Josephine Rector

Josephine Rector (September 25, 1885 in Indiana – October 1, 1958 in Castro Valley) was an American scriptwriter and actress. Working for the Essanay company based in Oakland, Rector had a short career in the silent film period of cinema, with all her known films released from between 1911 and 1914 for the Essanay company. She is sometimes also referred to as Mrs. Hal Angus, after her second husband, Hal Angus, whom she married after leaving Essanay in 1914.

She entered the film industry after discussing story ideas with the actor Jack O'Brien. She sold her first scripts to Essanay when it was located in Los Gatos in 1910–1911. She has also worked with George Kirke Spoor, distributor of screen equipment and Gilbert M. Anderson, or "Broncho Billy" Anderson, an actor, director and producer, who is the cowboy star in most of the films she worked in. Ultimately, Rector decided not to move to Hollywood, which became the centre of the film industry, and ran a flower shop in Hayward, California in later life. Most of her films are now lost, and none of her original scripts are known to survive.