Rhea Mitchell (10 December, 1890 Portland, Oregon - 16 September 1957, Los Angeles, California) was an American silent film actress. Mitchell was slender with blue eyes. She earned the name of the little stunt girl because of her willingness to attempt thrilling scenes in motion pictures.
Mitchell began her career in 1909 playing stock in Portland. She followed a season in vaudeville with a run at the Alcazar Theater in San Francisco, California. She starred in over 100 films between 1912 and 1952 in films such as The Diamond from the Sky (1915). Working in films, she appeared a number of times with Western star William S. Hart playing a leading role in those films. In 1916 she played in The Brink with Forrest Winant and Arthur Maude.
However after 1917 her roles became smaller and she appeared in a handful of films through the mid-30s and in several bit parts during the early 1950s often which went uncredited. During her retirement she managed a large apartment house in Los Angeles. It was in the second apartment she managed within a year, the La Brea District Apartments, that a disgruntled houseboy, Sonnie Hartford, Jr., strangled and murdered her in 1957. The sashcord of her blue silk dressing robe was knotted firmly around her throat. The apartment was located in the southwest section of Los Angeles. Officers discovered locked windows and said Mitchell likely knew her killer and had let him in her apartment. She lived alone and had never been married. The murder was similar to three unsolved slayings which occurred in the Los Feliz district in the six preceding months.
References
- Janesville, Wisconsin, Daily Gazette, News Notes From Movieland,
Wednesday, October 4, 1916, Page 6.
- Long Beach, California Press-Telegram, Find Actress Strangled In Home In L.A., September 17, 1957, Page 1.
- Los Angeles Times, Ex-Actress Strangled, September 17, 1957, Page 38.
- Marshfield, Wisconsin Times, Unique Theater, April 26, 1916, Page 4.
