Esther Ralston

Acting

Esther Ralston

Born — Died

1902-09-17 — 1994-01-14

Place of birth

Bar Harbor, Maine, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

62 titles

Esther Ralston (September 17th, 1902- January 14th, 1994) was an American silent film star. She began her career as a child actress in a family vaudeville act named "The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America's Youngest Juliet". She then went on to appear in a few small silent film roles, including one alongside her brother in the 1920 film adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. Ralston gained attention as Mrs. Darling in the 1924 film adaptation of Peter Pan. Her most well known sound picture was To the Last Man in 1933.

Known for

Tales of Tomorrow poster
6.4

Tales of Tomorrow is an American anthology science fiction series that was performed and broadcast live on ABC from 1951 to 1953. The series covered such stories as Frankenstein, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Thomas Mitchell as Captain Nemo, and many others featuring such performers as Boris Karloff, Brian Keith, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Bruce Cabot, Franchot Tone, Gene Lockhart, Walter Abel, Leslie Nielsen, and Paul Newman. The series had many similarities to the later Twilight Zone which also covered one of the same stories, "What You Need". In total it ran for eighty-five 30-minute episodes.

Tales of Tomorrow

1951

The Kid poster
8.1

A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.

The Kid

1921

No artwork available
NR

Our Five Daughters is a daytime soap opera that ran on NBC from January 2, 1962, until September 28, 1962. The show was written by Leonard Stadd and directed by Paul Lammers, and aired for a half hour, five days a week, at 3:30 PM EST, right after Young Doctor Malone. The show starred former silent film icon Esther Ralston, whose career had faded with the advent of sound in the late 1920s; she had lost most of her money and had been working as a sales clerk before finding some acting roles here and there. One of them was a brief appearance on the daytime courtroom drama The Verdict Is Yours. Verdict producer Eugene Burr liked what he saw and offered her the lead role in his new soap, Our Five Daughters. Ralston played Helen Lee, mother of five daughters, whose husband Jim was critically injured in an accident. He became an invalid and the abrupt change caused havoc for his wife and children. The show did not gain a significant audience and was ended after several months, on the same day The Brighter Day ended its run. Jacqueline Courtney, who played daughter Ann Lee, went on to much fame on other daytime shows such as The Edge of Night, Another World, and One Life to Live.

Our Five Daughters

1962

The Marriage Circle poster
6.3

An unhappily married couple moves to Vienna, where the wife’s married best friend lives, and soon, sparks fly between the wife and the best friend’s husband.

The Marriage Circle

1924

The Girl from Mandalay poster
4.7

John Foster and Kenneth Grainger are a couple of Englishmen stationed at a teak wood post. When Foster's fiancée, Mary Trevor, writes him that their engagement is off, he goes off to Mandalay.

The Girl from Mandalay

1936

Together We Live poster
7.0

A ham-handed cautionary fable against communism, the film concerns a group of Civil War veterans who are appalled by the burgeoning radical movement in America.

Together We Live

1935

Film credits

1930s · 22 titles

The Girl from Mandalay poster
4.7

John Foster and Kenneth Grainger are a couple of Englishmen stationed at a teak wood post. When Foster's fiancée, Mary Trevor, writes him that their engagement is off, he goes off to Mandalay.

The Girl from Mandalay

1936

Together We Live poster
7.0

A ham-handed cautionary fable against communism, the film concerns a group of Civil War veterans who are appalled by the burgeoning radical movement in America.

Together We Live

1935

Hollywood Boulevard poster
4.5

With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.

Hollywood Boulevard

1936

To the Last Man poster
5.9

In Kentucky just after the Civil War, the Hayden-Colby feud leads to Jed Colby being sent to prison for 15 years for murder. The Haydens head for Nevada and when Colby gets out of prison he heads there also seeking revenge. The head of the Hayden family tries to avoid more killing but the inevitable showdown has to occur, complicated by Lynn Hayden and Ellen Colby's plans to marry.

To the Last Man

1933

Sadie McKee poster
7.0

A maid has romances with a two-timer, a boozing millionaire and the master of the house.

Sadie McKee

1934

The Spy Ring poster
5.6

Two American-army officers are working on a new type of machine-gun for anti-aircraft warfare, when one of them is murdered. The other vows to get the spies that are after the invention and avenge his friend's death.

The Spy Ring

1938

By Candlelight poster
5.7

Josef is valet for Count von Rommer and well-trained in his master's philandering ways. Mistaken for the Count by Marie, a maid he thinks is an aristocrat, Josef shows her a merry time at the Count's Monte Carlo villa. Meanwhile, the Count escapes a situation with Countess von Rischenheim when her count husband makes an unscheduled appearance, by posing as the butler.

By Candlelight

1933

Letter of Introduction poster
6.0

An aging actor, trying to make a comeback on Broadway, is surprised when his estranged daughter shows up. It seems that she is an actress and is also trying to make it on Broadway. He tries to re-establish his relationship with her while also trying to hide the fact that she is his daughter from the press.

Letter of Introduction

1938

Forced Landing poster
8.0

In this high-flying mystery set aboard a cross-country flight to New York, some of the passengers are kidnappers who are trying to locate a hidden cache of loot. Unfortunately, something goes wrong during the trip and the pilots must land the plane in the Arizona desert during a terrible storm. There all of the passengers and crew find cramped accommodations in a lonely farmhouse where murder, mystery and mayhem occur.

Forced Landing

1935

Romance in the Rain poster
9.0

The publisher of a tabloid-type romance magazine decides to get some publicity by sponsoring a "Cinderella and Prince Charming" contest.

Romance in the Rain

1934

Rome Express poster
6.1

The theft of a famous painting leads to murder and many suspects on a plush train speeding from Paris to Rome.

Rome Express

1932

Shadows of the Orient poster
6.0

A classic "B" featurette about "smugglin' in Chinamen for $300 a load"

Shadows of the Orient

1935

Strange Wives poster
7.0

When a young man marries a Russian girl, he finds that he has "married" her entire family.

Strange Wives

1934

Streamline Express poster
6.0

A disparate group of people meet as passengers on a superspeed train crossing the U.S. Aboard are a seductive blackmailer and the stage director he intends to frame, a woman chasing her husband who is running away with the blackmail victim, and the stage director's feisty leading lady.

Streamline Express

1935

Slander House poster
4.4

Owner of salon catering to fat society dames must deal with a dull fiance, a romantic stranger, the jealous blond who loves him, and the lecherous husband of a client.

Slander House

1938

Jungle Menace poster
7.0

Mystery and adventure, surrounding a stolen rubber harvest.

Jungle Menace

1937

Lonely Wives poster
5.3

A highly respectable lawyer becomes a sexual animal after working hours; His live-in mother-in-law tries to keep him in line. When an actor-impersonator comes to see him, the two switch lives.

Lonely Wives

1931

As Good as Married poster
8.0

When a boss proposes marriage to his secretary, she discovers that the arrangement is solely for tax purposes.

As Good as Married

1937

We're in the Legion Now poster
4.5

Two petty gangsters trying to elude their enemies join the French Foreign Legion.

We're in the Legion Now

1936

Mister Dynamite poster
7.0

A gambler hires a detective to investigate when a murder is committed in his casino.

Mister Dynamite

1935

Ladies Crave Excitement poster
5.7

Bored rich girl hooks up with news photographer, gets caught up in his adventures.

Ladies Crave Excitement

1935

The Prodigal poster
4.0

An aspiring singer, who has fallen on hard times and is now living as a hobo, returns to his wealthy southern family.

The Prodigal

1931

1920s · 35 titles

The Kid poster
8.1

A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.

The Kid

1921

The Marriage Circle poster
6.3

An unhappily married couple moves to Vienna, where the wife’s married best friend lives, and soon, sparks fly between the wife and the best friend’s husband.

The Marriage Circle

1924

Whispering Devils poster
5.0

Michael Faversham, a puritanical minister determined to stomp out immorality, orders one of his parishioners, Rose Gibbard, to confess in public that she is the mother of an illegitimate child, knowing that it will bring shame and condemnation to her. Meanwhile, he is consumed with desire for another of his parishioners, the lovely Audrey Lesden. One day the two of them find themselves alone on a deserted island, and the attraction of Faversham and the married Audrey for each other is too difficult for them to resist. Complications ensue.

Whispering Devils

1920

A Kiss for Cinderella poster
6.0

An adaption of a novel by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie.

A Kiss for Cinderella

1925

The Case of Lena Smith poster
6.0

A peasant girl goes to great lengths to protect her child in 19th century Vienna. The film is considered lost, and only four minutes of footage are known to remain.

The Case of Lena Smith

1929

Peter Pan poster
6.9

Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.

Peter Pan

1924

Betrayal poster
9.0

André Frey, a bohemian artist, woos and wins a rustic Swiss maid, promising to return to her after a visit to the city. The girl, Vroni, finds herself pregnant and is forced by her father to marry Poldi Moser, the mayor of the small Swiss town. Moser and Vroni are happy together, and two sons are born to them. André returns to the village periodically and finally asks Vroni to go away with him. She refuses, and he writes her an angry note. That evening, Vroni and André are involved in a toboggan accident; Vroni is killed outright, and André is fatally injured. Moser finds André's note and goes to him, demanding of the dying man to know which of the boys is in fact André's child. Thinking to protect his own son, André informs Moser that Moser's own son is his (André's) son. Moser swears vengeance on the child but relents when he realizes that he loves both boys equally.

Betrayal

1929

Children of Divorce poster
6.0

A young flapper tricks her childhood sweetheart into marrying her. He really loves another woman, but didn't marry her for fear the marriage would end in divorce, like his parents'. Complications ensue.

Children of Divorce

1927

Something Always Happens poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Something Always Happens

1928

The Trouble With Wives poster
7.0

William Hyatt (Tom Moore) runs an exclusive shoe store, and his happy marriage to Grace (Florence Vidor) is nearly derailed by his well-meaning, but hopelessly gauche pal, Al Hennessy (Sterling). Dagmar, a Parisian shoe designer (Esther Ralston) has come to town to meet with Hyatt and Hennessy, and Hennessy describes the situation to Grace in the worst possible manner, convincing her that her husband is having an affair.

The Trouble With Wives

1925

Remembrance poster
9.0

Although he graduated from that time-worn university, the college of hard knocks, the tireless efforts of John P. Grout have paid off. He owns a number of department stores and his wife and children are well provided for. However, his family is completely ungrateful and takes him -- and his money -- for granted. Grout's attempts to keep them all happy are driving him to bankruptcy and he eventually becomes seriously ill. Eventually his wife and kids come to realize how badly they've treated Pops.....

Remembrance

1922

The Mighty poster
6.0

In this melodrama set during WWI, a gangster joins the army and is promoted to major. He then returns from war torn Europe to tell a family that their beloved son had died in his arms during a battle. The major then falls in love with the late soldier's sister and decides to accept a position in town as the new police commissioner.

The Mighty

1929

Oliver Twist poster
6.4

An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.

Oliver Twist

1922

Figures Don't Lie poster
10.0

Figures Don't Lie is a showcase for the physical charms of lovely Esther Ralston, who in one scene proves the accuracy of the title by donning a fetching one-piece bathing suit. The main story concerns wise-guy insurance salesman Richard Arlen, who through a combination of hard work and sheer gall lands a job as sales manager. But he can't land heroine Ralston, who has remained cool to his charms ever since he tried to make a play for her on the street. A lost film.

Figures Don't Lie

1927

Railroaded poster
8.0

Richard Garbin, willful son of Judge Garbin, one of England's most prominent jurists, is railroaded into prison. He escapes, vowing vengeance against Corton, the man who framed him and caused the death of one of his friends.

Railroaded

1923

Pure Grit poster
7.0

Posing as Stella Bolling's brother, whom he has killed, escaped convict Jim Kemp persuades Stella to help him escape to the Mexican border.

Pure Grit

1923

Blinky poster
10.0

Blinky, the bespectacled son of Col. "Raw Meat" Islip, is scorned by his fellow cavalrymen stationed on the Mexican border because his previous military experience was as a Boy Scout.

Blinky

1923

The Sawdust Paradise poster
9.0

She dances- The Dance of Death. She Sings- The song of Life. Scintillating, Fascinating, Desirable, Swifty She Weaves the Web of Destruction and then Regeneration. A Drama of Lights and Shadows.

The Sawdust Paradise

1928

Wolves of the North poster
10.0

Serialized adventures of fur trappers in the Pacific Northwest, as they fight Indians, the elements and each other.

Wolves of the North

1924

The Wheel of Life poster
9.0

British officer Capt. Leslie Yeullat is at present on leave in London. Falling in love with Ruth Dangan, the wife of his commanding officer, Yeullat does the gentlemanly thing by suppressing his own emotions for the sake of the Regiment. He goes so far as to resign from his commission and returns to India as a civilian.

The Wheel of Life

1929

Dangerous to Men poster
7.0

When noted scientist John Vandam dies in the Orient, he leaves the guardianship of his eighteen-year-old daughter to his old friend Sandy Verrall. Sandy believes that Eliza is a little girl and so prepares for the arrival of a child. Displeased with the situation, Eliza decides to dress and act like a kid so that Sandy will tire of her and send her away.

Dangerous to Men

1920

Fight and Win poster
9.0

Fight and Win is a 1924 American silent drama serial film directed by Erle C. Kenton.

Fight and Win

1924

Half a Bride poster
6.7

Patience Winslow is an impulsive heiress who marries a much-older man whom she really doesn't love. While honeymooning on her yacht without her new husband, Patience is marooned on a desert island with handsome Captain Edmunds. Her head full of notions that she's gleaned from radio dramas and pulp novels, Patience demands that she and Edmunds enter into an in-name-only marriage, observing the responsibilities and proprieties of matrimony without the sexual entanglements. Complications naturally arise.

Half a Bride

1928

$50,000 Reward poster
5.5

Tex Sherwood has just come into possession of a valuable piece of land that will be irrigated by a new dam. Banker Holman knowing the deed must be registered the next day, offers a $50,000 reward for Tex's capture.

$50,000 Reward

1924

The Quarterback poster
6.5

Elmer Stone, quarterback of the 1899 Colton College football team vows to remain a student until Colton beats its biggest rival, State University. Twenty-seven years later, Elmer is still in school and is a classmate of his son, Jack. Other than driving a milk wagon in his spare time, Jack is also the quarterback of the football team. A matter of his eligibility comes up but he is cleared and goes out to do-or-die for Colton against State University. Maybe they will win The Big Game, and Jack's father can get a life...and a job.

The Quarterback

1926

The Wild Party poster
8.0

Leslie Adams, secretary to the city editor of a newspaper, persuades him to let her write up a society affair. Her efforts result in a libel suit against the paper, and Leslie is told to prove her story or join the ranks of the unemployed.

The Wild Party

1923

The American Venus poster
8.0

A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, a hot-shot public relations man, quits the employ of Hugo Niles and goes to work for Gray, persuading Mary to enter the Miss America contest at Atlantic City, with the intention of using her to endorse her father's cold cream should she win. Mary breaks her engagement with Horace. When it appears that she will win the contest, Hugo lures her home on the pretext that her father is ill, and she misses the contest. Chip and Mary return to Atlantic City, discovering that the new Miss America has told the world that she owes all her success to Gray's cold cream. On this note, Chip and Mary decide to get married.

The American Venus

1926

The Further Adventures of Yorke Norroy poster
8.0

A series of four 2-reelers based on the stories of George Bronson Howard, directed by Duke Worne, and starring Roy Stewart in the title role; each episode in the series was a story complete in itself. They are all presumably lost.

The Further Adventures of Yorke Norroy

1922

All's Swell on the Ocean poster
8.0

Homesick for America, Jack and his pals get aboard a ship U. S.-bound disguised as entertainers. As entertainers they're flops, but evoke considerable mirth among the passengers by their efforts. Jack arouses the jealousy of a Frenchman, who is keen on a young French girl, and is challenged to a fight. The Frenchman fights a la Savatte (the French method, including kicking, bucking, etc.) and is getting the better of Jack, until the latter dons a pair of hobnailed brogans. He consents to remove these if his adversary will put boxing gloves on his feet. The Frenchman gets seasick and is counted out as he leans over the rail, where he is soon joined by Jack.

All's Swell on the Ocean

1924

The Goose Hangs High poster
8.0

Having a municipal position, Bernard Ingals has almost bankrupted himself sending his three children to college. The youngsters all arrive home for Christmas Eve, and their parents do their utmost to give them a good time, but the thoughtless and selfish children make other plans and go to a party, leaving their parents to a lonely dinner. A member of the common council arrives at the Ingals home and orders Bernard to reinstate a municipal employee who has been dismissed; Bernard refuses and submits his resignation. The grandmother, a strong-minded old lady, then sets out to put things right: she stakes Bernard to his life-long dream, a greenhouse of his own, and then lectures the children on their thoughtless and profligate ways. The children reform and get jobs, and the goose hangs high at last.

The Goose Hangs High

1925

Old Ironsides poster
6.4

An embellished account of the 1803 expedition by famed frigate U.S.S. Constitution--a.k.a. "Old Ironsides"--against the Barbary pirates then terrorizing American shipping, focusing on the crew and passengers of a fictional merchant ship, The Esther, who fall afoul of the same pirates and thus become involved with the Constitution's mission.

Old Ironsides

1926

The Butterfly Man poster
9.0

Sedgewick Blynn is determined to marry a rich woman. One night he saves a child from a fire. Bessie Morgan, an heiress charmed by his act of heroism, promises to marry him, but at the last minute her father forbids it. Soon after, Blynn receives a telegram informing him of the death of his mother, and he realizes that he has wasted his life.

The Butterfly Man

1920

Fashions for Women poster
3.2

Celeste de Givray is renowned throughout Europe as the most beautiful and best-dressed model in all Paris. Her press agent DuPont concocts an attention-getting publicity scheme by having Celeste undergo cosmetic surgery, then unveiling her "new" face at a posh fashion show. But thanks to a delay in the surgery, DuPont is forced to hired a substitute for Celeste, a look-alike American girl named Lulu Dooley

Fashions for Women

1927

Huckleberry Finn poster
6.8

Huckleberry Finn, a rambuctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River. Accompanying him is Jim, a slave running away from being sold. Together the two strike a bond of friendship that takes them through harrowing events and thrilling adventures.

Huckleberry Finn

1920

Jack O'Clubs poster
7.0

A tough policeman who patrols the city's worst beat loses his nerve when he believes he has hurt the girl he loves.

Jack O'Clubs

1924

Series credits

Tales of Tomorrow poster
6.4

Tales of Tomorrow is an American anthology science fiction series that was performed and broadcast live on ABC from 1951 to 1953. The series covered such stories as Frankenstein, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Thomas Mitchell as Captain Nemo, and many others featuring such performers as Boris Karloff, Brian Keith, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Bruce Cabot, Franchot Tone, Gene Lockhart, Walter Abel, Leslie Nielsen, and Paul Newman. The series had many similarities to the later Twilight Zone which also covered one of the same stories, "What You Need". In total it ran for eighty-five 30-minute episodes.

Tales of Tomorrow

1951

No artwork available
NR

Our Five Daughters is a daytime soap opera that ran on NBC from January 2, 1962, until September 28, 1962. The show was written by Leonard Stadd and directed by Paul Lammers, and aired for a half hour, five days a week, at 3:30 PM EST, right after Young Doctor Malone. The show starred former silent film icon Esther Ralston, whose career had faded with the advent of sound in the late 1920s; she had lost most of her money and had been working as a sales clerk before finding some acting roles here and there. One of them was a brief appearance on the daytime courtroom drama The Verdict Is Yours. Verdict producer Eugene Burr liked what he saw and offered her the lead role in his new soap, Our Five Daughters. Ralston played Helen Lee, mother of five daughters, whose husband Jim was critically injured in an accident. He became an invalid and the abrupt change caused havoc for his wife and children. The show did not gain a significant audience and was ended after several months, on the same day The Brighter Day ended its run. Jacqueline Courtney, who played daughter Ann Lee, went on to much fame on other daytime shows such as The Edge of Night, Another World, and One Life to Live.

Our Five Daughters

1962