A major star of the early silent era, blonde Kathlyn Williams is best-remembered for playing Cherry Malotte in the first, and by all accounts best, screen version of Rex Beach's The Spoilers (1914) and for starring in the seminal action serial The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913). The first chapterplay with holdover action, Adventures was but one in a number of melodramas teaming the apparently fearless actress with the Selig Polyscope Company's famous stable of wild animals (the nucleus for what would later become the Los Angeles Zoo). A professional actress since childhood, Williams had been a member of the famous Belasco Stock Company and had appeared with Willard Mack prior to making her screen debut for D.W. Griffith at the old Biograph studios in 1909. She didn't remain for long with Biograph, however, defecting to the Chicago-based Selig Polyscope Company in June 1910.
Relocated to Los Angeles, Williams went on to become Selig's top female star and, following the 1913 release of The Adventures of Kathlyn, one of the nation's great screen icons. At one point, Williams had both a waltz and a clothing line named after her and she proved her worth to the company once again by exhibiting a hitherto uncharted thespian talent as the free-spirited dancehall girl Cherry Malotte in The Spoilers. William Farnum and Thomas Santschi may have had their much-publicized brawl but Williams added her own unique brand of frontier gusto to the proceedings
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