Biography
Noel Francis (born Noel Frances Sweeney) was an American actress of stage and screen. Born in Temple, Texas, on 31 August 1906, she began her career on Broadway in the mid-1920s as a Ziegfeld girl in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925 and appeared in other productions including Rio Rita.
She moved to Hollywood around 1929 after signing with Fox, initially for musical roles, but was dropped when demand for musicals declined. She then worked at Warner Bros., appearing in supporting parts as tough-talking characters in films such as Blonde Crazy (1931) and Smart Money (1931). Her most noted performance was as Linda in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932).
By the mid-1930s her roles became smaller. She made a brief return to Broadway in 1935 and appeared in a few B-films before retiring after westerns with Buck Jones in 1935 and 1937. She died in Los Angeles on 30 October 1959.
