Starr, Frances

(1881-1973)

   Born in Oneonta, New York, as Frances Grant, she debuted in the Albany stock company in 1901. Her big break came when producer David Belasco hired Starr to replace Minnie Dupree in The Music Master (1904) before starring her as Juanita in The Rose of the Rancho (1906). Starr won her greatest acclaim playing a kept woman in Eugene Walter's The Easiest Way (1909) and her long career continued into the 1950s, with roles in The Case of Becky (1911), Marie-Odile (1915), Little Lady in Blue (1916), Tiger! Tiger! (1918), Shore Leave (1922), Immoral Isabella? (1927), The Lake* (1933), Claudia* (1942), and her final Broadway appearance in The Ladies of the Corridor* (1953).