Florence Deshon Biography

Florence Deshon (July 19, 1893February 4, 1922) was an American motion picture actress in silent films.

Career

Born in Tacoma, Washington to Samuel and Florence C. Danks of Austrian and English descent, Deshon appeared in more than twenty movies beginning in 1915 with The Beloved Vagabond. Florence played in features for Vitagraph until 1921. Her final film credit was in the role of Sally McTurk in The Roof Tree, directed by John Francis Dillon. She came to New York City from Los Angeles, California with her mother in December 1921. Deshon hoped to continue her work in films there.

Death

On February 4, 1922, Deshon was found unconscious on the third floor of her apartment building at 120 West Eleventh Street. A window was open in her bedroom but illuminating gas flowed from an opened jet. A newspaperwoman, Minnie Morris, found Deshon when she returned to the building. An ambulance took Deshon to St. Vincent's Hospital, but attempts to revive her were unsuccessful. She died the following afternoon. She was 28 years old.

Deshon's apartment had been subleased from Doris Stevens, who was married to Dudley Field Malone. The couple were honeymooning in Europe at the time of the actress' death. Deshon was listed as being a resident of both Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Los Angeles, California.

The New York Medical Examiner concluded Deshon's death was accidental. However, rumors persisted among her neighbors that she might have committed suicide because of grief. One theory contended she had recently argued with a friend who came to her apartment. Deshon was closely acquainted with actor Charlie Chaplin and writer Max Eastman. Both men believed Deshon had no reason to kill herself and that her death was accidental. Eastman saw her on the afternoon before her death, and they planned to go to the theater for an engagement in a few days. He went to St. Vincent's and gave blood when a final attempt to revive Deshon was made.

Selected filmography

• The Auction Block (1917)
• The Loves of Letty (1919)