Favorite Photo of the Week #19

Kate Lester

Kate Lester is a name that is now lost to history.  She came from a long and venerable theatrical family and on stage was a great beauty.  In later life, she was a character actress in Hollywood.  She played dowagers, mothers and fussbudgets through the teens and mid 1920's.  Notably, she also appeared in the Lon Chaney epic The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  She was working at Universal Studios when the gas stove in her dressing room exploded.  She died a few days later in the hospital from the burns she suffered in October 1924.  She had several films in the can and her final three performances were released in 1925. 


This beautiful portrait of her was done by Hoover Art Co. in Los Angeles circa 1922-23.