Sylvia Ashton

Sylvia Ashton (January 26, 1880 – November 18, 1940) was an American film actress of the silent film era. Ashton was born in Denver, Colorado. She bore a heavyset resemblance to Jane Darwell and like Darwell was playing mother and grandmother roles, though more famously than Darwell in the silents, while still in her 30s and 40s. In 1912, Ashton was an actress in D.W. Griffith's stock company. After that, she acted for Famous Players–Lasky. For years she was a regular member of Cecil B. DeMille's troupe of character actors. She appeared in more than 130 films between 1912 and 1929. She retired from movies almost immediately at the dawn of sound, one of her later films being the part-sound film The Barker (1928). Ashton died on November 18, 1940, aged 60.