squander a small fortune. At the time of her death she was wholly supported by the Actors' Fund.