Katherine Lewis

Biography

Katherine Lewis was born on November 6, 1899 in Newark, New Jersey. She was signed by Vitagraph at the age of fourteen and made her film debut in The Knight Before Christmas (1914). After a few small roles she started working for producer Al Christie in 1919. Katherine appeared in numerous comedies including Mary Moves In, Rowdy Ann, and Chop Suey. The pretty blue-eyed actress was usually cast as an ingenue. Her mother, Jane Lewis, opened a store in Hollywood where she rented costumes to actresses. Katherine married Broadway actor David Newell in 1935 and became a housewife. The couple had two daughters - Cynthia Ann and Susan Jessie. Sadly in the Spring of 1948 she entered a San Fernando sanitarium suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. She spent sixteen months in the sanitarium and died on August 25, 1949. Katherine was only forty-nine years old. She was buried at Valhalla cemetery in Los Angeles. Both contemporary and modern sources often confuse her with an older actress, Katharine Lewis (III), who also worked at Vitagraph, and usually played society types through the 1920s.