Cleo Ridgely
American actress (1893-1962)
Cleo Ridgely-Horne (born Freda Cleo Helwig, May 12, 1893 – August 18, 1962) was a star of silent and sound motion pictures. Her career began early in the silent film era, in 1911, and continued for forty years. She retired in the 1930s but later returned to make more movies. Her final film was Hollywood Story (1951), in which she had a bit part.
Early life
Ridgely was born Freda Cleo Helwig in New York City. She was the daughter of August Helwig and Catherine Emily Sommerkamp. She had two sisters, Christina and Martha. After her parents' deaths when she was 2 years old, she lived in Wisconsin with her grandmother.
Career
Before she began working in films, Ridgely performed in the chorus at the Hippodrome Theater in New York City. In 1910, she began acting for the Kalem Company film studio in Jacksonville, Florida.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3680500. VIAF identifies the subject as 21885181. The Library of Congress control number is no2005114147. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1962, 1911 and 1951.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cleo Ridgely” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.