Marceline Day

American actress

Marceline Day (born Marceline Newlin; April 24, 1908 – February 16, 2000) was an American motion picture actress whose career began as a child in the 1910s and ended in the 1930s.

Marceline Newlin was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, the daughter of Frank and Irene Newlin and the younger sister of film actress Alice Day. She attended Venice High School.

Day began her film career after her sister Alice Day became a featured actress as one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties in one and two reel comedies for Keystone Studios. Day made her first film appearance with her sister in the 1924 Mack Sennett comedy Picking Peaches before being cast in a string of comedy shorts opposite actor Harry Langdon and a stint in early Hollywood Westerns opposite such silent film cowboy stars as Hoot Gibson, Art Acord and Jack Hoxie. Gradually, Day began appearing in more dramatic roles opposite such esteemed actors of the era as Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Norman Kerry, Ramón Novarro, Buster Keaton, and Lon Chaney. In 1926, Day was named one of the 13 WAMPAS Baby Stars, a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States, which honored 13 young women each year who they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. Other notable recipients that year were Joan Crawford, Mary Astor, Janet Gaynor, and Dolores del Río. The publicity from the campaign added to Day's popularity, and in 1927, she appeared opposite John Barrymore in the romantic adventure The Beloved Rogue. Day is probably best recalled for her appearances in the now lost 1927 horror classic London After Midnight directed by Tod Browning with Lon Chaney and Conrad Nagel, her role as Sally Richards in the 1928 comedy The Cameraman with Buster Keaton, and the 1929 drama The Jazz Age with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. By the late 1920s, Day's career had eclipsed the career of her sister Alice, who also was a popular actress. The two would appear together onscreen again in the 1929 musical The Show of Shows. She married furrier Arthur J. Klein in 1930. She was married for a second time in 1959 to John Arthur until his death on April 2, 1980. She had no children with either husband. Although Day transitioned into sound films with little problem, her film roles gradually became lesser in quality, and she began working primarily for lower rung film studios. By 1933, Day made the transition back to the Western genre, appearing in "B" Westerns starring Tim McCoy, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Jack Hoxie, and John Wayne. Her last film was The Fighting Parson with Gibson. After her retirement, Day rarely spoke of her years as an actress and never spoke to reporters or granted interviews.

On February 16, 2000, Day was found dead in her kitchen, in her Cathedral City, California, home at the age of 91. She was cremated.

Year Title Role Note1925 The Splendid Road Lilian Grey Lost film The Wall Street Whiz Peggy McCooey Lost film The White Outlaw Mary Gary Renegade Holmes, M. D. Marie Darnton The Taming of the West Beryl Lost film1926 College Days Mary Ward That Model from Paris Jane Miller Fools of Fashion Mary Young The Gay Deceiver Louise de Tillois Lost film The Boy Friend Ida May Harper Lost film Looking for Trouble Tulip Hellier Lost film The Barrier Necia Lost film Hell's Four Hundred Barbara Langham Lost film Western Pluck Clare Dyer Lost film1927 London After Midnight Lucille Balfour Lost film The Road to Romance Serafina Captain Salvation Mary Phillips Rookies Betty Wayne Red Clay Agnes Burr Lost film The Beloved Rogue Charlotte de Vauxcelles 1928 Stolen Love Joan Hastings Lost film Restless Youth Dixie Lost film Freedom of the Press June Westcott Lost film Driftwood Daisy Smith Lost film The Cameraman Sally Detectives Lois A Certain Young Man Phyllis Lost film The Big City Sunshine Lost film Under the Black Eagle Margarta 1929 The Show of Shows Performer in 'Meet My Sister' number The One Woman Idea Lady Alicia Douglas/Alizar, half caste dancer The Wild Party Faith Morgan Trent's Last Case Evelyn Manderson Incomplete film A Single Man Maggie Lost film The Jazz Age Sue Randall 1930 Hot Curves Girl Sunny Skies Mary Norris Temple Tower Patricia Verney Paradise Island Ellen Bradford 1931 The Pocatello Kid Mary Larkin The Mad Parade Dorothy Quinlan The Mystery Train Joan Lane Sky Raiders Grace Devine 1932 The Crusader Marcia Brandon The King Murder Pearl Hope Broadway to Cheyenne Ruth Carter The Arm of the Law Sandy The Fighting Fool Judith 1933 The Fighting Parson Suzan Larkin By Appointment Only Miss Brown aka Brownie The Flaming Signal Molly James Damaged Lives Laura Hall The Telegraph Trail Alice Keller Via Pony Express Betty Castelar