Yvonne Shelton ~ The Impulsive Actress

Yvonne Shelton

Yvonne Shelton was a Broadway actress who married several times before dying young

She was born on June 18, 1900 in New York City. Yvonne's parents was English and French. They sent her to Canada for her education but she wanted to be an actress. At the age of fifteen she ran away from home to join the chorus of When Dreams Come True. Then she was cast in The Century Girl produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. Yvonne performed eight shows a week and danced at the Coconut Grove every night. In an interview she said "I love to run away, on the spur of the moment. Anywhere at all- but away."  She appeared on Broadway in Dance And Grow Thin and Miss 1917. The petite dancer was just five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. Her friends called her "Vonnie". She fell madly in love with married State Senator Jimmy Walker. Yvonne made her film debut in the 1919 comedy short Wild Flowers. She also danced in the Ziegfeld Follies Midnight Frolic.

Yvonne SheltonYvonne Shelton

In 1920 she had a supporting role in the film The Greatest Lover. It would be her final film. Soon after she decided to quit show business. Her romance with Jimmy ended when he ran for Mayor of New York City in 1925. She was so devastated that she suffered a nervous breakdown and spent several weeks in a sanitarium. Yvonne impulsively married Miguel Arango in 1928 but the marriage only lasted a few months. On December 13, 1929 she married Stanley "Buck" Woodward, a millionaire from Pennsylvania. They divorced in 1931. Her third marriage, to oil magnate Lee Malsbury, also ended in divorce. She seemed to finally find happiness when she married songwriter Robert Havey in 1939. The couple lived in Laguna Beach, California and Yvonne got a job in a factory. Tragically on October 5, 1945 she died suddenly at the age of forty-five Her cause of death was not revealed in the press.

Yvonne Shelton Helen WeerYvonne Shelton