Introduction
Frances Howard (June 4, 1903 – July 2, 1976) was an American actress. She was the second wife of Academy Award-winning producer Samuel Goldwyn, and the paternal grandmother of actors Tony and John Goldwyn.
Biography
Born Frances Howard McLaughlin in Omaha, Nebraska in 1903 to Charles Douglas McLaughlin and Helen Victoria (née Howard) McLaughlin, and raised as a Catholic. Her mother, nicknamed "Bonnie", had been raised a Quaker but converted to Catholicism, predeceasing her daughter by only five years. Her father was reportedly a grandson of Irish nationalist politician Daniel O'Connell. Frances had two sisters and a brother.
Frances married Samuel Goldwyn, more than two decades her senior, on April 23, 1925. They remained married until Goldwyn's death on January 31, 1974. They had one son, Samuel Goldwyn Jr. (1926–2015); their grandsons are actors Tony and John Goldwyn.
Death
Howard died in Beverly Hills, California, aged 73, more than a year after being diagnosed with advanced cancer, for which she refused treatment which would have required invasive and disfiguring surgery. She was interred next to her husband at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.