Corse Payton

Corse Payton (18 December 1866, Centerville, Iowa[1] – 23 February 1934 Brooklyn, New York) was an American actor and theatre impresario who famously billed himself as "The World's Best Bad Actor".

[2][3][4] Predominantly a stage actor, he established his own stock theatre company at the age of 16 with whom he spent years performing throughout the mid-western and Western parts of the United States.

This organization included several actors from his family such as his brother Claude Payton and his niece Edna May Spooner.

[3] Several famous actors spent their early careers with his company, including Mary Pickford, William R. Dunn, Dorothy Gish, Lillian Gish, Fay Bainter, Bert Lytell, Della Pringle, and Sidney Toler among others.

[2] This period ended in 1925 after he came into a dispute with the Actors' Equity Association which effectively barred his appearance on the New York stage.