Constance Worth

Constance Worth

Born: August 19, 1912
Died: October 18, 1963
in Sydney, Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Constance Worth (also known as Jocelyn Howarth) (19 August 1911 – 18 October 1963) was an Australian actress who became a Hollywood star in the late 1930s. As Jocelyn Howarth, she experienced success in Ken Hall's films The Squatter's Daughter (1933) and The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934). Cinesound put her under an 18-month contract and paid for her to tour Australia as their rising star.

Ken Hall claimed Howarth's first screen test showed "light and shade, good diction, no accent and (that) she undoubtedly could act with no sign of the self-consciousness which almost always characterised the amateur." In late 1933, Smith's Weekly raved enthusiastically about the young actress; "Young Joy Howarth who leapt into publicity when she became the Squatter's Daughter a few months ago, is just the big hit nowadays...."

In April 1936, she sailed for the United States and Hollywood. After six months of unsuccessful effort, including a near-fatal incident with a gas stove in her flat, she signed a contract with RKO Pictures, taking the leading female roles as Constance Worth, in China Passage and Windjammer. The change of name was related to her first role with established Hollywood actor Vinton Hayworth. After Windjammer, RKO offered her no more films. Her next role was in Willis Kent's 1938 exploitation quickie, The Wages of Sin, playing a young woman lured into prostitution. For the next 12 years, she appeared in a mix of leading, supporting, and uncredited roles in B films. In mid-1939, she returned to act on stage in Australia, but went back to the U.S. before the end of the year. In 1941, she appeared in an uncredited minor role in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion, and in the same year, a leading role in the gangster B film Borrowed Hero. Her last film was a minor role in the 1949 Johnny Mack Brown Western Western Renegades. Throughout her career and as late as 1961, publicity in Australia repeatedly suggested she was on the verge of signing a major studio contract again. This did not happen.

Movies for Constance Worth...

Western Renegades
Title: Western Renegades
Character: Fake Ann Gordon
Released: October 8, 1949
Type: Movie
Brown's principal antagonist this time is the town boss, an outlaw who has killed the community's leading citizen. The dead man's grown children want to investigate the killing, but the outlaw puts a stop to this by hiring a dance-hall dame to pose as the kids' long-lost mother. Johnny isn't fooled by this subterfuge nor is his sidekick.
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The Set-Up
Title: The Set-Up
Character: Wife (uncredited)
Released: March 29, 1949
Type: Movie
Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
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Deadline at Dawn
Title: Deadline at Dawn
Character: Nan Raymond
Released: March 18, 1946
Type: Movie
A young Navy sailor has one night to find out why a woman was killed and he ended up with a bag of money after a drinking blackout.
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Sensation Hunters
Title: Sensation Hunters
Character: Irene
Released: October 12, 1945
Type: Movie
A naive young girl, looking to escape from a bad family situation, falls in love with a man who turns out to be a cad, and leads her down the road to ruin.
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Why Girls Leave Home
Title: Why Girls Leave Home
Character: Flo
Released: October 9, 1945
Type: Movie
In this crime drama, a young woman leaves her unhappy life at home to become a sophisticated night club singer. Her first job is nearly fatal when she entangles herself with the mobsters who own the joint and learns too much about their operation. Her boss decides to kill her and make it look like suicide. An intrepid reporter disbelieves the report and exposes the truth to the public.
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Dillinger
Title: Dillinger
Character: Blonde
Released: April 25, 1945
Type: Movie
The life of American public enemy number one who was shot by the police in 1934.
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The Kid Sister
Title: The Kid Sister
Character: Ethel Hollingsworth
Released: February 6, 1945
Type: Movie
A madcap comedy about a kid sister who tries to steal her older sister's boyfriend. Her plan involves joining forces with a burglar to rob the unfortunate suitor's home.
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Sagebrush Heroes
Title: Sagebrush Heroes
Character: Connie Pearson
Released: February 1, 1945
Type: Movie
This Columbia western starring Charles Starrett finds Steve Randall (Charles Starrett) forming a radio show with Jimmy Wakely (Jimmy Wakely) and his Saddle Pals, and are in town for a rodeo. Reporter Connie Pearson (Constance Worth) persuades them to visit Marty Jones (Elvin Fields), a fatherless boy, who has been sent to a boy's home after stealing Steve's wallet, ran by Tom Goodwin (Forrest Taylor.) Marty tells Steve that the home is a phony and is a front for cattle rustlers. Steve passes the information on to Connie, who doesn't believe him, so he and Jimmy wire the ranch for sound. They are caught and Goodwin turns them over to Sheriff Barnes (Edmund Cobb), and then plans to skip the country
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Cyclone Prairie Rangers
Title: Cyclone Prairie Rangers
Character: Lola
Released: November 9, 1944
Type: Movie
It's World War 2 and saboteurs are out to destroy the ranchers food crop. Steve Travis and sidekick Cannonball have been called in to investigate. Avoiding the attempts on his life by the gang, Steve uses a pair of eyeglasses to discover their leader, a supposedly deaf mute shoe repairman.
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Frenchman's Creek
Title: Frenchman's Creek
Character: Woman in Gaming House (uncredited)
Released: September 20, 1944
Type: Movie
An English lady falls in love with a French pirate after he kidnaps her from her ancestral home on the coast of Cornwall and sweeps her off her feet into a world of adventure.
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Cover Girl
Title: Cover Girl
Character: Receptionist (uncredited)
Released: March 22, 1944
Type: Movie
A nightclub dancer makes it big in modeling, leaving her dancer boyfriend behind.
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Klondike Kate
Title: Klondike Kate
Character: Lita
Released: December 16, 1943
Type: Movie
A young man in Alaska finds himself accused of murder, and must fight to clear his name.
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The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case
Title: The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case
Character: Betty Watson
Released: December 9, 1943
Type: Movie
The Crime Doctor gets involved in the case of the poisoning of a wealthy industrialist.
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Dangerous Blondes
Title: Dangerous Blondes
Character: Reporter
Released: September 23, 1943
Type: Movie
Mystery writer Barry Craig (Allyn Joslyn) and his wife Jane (Evelyn Keyes), prefer solving crimes rather than writing about them. They get a chance when killings plague the fashion photography studio of Ralph McCormick (Edmund Lowe). After his secretary, Julie Taylor(Anita Louise) reports an attempt to murder her there, Erika McCormick's (Ann Savage) Aunt Isabel Fleming (Mary Forbes) is stabbed and the evidence points to Madge Lawrence (Bess Flowers) an older model and an apparent suicide. Police Inspector Joseph Clinton (Frank Craven) declares the case closed...but then Erika is murdered.
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Appointment in Berlin
Title: Appointment in Berlin
Character: English Girl (uncredited)
Released: July 15, 1943
Type: Movie
The "war of nerves" which gripped the European continent in 1938, is the background for this war thriller starring George Sanders.
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Crime Doctor
Title: Crime Doctor
Character: Betty, Ordway's Nurse-Receptionist
Released: June 22, 1943
Type: Movie
Robert is found beside the highway with a head injury and amnesia. His amnesia motivates him to become a Physician and the country's leading criminal psychologist.
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She Has What It Takes
Title: She Has What It Takes
Character: June Leslie
Released: April 15, 1943
Type: Movie
Fay Weston (Jinx Falkenburg), a radio singer of no consequence, pretends to be the daughter of a recently deceased Broadway stage star in order to hoodwink Broadway play producer in starring her in a planned-show that is a tribute to her supposed mother.
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Let's Have Fun
Title: Let's Have Fun
Character: Diana Crawford
Released: March 4, 1943
Type: Movie
When a musical star discovers her leading man is married, she quits the show and takes its financial backer with her.
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G-men vs. the Black Dragon
Title: G-men vs. the Black Dragon
Character: Vivian Marsh
Released: January 16, 1943
Type: Movie
Japanese spies attempt to subvert America's war effort; G-Men attempt to thwart their plot.
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City Without Men
Title: City Without Men
Character: Elsie
Released: January 14, 1943
Type: Movie
A young woman's husband has been imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. In order to be near him to try to help him get his sentence overturned, she moves into a boardinghouse near the prison whose residents are the wives of inmates.
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The Dawn Express
Title: The Dawn Express
Character: Linda Pavlo
Released: March 27, 1942
Type: Movie
A Nazi spy ring is after a chemical formula that increases the power of ordinary gasoline for U.S. Army aviation use. Two U.S. chemical companies are developing the formula, with each working on half for security purposes. The spies get half the formula and know that either of two chemists, Robert Norton or Tom Fielding, knows the rest. They capture Fielding, through a ruse by gang member Linda Pavlo, and threaten the life of his sister Nancy and his mother if he does not give them the formula. To protect his friend Fielding, who does know the formula and is engaged to Nancy, Tom pretends to know the secret and boards the Dawn Express plane with the spy leader and his gang.
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Borrowed Hero
Title: Borrowed Hero
Character: Mona Brooks
Released: December 5, 1941
Type: Movie
A struggling lawyer is named as special prosecutor in a racketeering case.
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Suspicion
Title: Suspicion
Character: Mrs. Fitzpatrick (uncredited)
Released: November 14, 1941
Type: Movie
Wealthy, sheltered Lina McLaidlaw is swept off her feet by charming ne'er-do-well Johnnie Aysgarth. Though warned that Johnnie is little more than a fortune hunter, Lina marries him anyway and remains loyal to her irresponsible husband as he plows his way from one disreputable business scheme to another. Gradually Lina comes to the conclusion that Johnnie intends to kill her in order to collect her inheritance.
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Criminals Within
Title: Criminals Within
Character: Alma Barton
Released: June 27, 1941
Type: Movie
A young soldier uncovers a ring of spies when he investigates his brother's mysterious murder.
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Meet Boston Blackie
Title: Meet Boston Blackie
Character: Marilyn Howard
Released: February 20, 1941
Type: Movie
When a murder occurs on an ocean liner docked in New York, the trail leads to Coney Island and a spy ring.
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Angels Over Broadway
Title: Angels Over Broadway
Character: Sylvia Marbe
Released: October 2, 1940
Type: Movie
Small-time businessman Charles Engle is threatened with exposure for embezzling $3,000 for his free-spending wife. Deciding on suicide, he scribbles a note, stuffs it in his pocket and goes for one last night on the town. He is pulled into a poker game by conman Bill O'Brien and singer Nina Barone, but when they discover the dropped note, they resolve to turn the tables, get Engle his $3,000 and save his life.
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Mystery of the White Room
Title: Mystery of the White Room
Character: Ann Stokes
Released: March 17, 1939
Type: Movie
A doctor and nurse solve an operating-room murder.
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The Wages of Sin
Title: The Wages of Sin
Character: Marjorie Benton
Released: July 14, 1938
Type: Movie
A hard-working woman trying to support her family and working at a menial, low-paying job falls for a low-life and before she knows it, he has her working as a prostitute in a bordello.
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Windjammer
Title: Windjammer
Character: Betty Selby
Released: August 6, 1937
Type: Movie
The fourth and last of the George A. Hirliman-produced films starring George O'Brien (preceded by "Daniel Boone", "Park Avenue Logger" and "Hollywood Cowboy") that were distributed by RKO Radio. Hirliman sold O'Brien's contract to RKO, which then produced 18 series westerns starring O'Brien that ended when O'Brien went into the Navy at the outbreak of WW II. Long-time (past and future) O'Brien director David Howard served as Hirliman's Associate Producer on this film. "Windjammer" finds O'Brien as a subpoena server ordered to serve a subpoena on Brandon Evans (The Commondore) for a senate inquiry or lose his job. Posing as a playboy, he boards the Commodore's yacht during a yacht race, and the yacht is wrecked by a gun-running windjammer commanded by Captain Morgan (William Hall.) All hands are picked up by the windjammer, including the Commodore's daughter (played by Constance Worth) and put to work as galley slaves.
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China Passage
Title: China Passage
Character: Jane Dunn
Released: March 12, 1937
Type: Movie
Americans Tommy Baldwin and Joe Dugan are hired to transport a fabulous diamond from Shanghai to San Francisco. They will be paid handsomely on success or killed on failure. The diamond is stolen as they take possession of it.
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The Squatter's Daughter
Title: The Squatter's Daughter
Character: Joan Enderby
Released: September 23, 1933
Type: Movie
A story of rival sheep stations and of the strong-willed squatter’s daughter who wants to unite them.
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The House in the Forest
Title: The House in the Forest
Released: October 20, 1922
Type: Movie
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The Education of Nicky
Title: The Education of Nicky
Character: Chloe
Released: March 31, 1921
Type: Movie
Rich cousins marry after they are both bankrupted.
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Love in the Welsh Hills
Title: Love in the Welsh Hills
Released: January 1, 1921
Type: Movie
A farmer frames a petty officer for theft and confesses after falling over a cliff.
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Fate's Plaything
Title: Fate's Plaything
Character: Dolores Blockett
Released: May 10, 1920
Type: Movie
Dolores gets a marriage proposal from the promising young doctor Lucas, but on the day of their marriage, she leaves him in the lurch and takes off with the South American dancer and adventurer Hugo Amadis. But Hugo treats her badly. Dolores leaves Hugo and begins a career as a dancer to make ends meet for her and her son. One day, the son gets sick, and the doctor who helps the child through the crisis is Doctor Lucas. Lucas and Delores decide to start over.