Born in Paulding County Ohio, George Monnette Kling on February 19th, 1891, "Saxon Kling" was the youngest of the two sons born to Gertrude Wright and Arthur Kling.  

Marion Ohio's Kling family was one of the more well to do families in the 19th century.  Arthur's uncle was Amos Kling, a wealthy business and real estate operator.  Amos Kling's daughter -- Arthur's first cousin -- "Flossie" would marry a man that her father was convinced to be beneath her and the publisher of one of Marion's newspapers, The Marion Daily Star. Kling refused to attend the wedding and forbade his wife from attending as well. Kling and his daughter didn't speak for years afterward, however did reconcile later in his life.  However it was Florence Kling Harding who would get the last laugh when her husband Warren G. Harding was elected President of the United States in 1920.

Arthur Kling married Gertrude Wright in 1886.  Their first child, Donald Wyant Kling, was born in 1887; George Monnett Kling followed in 1891 after the Kling's had moved to Paulding County in western Ohio.  Shortly thereafter, the Kling's returned to Marion Gertrude divorced Arthur claiming gross negligence;  Arthur was a text book alcoholic and the divorce details were sensational at the time, however he was still the cousin of Florence Harding and the messy details were absent from the pages of the Marion Daily Star.

Donald and George Kling were as different as day and night.  Donald was bookish and made good marks in school.  George on the hand was the artistic one in the family and showed great talent in painting, sculpting and music.  While Donald would graduate from college and law school with highest honors, George made it through high school and several months at Ohio State before leaving school to pursue his greatest love, the theatre.

Arriving in New York, Kling took the stage name "Saxon Kling".  A frequent guest at the home of his mother's first cousin Nell Ross Owen, Kling's talents pointed toward painting and the music.  Nell Owen's daughter Catherine Owen McNutt tells of Saxon's ability to attend a Broadway show, return to the home and play the entire score on the piano from memory.  Despite this talent, Saxon Kling aligned himself with a troupe of actors who were interested promoting the works of more experimental writers.  The group formed the Washington Square Players in 1915 with Saxon as one of the founding members, and would stay attached to the group until it dissolved in the early 1920's.

In the late winter of 1918, Kling appeared in the Washington Square production of Miles Mallison's play "Youth".  Kling's good looks made him a natural for the roles that required good looks, however his limited range regulated him to secondary leading roles.

Kling also appeared in the Washington Square Players version of George Bernard Shaw's "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1918) which also again included Sam Jaffe (also known as Dr. David Zorba on Ben Casey MD.)  Like all Washington Square productions, Mrs. Warren's profession had a limited run of several weeks.

Kling also tried his hand at acting in silent films in 1919, however he returned to the stage where he continued to act throughout the 1920's.  This run included playing opposite Helen Hayes in "Bab" in 1920. Kling also appeared on the bill for for the 1925 revival of  "Trelawny of the Wells" at the Knickerbocker Theatre along with Charles Coburn and John Drew.  As a writer, Kling's only hit was the 1928 production of  his comedy "Crashing Through".

The remainder of Saxon Kling's life involved with the arts and theatre, however an increasing amount of time was spent in Ohio where he worked with community theatre groups in Columbus, Marion and Mansfield.  Kling died in Marion Ohio in 1940 before finishing his last play, a comedy entitled "What Every Woman Wants" (also known as "America 1685") which was co-written with Johnny Tremaine author Ester Forbes.  He is buried in Marion Cemetery.

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