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.
1949
as Fake Ann Gordon
1949
as Wife (uncredited)
1946
as Nan Raymond
1945
as Irene
1945
as Flo
1945
as Blonde
1945
as Ethel Hollingsworth
1945
as Connie Pearson
1944
as Lola
1944
as Woman in Gaming House (uncredited)
1944
as Receptionist (uncredited)
1943
as Lita
1943
as Betty Watson
1943
as Reporter (uncredited)
1943
as English Girl (uncredited)
1943
as Betty, Ordway's Nurse-Receptionist
1943
as June Leslie
1943
as Diana Crawford
1943
as Vivian Marsh
1943
as Elsie
1942
as Linda Pavlo
1941
as Mona Brooks
1941
as Mrs. Fitzpatrick (uncredited)
1941
as Alma Barton
1941
as Marilyn Howard
1940
as Sylvia Marbe
1939
as Ann Stokes
1938
as Marjorie Benton
1937
as Betty Selby
1937
as Jane Dunn
1933
as Joan Enderby
1922
1921
as Chloe
1921
1920
as Dolores Blockett