Charles Frederick Ellis
American, painter and actor, born 1892
Person TypeIndividual
Terms
American artist, cartoonist, and writer 1874–1944
American illustrator and painter, 1867–1944
American abstract artist, 1917–2008
Charles Frederick Ellis
BiographyA painter and actor, Charles Ellis was born in 1892 and studied at Ohio State University and the Art Students League in New York City. His art instructors included Robert Henri and John Sloan, and he is one of the figures in Sloan's etching Arch Conspirators. After having been a scenic artist for the Provincetown Players, he turned to acting. He performed in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Rope” and “The Moon of Caribbees” and portrayed Eben Cabot in “Desire Under the Elms” in 1924 at the Greenwich Village Theater. In 1930 he returned to art and had an exhibition at Montross Gallery in 1935. Ellis married Norma Millay, sister of Edna St. Vincent Millay.
