Edwina Booth

Blonde lead of the late 1920s and early 30s who appeared in films such as "Manhattan Cocktail" (1928) and "Our Modern Maidens" (1929) as well as the serials "The Vanishing Legion" (1931) and "The Last of the Mohicans" (1932). Booth is best remembered, however, for the headline-making mysterious illness she contracted while starring as the "white goddess" in W.S. Van Dyke's "Trader Horn" (1931) in Africa. The illness confined her to bed for five years and ended her film career. Booth sued MGM for more than $1 million, claiming that the studio had failed to safeguard her health in Africa while the film was being shot; she won an undisclosed settlement from the studio. Over the years her death had been erroneously reported on several occasions and was incorrectedly cited in Katharine Hepburn's book "The Making of 'The African Queen'."