George Kleine hired her to recreate Madame Du Barry for the movies. She followed it with a screen version of her first success, the American Civil War melodrama The Heart of Maryland. Neither film was a success. Carter's last stage hit was in Somerset Maugham's drawing-room comedy The Circle (1921), co-starring John Drew. Carter returned to vaudeville. In 1926, she was fired during a tryout of The Shanghai Gesture in which she had been cast as Mother Goddam. As she owned a half-interest in the show, which went on to be a Broadway success, she received half the royalties. She appeared in the road version of the show after its New York run. Later years Carter retired to California but returned to the screen twice in 1935, first as George F. Marion's wife in the Zane Grey western Rocky Mountain Mystery (aka The Fighting Westerner) starring Randolph Scott. She next had a small role in Becky Sharp, starring Miriam Hopkins. She died in 1937 in Santa Monica, California of heart disease. She is buried in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio in the family plot with her second husband, her son Dudley, and several other Dudley and Payne family members. Legacy The ascendancy of Carter in the theatrical world was fictionalized in the film Lady with Red Hair (1940), in which she was portrayed by Miriam Hopkins. Claude Rains portrayed David Belasco. Her second husband Louis Payne was a technical adviser on the film. Louis Payne died in 1955 at the Motion Picture Country Home. Ghost Her ghost reportedly haunts the Theater Republic, where she got her start. If something goes wrong backstage, staff and visiting companies at The New Victory Theater say that they are being visited by the ghost of Mrs. Leslie Carter. Filmography The Scales of Justice (1914) DuBarry (1915) The Heart of Maryland (1915) The Lifeguardsman (1916) Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935) Becky Sharp (1935) (uncredited) References Bibliography "Sued for Divorce; Wealthy Lawyer Carter's Wife Makes Serious Allegations." The New York Times, November 19, 1887. page 2 "A Revolting Case Disposed of." New York Times, May 23, 1889. page 1 "Mrs. Leslie Carter Dies in California", The New York Times, November 14, 1937, page 53. External links Mrs Carter photo gallery NYP Library 1862 births 1937 deaths 19th-century American actresses American stage actresses 20th-century American actresses American silent film actresses Actors from Lexington, Kentucky Actresses from Dayton, Ohio Vaudeville