Early Life and Career
Ethel Shannon was born in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of James Shannon and Agnes Knight. After finishing school, she moved to Hollywood. Not long afterward, she was asked by a friend if she wanted to work as an extra in a movie and she readily said yes. The extra part lasted several days and, before she left the studio, Shannon was offered a role in a Bert Lytell comedy, Easy to Make Money (1919), which sparked her career.
After playing the role as Gwendolyn, the American, in Tsuru Aoki's Universal Studios production, The Breath of the Gods (1920), Shannon replaced Josephine Hill as leading lady with Universal's western star, Hoot Gibson. Shannon later signed a contract with B.P. Schulberg and became a featured player. She was selected by Schulberg to play the principal feminine role in the most extravagantly produced picture at Schulberg Studios, Daughters of the Rich (1923), from the book of the same title by Edgar Saltus. In her first production, Shannon had a supporting cast that included at least half a dozen players who either had appeared as stars in their own right, or had seen their names in lights as featured players.
Shannon was chosen as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1923, along with Eleanor Boardman, Evelyn Brent, Dorothy Devore Virginia Browne Faire, Betty Francisco, Pauline Garon, Kathleen Key, Laura La Plante, Margaret Leahy, Helen Lynch, Derelys Perdue, and Jobyna Ralston.
She appeared opposite Harry Carey in The Texas Trail (1925) and the New York Times proclaimed her "one of the best leading women you could imagine for this kind of photoplay." Despite good reviews and a promising future, Shannon's last movie role was as Ruth Morris in Through Thick and Thin (1927) opposite William Fairbanks. She then retired from the screen to become a wife and "take up a home-making career."
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