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Mrs. Anna Townsend (January 5, 1845 – September 11, 1923) was a silent film actress who first turned to acting as a career very late in life. Featured in several Harold Lloyd films, Townsend is probably best known for her role as Harold's good-hearted grandmother in Grandma's Boy (1922). That film was developed around Townsend's personality.
According to a 1922 profile published in the Los Angeles Evening Express, Townsend's sole acting experience prior to her brief silent screen heyday was an even briefer pre-Civil War tour of duty with the Holman Light Opera Company. This was in large part corroborated the following year by the Sacramento Bee, whose obituary for Townsend states that the actress's emergence "three years ago" constituted the first time "she had ever considered pursuing acting as a profession."
She was survived, at the very least, by one grown child, a daughter. Moreover, judging from a profile of Townsend published that spring, in which references made to both "grown-up children" and "grandchildren" figure prominently, there were almost certainly additional survivors.
| 1913 | The Hoyden's Awakening | Unknown role (as Mrs. Anna Townsend) | |
| 1914 | The Real Thing in Cowboys | Mrs. Mitchell | |
| 1917 | A Marked Man | Harry's Mother (as Mrs. Townsend) | Lost film |
| 1918 | Three Mounted Men | Harry's Mother (as Mrs. Anna Townsend) | Lost film |
| 1921 | Beyond the Trail | Unknown role | Uncredited |
| 1922 | Grandma's Boy | His Grandma | |
| 1922 | Dr. Jack | Jamison's Mother | Uncredited |
| 1923 | Daddy | Mrs. Holden | |
| 1923 | Safety Last! | very small woman at the Sale | Uncredited |
| 1989 | American Masters | Harold's Grandmother in 'Grandma's Boy' | Archive footage, posthumously release, episode: "Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius" |
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