Florence Deshon(1893-1922)
- Actress
Florence Deshon born to Samuel and Florence C. Danks of Austrian and
English descent. She began as a stage actress and appeared opposite Mary Boland in 'My Lady's Dress and in the
comedy 'Seven Chances' prior to making her screen debut in 1915's 'The
Beloved Vagabond' directed by Edward Jose for Pathe, Florence starred
in 24 silent melodrama and crime movies but perhaps her best known was
'The Desired Woman' directed by Paul Scardon and co-starring Harry T.
Morey for the Vitagraph Film Company in 1918 and her final film as
Sally McTurk in John Francis Dillon's 'The Roof Tree' with William
Russell for the Fox Film Co in 1921. She moved to Greenwich Village,
New York in hope to resume her film career but on the 4th February she
was found unconscious on the third floor of her apartment building, a
window was open in her bedroom but illuminating gas flowed from a
opened jet, a newspaperwoman, Minnie Morris, found Deshon, an Ambulance
took her to Hospital, but attempts to revive her were unsuccessful, she
died the following afternoon, adding that the only mystery was why
'with the apartment especially wired for electricity, Miss Deshon
should have used the single gas jet in the room and forgotten to turn
it off, some say she had no reason to kill herself and that her death
was accidental, the New York Medical Examiner concluded her death was
accidental but rumors persisted that she might have committed suicide
because of grief.