[1][2] Born in Bethnal Green, London, England, Poulton worked as a stenographer and entered films by chance.

[3] Her first role in George Pearson's Nothing Else Matters (1920) was opposite Betty Balfour, who was also making her debut, and the film was a success.

The addition of the microphone revealed Poulton's broad Cockney accent, which was at odds with the characters she had become identified with.

Like Clara Bow who faced the same problem as a result of her Brooklyn accent, Poulton struggled to maintain her status.

She spent her last years writing and re-writing a typescript about a young British starlet who is raped by a film director and who then descends into alcoholism.