Kathleen Howard

Kathleen Howard began as an opera singer, became a fashion magazine editor and later worked as a character actress in Hollywood. Born in Clifton Hill, part of Niagara Falls, Ontario, she started singing professionally in Germany in 1906, spent eight years in Berlin and gave concerts in several European countries before moving to the United States in 1913. Three years later she joined the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang major and secondary parts until 1928 and created Zita in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi in 1918. She had also belonged to repertory companies in Metz and Darmstadt. From 1918 she edited fashion at Harper's Bazaar for four years and led Fashion Group International, then left to try films. She made her film debut in Death Takes a Holiday (1934), and she played Amelia, W.C. Fields's wife, in It's a Gift (1934). She also appeared in You're Telling Me! (1934) and Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935). She died in 1956.