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(19 May 1905 – 2 February 1991)
 Kingston
was born in Sonoma County, California and raised in San Francisco,
California. Her father was Adolph Ringstrom. She was descended from
Spanish and Hungarian ancestors. She was a great-granddaughter of
General Mariano Vallejo, who commanded the army which surrendered
California to General John C. Fremont. Her mother was Natalia
Haraszthy, granddaughter of Agoston Haraszthy, founder of
California's wine industry. She was educated in San Rafael,
California.
She began law school but dropped out to take a course in dancing. As
a child she learned to dance the Jota (music) and other traditional
Spanish dances. Two seasons later Kingston performed as a danseuse
with the New York City Winter Garden show. Later she joined a
Fanchon and Marco troupe in California after they discovered her
dancing in a San Francisco cabaret.
Starting her career as an actress on Broadway, she moved into films
in the early 1920s. Her first movie appearance was in The Daredevil
(1923). She joined the Mack Sennett studios in 1924, and co-starred
with Harry Langdon in a series of comedy films including Remember
When? (1925) and His First Flame (1927). Kingston left the Sennett
studio and comedies in 1926 to try for roles in dramatic movies.
She signed with Paramount Pictures and made three motion pictures in
quick succession. All three are comedies. The first was Miss
Brewster's Millions (1926), the second The Cat's Pajamas (1926), and
the third was Wet Paint (1926).
Kingston's first dramatic role was in Street Angel (1928). She
played the part of Lisetta. The same year she made Painted Post with
Tom Mix. In this film she portrays a magazine illustrator who is
seeking western types. She gets caught up in an exciting feud in her
search for them. As Dona Beatriz Kingston was given a great
opportunity in The Night of Love (1927). The movie featured Ronald
Colman and Vilma Banky.
She appeared in two of the popular Tarzan films: as Mary Trevor in
Tarzan the Mighty (1928) and was the fifth actress to play Jane in
Tarzan the Tiger (1929). The Tarzan serial, which co-starred Frank
Merrill, was produced by Universal Pictures. After a series of roles
in B movies she made her last film Only Yesterday (1933). She was
uncredited in this movie. |
