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- Mace Greenleaf began as a stage actor starring and supporting in many popular plays, perhaps his best known roles was as Herbert, the King's Forrester in 'The Prisoner of Zenda' in the 1890's and in 1898 played Mr. Hunston in Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'Trelawny of the Wells' at the Lyceum Theatre in New York, other Broadway performances was in 'The Pride of Jennico' with James K. Hackett at the Citerion Theatre in 1900 and played Myrtle May's lover in 'The Parish Priest'. Over the first decade of the new century played starring roles in stock companies all over America, he returned to Broadway in 1905 to play the Prince of Wales in the romantic musical 'Edmond Burke'. In 1911 he joined the film industry where he would star in at least 20 drama movies, making his debut in The Golden Rule (1911) co-starring James Kirkwood at the Reliance Film Co. He is perhaps best known as Dr. Earl Headley in Alice Guy Blache's Falling Leaves (1912) for the Solax Film Co in 1912. His last film before his sudden death from pneumonia age 38 was in The Girl in the Arm-Chair (1912) with Blanche Cornwall. In 1906 Mace married Lucy Banning in Santa Ana, California, Lucy came from a very wealthy family they owned Catalina Island, she left Mace in 1910 for the son of prominent judge, Mace divorced his beautiful wife on the ground of desertion, Lucy was known as something of a free spirit and often scandalized 'polite society' with the number of men in her life.
- Vedah Bertram born Adele Buck in Massachusetts into a prominent Boston family, her father Jerome Buck, a wealthy newspaper publisher. Film cowboy star G.M. Anderson saw her photograph in a Boston society column, he decided to contact her and asked her to be his co-star in his Broncho Billy western series, despite opposition by her family she did so, adopting the name Vedah Bertram in order to spare her family's feelings, she became an immediate success in the films as Broncho Billy's girl friend, making her debut in 'The Ranch Girl's Mistake' in 1912, she became hughly popular with cinema audience, starring in around 24 short westerns until her last movie 'Broncho Billy Outwitted', sadly in August 1912, she was admitted into an Oakland hospital with stomach pains and died of acute appendicitis, she was only 20 years old. One of the first film actresses to be mourned by the public, her death proved doubly shocking to her parents who reputedly had remained unaware of her film career.
- Actress
- Writer
Florence Barker was born on November 22, 1891 in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Norman Barker, was a farmer and she had four siblings. When she was a teenager she began acting with stock companies. She fell in love with actor Joe De Grasse, who was 18 years her senior; they moved in together and he helped guide her career. In 1908 she made her film debut in D.W. Griffith's "An Awful Moment." Over the next three years she appeared in more than 50 films, including "The Course of True Love," "The Diamond Star," and "The Newlyweds" with Mary Pickford. She became one of the first American actresses to make films in Europe. About acting she said "I love the work and would advise any actress to make a try for the pictures. The work is arduous to be sure. No one ever attained success unless it was accomplished by close and concerted application." The talented young actress was signed by Powers Players in 1912. She was given leading roles in the comedies "Her Yesterday" and "The Petticoat Detective." Her performances got good reviews and her future seemed bright. She also wrote the script for her 1912 comedy "Priscilla's Comedy." While visiting her mother in early 1913 she became ill. Tragically, on February 15, 1913 she died from pneumonia at only 21 years old. She was cremated and her ashes were buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.silent screen actress with d.w griffith- Joseph Graybill was born on 14 April 1887 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for White Roses (1910), The Primal Call (1911) and Winning Back His Love (1910). He died on 3 August 1913 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Elmer Booth was born on 9 December 1882 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for His Auto's Maiden Trip (1912), Why He Gave Up (1911) and Abe Gets Even with Father (1911). He was married to Irene Outtrim. He died on 16 June 1915 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Arthur V. Johnson was born on 2 February 1876 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Beloved Adventurer (1914), Annie Rowley's Fortune (1913) and The Adventures of Dollie (1908). He was married to Maude Webb. He died on 17 January 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.- Page Peters was born in 1889. He was an actor, known for Madame la Presidente (1916), The Gentleman from Indiana (1915) and The Call of the Cumberlands (1916). He died on 22 June 1916 in Hermosa Beach, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Handsome, dark wavy-haired leading man who appeared on the New York stage, starred in early silent films (1-3 reelers) as well as directed and wrote scenarios. Worked for various studios including Edison, American, Powers, Rex, Big U (Universal), Laemmle, Nestor and Selig. Still working until the year of his death, he passed away at the age of 37 from paralysis associated with multiple sclerosis which affected his spinal cord. He left his wife Ann and their two year old daughter as well as his parents and two sisters.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Mace was a dentist from Erie, Pennsylvania who at one point did some stage stock work for Mack Sennett. Heading west, he worked for Carl Laemmle and Thomas H. Ince before settling back with Sennett. After achieving success as the Chief of the Keystone Kops, he quit Sennett and opened his own company, trying to develop films around his old "One-Round O'Brien" character. After that didn't work out as he planned, Mace moved to Apollo Films. That was also a failure, and he later formed his own company, the Fred Mace Feature Film Company. Unfortunately, the company folded, and Mace returned to Sennett. By that time, however, his popularity had wained, and Mace received few roles over the next two years. He was ultimately found dead in a New York City hotel room, reportedly of a stroke.- Actor
- Director
Fatty Voss was born on 12 October 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Fatty's Feature Fillum (1917), Pirates of the Air (1916) and Shot in a Bar Room (1915). He died on 22 April 1917 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Early information on Florence La Badie is sketchy. She is thought to have been born in New York City in 1888, and was either taken away from or given up for adoption by her birth mother. Florence was adopted by a married couple named LaBadie, who legally gave the child their last name. Her adoptive father, Joseph LaBadie, is believed to have been an attorney in Canada, and the family spent time in Montreal, where Florence grew up. She was educated in both Montreal and New York, and after graduation from high school she worked as a model for well-known illustrator (and, later, film director) Penrhyn Stanlaws.
She took up a career on the stage, first appearing there in 1908. She signed up with director Chauncey Olcott's theatrical company, and went on the road with them. In 1909 she went with a friend, Mary Pickford, to the American Biograph film studio in New York to watch Pickford at work in In the Window Recess (1909), and Pickford got her a bit part in the picture. La Badie didn't make any films for a year after that, though, at which time she signed a contract with Biograph.
In 1911 she left Biograph for Thanhouser. She met with great success in Thanhouser's pictures, and was gradually promoted to lead roles, working there from 1911-1917 (making her the player who worked at Thanhouser the longest). She became the best-known of all of Thanhouser's players and was wildly popular in fan magazines and trade journals.
Although she was engaged twice (to actor Val Hush and writer Daniel Carson Goodman), she never married. She was the "companion" of film mogul Marcus Loew for several years.
On August 28, 1917, while driving a car near Ossining, New York, with her fiancé Daniel Goodman, the car's brakes failed and it plunged down an embankment at high speed, rolling over when it hit the bottom. Goodman escaped with relatively minor injuries, but she was thrown from the car and incurred a compound fracture of the pelvis. She was taken to a hospital in Ossining, where her conditioned worsened. She died of septicemia (infection) on August 28. She was 29 years old. - Jack Standing was born on 10 February 1886 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Evangelist (1916), A Father's Love (1913) and The Perils of Pauline (1914). He was married to Patricia Dorothy Harcourt and Catherine Doucet. He died on 26 October 1917 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Campbell was born in Sale, Cheshire on 26th April 1880 and began acting as a boy. He married fellow music hall performer Fanny Gertrude Robotham on March 30, 1901 and was later hired by English music hall impresario Fred Karno for his "Fun Factory" comedy troupes that featured other comics like a young Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. Campbell arrived in New York with a Karno troupe in July, 1914 and was soon hired by Broadway producer Charles Frohman. In late 1915 fellow Karno alum Chaplin and his brother Sid found Eric working in a George M. Cohan play "Pom Pom" and in March, 1916, brought him to Hollywood. Built like a wrestler, over 6' tall and over 250 pounds, topped by small shaved head. Chaplin smeared his face with exaggerated eyebrows and darkened eyes, with a scraggly and long beard. He was the menacing bearded ogre opposite Chaplin in his most famous silents. His first Chaplin film was The Floorwalker (1916), playing the role of the villainous heavy, reprised in subsequent classics like The Rink (1916), The Pawnshop (1916), The Adventurer (1917), The Cure (1917), The Immigrant (1917), Easy Street (1917) and Chase me Charlie (1917). By the summer of 1917 Campbell was Chaplin's favorite co-star and foil, and almost as famous as the little comedian. In early 1917 Campbell filmed his last Chaplin Mutual, The Adventurer, after which Chaplin began construction on his own studio on LaBrea Avenue in Hollywood (which still stands today). During the five-month construction period, Chaplin lent Campbell to Mary Pickford, the world's biggest star, to appear in her film Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1917). He was on the verge of becoming a world-wide star as filming began. But at the same time that he was becoming famous his personal life was beset by tragedy and scandal. On July 9, 1917 his wife died suddenly of a heart attack after dinner at a Santa Monica restaurant near their home. Walking to a nearby store to buy a mourning dress, his 16-year-old daughter Una was hit by a car a seriously injured. At a September 12th party given for Artcraft Studio publicity man Pete Schmid, Campbell met Pearl Gilman, a diminutive vaudeville comedienne with a family reputation for gold-digging. She had been married to candy heir Charles W. Alisky in 1912, and a few years later divorced and married another wealthy man, Theodore Arnreiter. Her sister Mabelle was married to elderly steel magnate William E. Corey, the owner of U.S. Steel. Just five days after they met, Campbell and Gilman Alisky-Arnreiter were married at the home of Elaine Hardy at 824 5th Street in Santa Monica. His daughter Una, still recuperating at a friend's home in Santa Monica canyon, was not told of the wedding for several weeks. Less than two months after marrying the gentle giant, Gilman Alisky-Arnreiter sued him for divorce. He moved out of the Santa Monica bungalow and into the Los Angeles Athletic Club, taking a room next to his best friend Chaplin. A month later later on December 20, Campbell attended a Christmas party at the Vernon Country Club, and drove back to L.A. in a drunken stupor. Approaching the intersection of Wilshire Blvd. and Vermont Ave. at over 60 m.p.h., he lost control of his car, crossed Wilshire and hit another car head-on. He was killed instantly, his massive body locked in the crumpled wreckage for over five hours. Heartbreak never left Campbell, even in death. After his remains were cremated, his ashes were sent to the Rosedale Cemetery, where they remained for six months while the cemetery waited in vain for someone to pay for his funeral. When the bill remained unpaid, the urn was returned to the Handley Mortuary, where it sat unnoticed in a closet from 1917 until late 1938. When the mortuary closed the urn was sent back to Rosedale, where it sat in another closet for still another 13 years. In 1952 a kindhearted office worker arranged for Campbell's remains to finally be buried. But, unfortunately, he forgot to record exactly where Campbell was buried, so the burly Scotsman is lost among the markers and statues in the quiet cemetery. In conjunction with a Scottish film about Campbell's life, a memorial plaque was laid in 1996. Campbell's death had a profound effect on Chaplin, and a quieter effect on movie history. After that time, Chaplin's movies lost some of their comic mystery; that certain something that his Mutual films had but subsequent films did not. His later works were much more self-centered and missing the comic give-and-take of his work with Campbell. There's no telling how famous Eric Campbell would have become, or what different films Chaplin may have done with his burly best friend.
- William Courtleigh Jr. was born on 28 June 1892 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Neal of the Navy (1915), The Better Man (1914) and Out of the Drifts (1916). He was married to Ethel Fleming. He died on 13 March 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Lillian Cook was born on 16 May 1898 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA. She was an actress, known for The Blue Bird (1918), The Submarine Eye (1917) and Camille (1915). She died on 14 March 1918 in New York City, New York, USA.
- William Hinckley was born on 11 September 1894. He was an actor, known for The Wayward Son (1915), The Burned Hand (1915) and The Lily and the Rose (1915). He died on 4 May 1918 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Silent film actor and director, son of Sidney Drew and his first wife, Mrs. Sidney Drew, and first cousin of actors John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, and Ethel Barrymore. Although his famous parents had hoped for him to choose another career than the theatre and sent him to military school, the draw of the family tradition was too strong. He toured in plays with his parents and his cousin Lionel, who encouraged him to enter motion pictures. He had a brief but prominent career as a film actor, followed by an equally brief but more prominent period as a director. In 1915, he volunteered for service with the Lafayette Escadrille flying corps, in which he served with future director William A. Wellman. He was shot down and killed by the Germans in the last year of the World War. His father never got over the tragedy and himself died less than a year later at the age of 54.- While filming a comedy in 1918, Lillian fell while leaping from one running automobile to another. She suffered severe internal injuries but was able to appear before the cameras again later on. However, during a later filming, the injuries sustained in the previous accident, caused her to become incapacitated and eventually caused her untimely death. Peacock died on a Sunday at her parent's home (1230 Westlake Avenue) near downtown Los Angeles, her funeral was held there two days later.
- True Boardman was born on 21 April 1880 in Oakland, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Tarzan of the Apes (1918), Stingaree (1915) and The Further Adventures of Stingaree (1917). He was married to Virginia True Boardman. He died on 28 September 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Lawrence Peyton born in Hartford, Kentucky in 1895. Handsome, wavy haired athletic star of many silent drama, comedy and westerns, first starred at the age of 18 in a short western 'The Range Deadline' made at the Nestor Film Company in 1913, followed with the Majestic Motion Picture Company in 1914, he's perhaps best remembered in the supporting role as Gaspard in 'Joan the Woman' directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Geraldine Farrar for the Paramount Co in 1916, and as James Montague in the comedy/western series 'Buck Parvin' directed by William Bertram and starring Art Acord at the American Film Company in 1915-16, he was last seen in 'Rosalind at Redgate' directed and starred Ruth Stonehouse at Universal released a year after his death, killed in action in France during WW1 he was only 23.
- Arthur Moon was born on 23 March 1889 in Garden City, Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for A Lislebank (1917), Without Honor (1918) and The Mechanical Man (1915). He was married to Donna Drew. He died on 17 October 1918 in Helena, Montana, USA.
- Actor
- Director
A former salesman and vaudeville and stage actor, Harold Lockwood was one of the earliest romantic stars of American films. He was paired with Mary Pickford, Kathlyn Williams and Dorothy Davenport, among others, but his most popular films had him as the lover of May Allison, and they became one of the earliest screen romantic teams. Unfortunately, Lockwood contracted influenza during the worldwide flu epidemic of 1918, and was one of the millions who died from it.- Myrtle Gonzalez was born on 28 September 1891 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Level (1914), The Little Sheriff (1914) and The Chalice of Courage (1915). She was married to Allen Watt and J. Parks Jones. She died on 22 October 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Julian L'Estrange was born on 6 August 1880 in Weston-super-Mare, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Bella Donna (1915), The Girl with the Green Eyes (1916) and The Morals of Marcus (1915). He was married to Constance Collier. He died on 22 October 1918 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Charles Gunn was born on 31 July 1883 in Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for An Even Break (1917), Sherlock Holmes Solves the Sign of the Four (1913) and Framing Framers (1917). He was married to Nina. He died on 6 December 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
George Gebhardt was born on 21 September 1879 in Basel, Switzerland. He was an actor and director, known for The Puppet Crown (1915), A Woman's Way (1908) and The Chosen Prince, or the Friendship of David and Jonathan (1917). He was married to Mrs. George Gebhardt. He died on 2 May 1919 in Edendale, California, USA.- Lamar Johnstone was born on 15 March 1884 in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ne'er Do Well (1915), Robin Hood (1912) and The Holy City (1912). He died on 21 May 1919 in Palm Springs, California, USA.
- Clifford Bruce born in Toronto, Canada in 1885, a well-built touch performer who supported in many American silent drama, westerns and action-serial's, first with the Selig Film Company in 1913, followed by Fox studios and later the Metro Film Company in the late 1910's, he's perhaps best remembered as the Gypsy Leader in Pearl White's action-adventure serial 'The Perils of Pauline' for the Pathe Film Company in 1914 and as Tom the Friend in Theda Bara's 'A Fool There Was' directed by Porter Emerson Browne at the Fox Film Company in 1915, he was last seen as Baron Demetrius Strakosch in 'Black Is White' in 1920 released a year after his death, he dead in New York aged only 34 in 1919.
- Dee Lampton was born on 6 October 1898 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Drama's Dreadful Deal (1917), Schemer Skinny's Scandal (1917) and Skinny Routs a Robber (1917). He died on 2 September 1919 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
William Parsons was born on 14 August 1878 in Middletown, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Tarzan of the Apes (1918), The Romance of Tarzan (1918) and Lightning Bryce (1919). He was married to Billie Rhodes. He died on 28 September 1919 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- William Stowell was born on 13 March 1885 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Fighting Mad (1917), Fires of Rebellion (1917) and A Doll's House (1917). He died on 24 November 1919 in Elizabethville, Belgian Congo.
- Actress
- Writer
Hazel Neason was born on 16 August 1891 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Garden of Fate (1910), Ida's Christmas (1912) and The Lair of the Wolf (1912). She was married to Albert E. Smith. She died on 24 January 1920 in New York City, New York, USA.- Leo Delaney was born on 15 March 1885 in Swanton, Vermont, USA. He was an actor, known for As You Like It (1912), The Great Victory, Wilson or the Kaiser? The Fall of the Hohenzollerns (1919) and A Tin-Type Romance (1910). He died on 4 February 1920 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Clarine Seymour born to Albert and Florence Seymour in Brooklyn, New York in 1898. Her father ran a ribbon manufacturing business, in 1917 her father became so ill that he had no choice but to close his successful business and so Clarine secured work through the Thanhouser Film Company, which was located in New Rochelle, as a result of her work through that company , she obtained work through Pathe in a Pearl White serial and also in 1917 she appeared opposite Mollie King in 'Mystery of the Double Cross', followed in Toto the Clown comedies for the Robin Film Co and also appeared in many Al Christie comedies, she excepted an offer from D.W. Griffith who directed her in 'The Girl Who Stayed at Home' (1919) and 'True Heart Susie' (1919) opposite Lillian Gish and in Scarlet Days (1919). In 1920 Clarine became famous after starring in 'The Idol Dancer' the public loved her, shortly after that film's release she signed a four year contract, her next role was 'Way Down East' However, half way through production Clarine suddenly died unexpectedly from an intestinal ailment following an operation at Misericordia Hospital in New York at the age of 21. Mary Hay took over her role and the film was a box office success.
- Suzanne Grandais was born on 14 June 1893 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Graziella, the Gypsy (1912), L'essor (1921) and Suzanne (1916). She died on 28 August 1920 in Vaudoy-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France.
- Actor
- Art Department
- Cinematographer
Today screen actor Robert (Bobby) Harron is one of Hollywood's forgotten souls, although he was a huge celebrity in his time and graced some of the silent screen's most enduring masterpieces. A talented, charismatic star in his heyday, Bobby had everything going for him but died far too young to make the longstanding impression he certainly deserved.
Bobby was born one of nine children in New York City to an impoverished Irish-American family. In order to put food on the table, Bobby started out quite young looking for work. At age 13 he found a job working for the American Biograph Studio on East 14th Street as a messenger boy and was given a couple of film bits for added measure. Within the next year director D.W. Griffith had joined the company and the sensitive, highly photogenic Bobby caught the legendary director's eye almost immediately.
Bobby subsequently had leading roles in many of Griffith's classic silents, usually playing characters that were much younger and much more naive than in real life. He appeared opposite other legendary female stars who also played "young-ish" roles, notably Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish. Bobby made indelible impressions in The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), An Old Fashioned Young Man (1917), Hearts of the World (1918), A Romance of Happy Valley (1919) and True Heart Susie (1919).
Bobby had become such a sensation that in 1920 he entertained thoughts about leaving the Griffith fold and forming his own company. A fatal, self-inflicted bullet wound to the left lung in September of 1920 ended those dreams before they ever got off the ground. Although it was listed as an "accidental" death, Hollywood rumor has it that a despondent Bobby killed himself in a New York hotel room on the eve of the premiere of Griffith's new film Way Down East (1920). It seems Bobby was devastated after being passed over by Griffith for the lead role in favor of the director's new protégé, Richard Barthelmess. Whatever the truth may be, Bobby's death remains a tragic mystery. Ironically, Bobby had two lesser known sibling actors who also died quite young. Tessie Harron (1896-1918) died at age 22 of Spanish influenza, and John Harron (1904-1939), nicknamed Johnnie, collapsed and died of spinal meningitis at age 35. Both appeared unbilled in Hearts of the World (1918) with Bobby.- Actress
- Writer
Oliva R. Duffy was born on October 20, 1894, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers. Olive or Ollie, as she was known to family and friends, did not have much of a childhood. Life in industrial Pittsburgh (at the time, spelled "Pittsburg") was depressing and grim with its smoky factories and hard living. She married Bernard Krug Thomas at the age of 16 (which wasn't uncommon at the time), but the marriage wasn't happy, and they divorced two years later.
By that time, Olive had left Pittsburgh for New York, where she found work in a department store. On a lark, she entered a competition for the most beautiful girl in New York City and, unsurprisingly, won. With the ensuing publicity, she caught the eye of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. and immediately joined his famed Follies. An outstanding addition, men went wild over her beauty. She also posed nude for the famed Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas. As a result of her sudden fame, she was signed to a contract with Triangle Pictures. Her first film was Beatrice Fairfax (1916). Later that year, she married Jack Pickford, brother of screen star Mary Pickford.
The relationship was a stormy one. In 1917, she starred in four more films: Madcap Madge (1917), A Girl Like That (1917), Broadway Arizona (1917), and Indiscreet Corinne (1917). With five films on her resume, Olive was the toast of Hollywood. She made three films in 1918 and six in 1919. By 1920, Olive was at the top of the film world. She continued to make good pictures, most notably, Youthful Folly (1920) and also The Flapper (1920), which was an overwhelming success. After finishing Everybody's Sweetheart (1920), Olive and Jack sailed to France for a much-needed vacation.
The couple finally seemed happy, which seems odd in light of what was to follow. Olive accidentally ingested bichloride of mercury from a French-labeled bottle in a darkened bathroom, believing it to be another medication. Found unconscious, she died five days later. The death made worldwide headlines. Olive was only 25 when she died.- An actress best known for her death, her controversial demise occurred the day after being discovered in a hotel bedroom during a party that involved a large amount of alcohol consumption. Actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was the last person seen with Rappe before she was found seriously injured. After her death, Arbuckle went through a murder trial and retrials before being found not guilty. The trials severely damaged the reputations of both Arbuckle and Rappe, and Arbuckle's career never recovered from the scandal.
- Master Breezy Reeves Jr, born Reeves Barnes Eason, also billed as "Breezy" Eason Jr, was born in California in 1914, son of actor/film director B. (William) Reeves Eason and actress Jimsy Mayo. Handsome, cute blonde boy who starred in mostly westerns from the age of two. He was known as 'Universal's Littlest Cowboy' until he was hit by a truck at the age of six while riding his bike to a music lesson near his home at 6200 Fountain Avenue in Los Angeles. He never regained consciousness and died of his injuries after surgery at California Hospital.
- Florence Deshon born to Samuel and Florence C. Danks of Austrian and English descent. She began as a stage actress and appeared opposite Mary Boland in 'My Lady's Dress and in the comedy 'Seven Chances' prior to making her screen debut in 1915's 'The Beloved Vagabond' directed by Edward Jose for Pathe, Florence starred in 24 silent melodrama and crime movies but perhaps her best known was 'The Desired Woman' directed by Paul Scardon and co-starring Harry T. Morey for the Vitagraph Film Company in 1918 and her final film as Sally McTurk in John Francis Dillon's 'The Roof Tree' with William Russell for the Fox Film Co in 1921. She moved to Greenwich Village, New York in hope to resume her film career but on the 4th February she was found unconscious on the third floor of her apartment building, a window was open in her bedroom but illuminating gas flowed from a opened jet, a newspaperwoman, Minnie Morris, found Deshon, an Ambulance took her to Hospital, but attempts to revive her were unsuccessful, she died the following afternoon, adding that the only mystery was why 'with the apartment especially wired for electricity, Miss Deshon should have used the single gas jet in the room and forgotten to turn it off, some say she had no reason to kill herself and that her death was accidental, the New York Medical Examiner concluded her death was accidental but rumors persisted that she might have committed suicide because of grief.
- Child star Bobby Connelly, the son of vaudeville actors, was born April 4, 1909 in Brooklyn, New York. He made his first screen appearance in 1912. In 1913, he joined the Vitagraph Company, whose studio was just a short distance from his home. While at Vitagraph, he starred in a series of shorts as the character "Sonny Jim." Bobby studied violin, which came in handy when he was cast as the young violinist Leon Kantor in the 1920 film version of "Humoresque." Reportedly he was one of the highest paid child actors in the world. At one point, he headed a vaudeville company. In 1922, Bobby became ill for three months, suffering from bronchitis, aggravated by an enlarged heart. Sadly, he passed away on July 6, 1922, at his home in Lynbrook, Long Island.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
The son of writer-theater producer-director-actor Hal Reid, Wallace was on stage by the age of four in the act with his parents. He spent most of his early years, not on the stage, but in private schools where he excelled in music and athletics. In 1910, his father went to the Chicago studio of "Selig Polyscope Company" and Wallace decided that he wanted to be a cameraman. However, with his athletic good looks, he was often put in front of the camera instead of behind - a situation that he disliked. His first film before the camera was The Phoenix (1910), where he played the role of the young reporter. Wallace preferred to be a cameraman, a writer, a director - anything but an actor. He took his fathers play "The Confession" to Vitagraph where he wanted to write and direct the film. Wallace ended up also acting in it. Starting with bit parts in various films, Wallace was eventually cast as the leading man to Florence Turner in numerous films. Wallace next moved on to "Reliance" where he acted, but also wrote screenplays. His next big move was to Hollywood, where he was hired by Universal director Otis Turner, as assistant director, second cameraman, gopher and scenario writer. It was what he was looking for, but he ended up back in front of the camera. At 20, Reid was an unknown assistant director. In 1913, Wallace married Dorothy Davenport, one of the stars that he both directed and starred with. Although only 17, Dorothy had spent a number of years on the stage before heading to the silver screen. The roles that Wallace played were getting bigger and bigger, but after appearing in over 100 films, he took a salary cut and a small part to work with D.W. Griffith on his milestone film The Birth of a Nation (1915). It was after this film that Jesse L. Lasky signed Wallace to a contract with "Famous Players" and he became a big star, but his dreams of directing and writing ended. An alcoholic for years, this situation worsened. His first film for "Famous Players" was The Chorus Lady (1915). Wallace went on to star in a series of pictures in which he represented all that was best of the ideal American. He had parts in over 60 more pictures including Intolerance (1916) and The Squaw Man's Son (1917). But it was the daredevil auto movies that he was most popular at. Flashing cars, dangerous roads and sometimes a race with a speeding locomotive thrilled and scared the public. His auto pictures included The Roaring Road (1919), Excuse My Dust (1920) and Double Speed (1920). When the U.S. entered World War I, Wallace was 25, six foot one and a crack shot. Even though he wanted to enlist, pressure was exerted on him not to. He was the rock on which "Famous Players" was built and his loss would have materially effect the company. He had a newborn son and was the sole support for his wife, his son, his mother, her mother, his father and also had to consider his status as a matinée idol.
He did volunteer his time to selling Liberty bonds and often opened his house to veterans. His films were financial successes, but in his personal life, he spent money like water. Wallace was a star who was worked continuously by the studio but disaster struck on a film site in Oregon. While making the film The Valley of the Giants (1919), Wallace was involved in a train crash and his injuries prevented him from finishing the film. Unwilling to stop the film, the studio sent the company doctor up to Oregon with a supply of morphine so that he would continue working and not feel the pain of his injury. After the picture was finished, he was needed to begin another so the studio kept supplying Wallace with morphine and he became hooked. Coupled with the alcohol, Wallace never had a chance and by 1922, he started entering a succession of hospitals and sanitariums as his health faded. Making his last film for the studio, Thirty Days (1922), Wallace was barely able to stand, let alone act. He died at the sanitarium, in Dorothy's arms, on the 18th day of January 1923 at the age of only 31. Wallace was the third major Paramount personality to be involved in scandal in 1922.- Sidney Mason was born on 26 September 1886 in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Orphan Sally (1922), The Good-Bad Wife (1920) and The Seven Sisters (1915). He was married to Marie Mason (née Van). He died on 1 March 1923 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Joseph McDermott was born in December 1878 in Dubuque, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Perils of the Yukon (1922), The Wife's Stratagem (1914) and The First Piano in Camp (1915). He died on 6 March 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Evelyn Nelson was born Dorris Evelyn Nelson on November 13, 1899 in Chloride, Arizona. Her father was a miner and cattle owner. When she was a child her family moved to Los Angeles, California. She started her career at Bull's Eye films and appeared in the 1920 comedy Don't Park Here. Evelyn was signed by Vitagraph and costarred with Oliver Hardy in the comedies The Backyard and The Decorator. Then she was chosen to be Jack Hoxie's leading lady in the 1921 film Cyclone Bliss. She would make a series of westerns with Jack including The Crow's Nest, The Desert Bridegroom, and Two-Fisted Jefferson. Her older sister Pauline Nelson became an actress too. After her father died Evelyn moved into a modest apartment with her mother. She began a passionate affair with married actor Wallace Reid.
He ended the relationship because he was fearful it would ruin his career. Tragically in January of 1923 Wallace died of a drug overdose. Evelyn was devastated by his death. In June of 1923 she finished filming Desert Rider. She was physically and emotionally exhausted. On June 16, 1923 she committed suicide by turning on the gas in her apartment. She was only twenty-three years old. Evelyn left two suicide notes for her family. The first note said that she was "tired" and that she wanted "rest more than anything in the world". The other note said "I am just about gone and will soon be with my friend Wally." She was buried in an unmarked grave at Rosedale cemetery in Los Angeles. - Stunning silent screen actress Martha Mansfield was a musical comedy star in New York City by the time she entered films in 1916 for Max Linder. Before long she advanced to second leads in features, including the role of Millicent Carew in the John Barrymore starrer Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), which to this day remains her best known. The promising beauty was signed by Fox Studios in 1923 and began work on a new picture The Warrens of Virginia (1924). Nearing the completion of the film, Martha had just finished a scene and was returning to her automobile when her dress caught fire from a carelessly strewn match. Engulfed in flames, co-star Wilfred Lytell managed to throw his coat around her and extinguish the fire, but it was too late. She died the next day of severe burns at age 24.
- Jean Sothern was born on 5 December 1893 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Mysteries of Myra (1916), Whoso Findeth a Wife (1916) and A Mother's Ordeal (1917). She died on 14 April 1964 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.
- The beautiful Lillian Drew was born in Chicago in 1886. Lillian became a highly popular musical comedy theatre star from the mid 1900's, often appearing with her husband actor E.H. Calvert. Later Lillian a gorgeous brunette starred in more than 90 drama and comedy films and became known as Lily of the Essanay, she made her first film playing the role of Edith Towne in 'The Broken Heart' with Ruth Stonehouse in 1913, she perhaps best remembered as Elvira in 'The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket' co-starring Gloria Swanson in 1915. In 1920 she suffered a nervous breakdown and appeared in only one more movie 'Children of Jazz' directed by Jerome Storm and starring Ricardo Cortez at Famous Players Film Co in 1923. At the time of her death in February 1924 she was recovering from both a car crash and a difficult breakup with her husband. Lily dead in Chicago age 38 from veronal poisoning, the death was eventually ruled an accident
- Samuel Cooper Seale was born to John Cooper and Sara Yates Seale in Waiohinu, Kau, Hawaii. He met Cecil B. DeMille on the beach at Waikiki in 1915, and took his advice to go to Hollywood where he appeared in at least two of DeMille's movies. He enlisted in the Army with the outbreak of World War I and was shipped to France. He received an injury and was medically discharged and returned to the United States before the war's end. He may have been slightly injured while tied to a stake being carried by an elephant during the filming of The Son of Tarzan in 1920. For years rumors persisted that he died shortly after the film was completed from injuries received during the filming. In 1921 Searle gave up acting to become a sculptor and painter. His career as an artist was cut short by disease. He died of cancer at the age of 33 in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 14, 1924.
- Actor
- Director
Billy Armstrong was born on 14 January 1891 in Bristol, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Bank (1915), Up in Alf's Place (1919) and Down on the Farm (1920). He was married to Marion Parker. He died on 1 March 1924 in Sunland, California, USA.- James Byron Warner was the younger brother of H.B. Warner and the son of Charles Warner, a prominent English stage actor, whose own father James Warner, whom J.B. was named after, was also a famous actor.
Born in Nebraska in 1895, the handsome J.B. joined the Warner family profession, though--unlike his older brother--he never appeared on the Broadway stage. He made his debut as "Jim Warner" in Knickerbocker Star Features' Crooked Road (1916) before appearing as "James Warner" in 1917 in two pictures for Falcon Features, The Secret of Black Mountain (1917) and The Lady in the Library (1917). Moving west to California, he signed with Universal Pictures in 1920 and began appearing in such horse operas as The Tough Tenderfoot (1920), billed now as "James B. Warner." In his third film at Universal, Blazing the Way (1920), he had top billing. It was his last headliner at Univeral.
After a couple of pictures for independent outfits, Warner appeared as a supporting player to western superstar Tom Mix in For Big Stakes (1922) at Fox. For Metro Pictures he headlined the western Big Stakes (1922), directed and produced by Clifford S. Elfelt. Beginning with his second film at Metro, Flaming Hearts (1922), he was billed as "J.B. Warner", a name likely to evoke his more famous brother, who was a top player in the movies and on the Broadway stage.
At Metro J.B. headlined six westerns, all of them produced by Elfelt. He then moved on to Sunset Productions, where he starred in eight low-budget westerns produced by Anthony J. Xydias, most of which were released in 1924.
Warner's career remains a "What if", as the handsome young actor never did mature into one of the "wax works" of the silent era his brother H.B. played in Billy Wilder's 1950 Hollywood classic, Sunset Blvd. (1950). Not yet 30, J.B. died on November 9, 1924, in Los Angeles, California, from tuberculosis. - Lucille Ricksen was born Ingeborg Erickson in Chicago, Illinois on August 22, 1910. She worked a child model and made her film debut at age 5. Her parents separated and her mother took her to Hollywood in 1920, and 10-year-old Lucille was offered a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and starred in a series of short films. She often had to work long hours but she always said she was having fun. In 1922 she starred opposite Marie Prevost in "The Married Flapper." The following year she was given a starring role in the drama "The Rendezvous"; although she was only 13, the studio lied that she was actually 16. The press called her "the youngest leading lady in movies". Lucille developed a close relationship with producer Sydney Chaplin (brother of Charlie Chaplin), who was 25 years her senior. She became one of Hollywood's busiest starlets and was chosen as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars.
In 1924 Ricksen made 10 films, including "Vanity's Price," "The Galloping Fish," and "The Valley Of The Wolf." Unfortunately, the 14-year-old started to suffer from exhaustion and malnutrition. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis and became bedfast. Her mother kept a bedside vigil, but the stress brought on a fatal heart attack. Following her mother's death, Lucille was looked after by family friends including actress Lois Wilson. During one of her conscious moments Lucille said "Mother wouldn't want me--die--Mother said--Wonderful future--Going to do big things--Won't die! I won't!" But on March 13, 1925, she passed away from complications of tuberculosis, still at only 14 years old. There were rumors that her death had actually been caused by a botched abortion. Lucille was cremated and she was buried with her mother at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California. Her final film, "The Denial," came out 10 days after her death. - David Powell was born on 17 December 1883 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Missing Millions (1922), The Dawn of a Tomorrow (1915) and Fine Feathers (1915). He died on 16 April 1925 in New York City, New York, USA.
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Although all too frequently neglected by fans of silent comedy, Max Linder is in many ways as important a figure as Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, not least because he predated (and influenced) them all by several years and was largely responsible for the creation of the classic style of silent slapstick comedy.
Linder started out as an actor in the French theatre, but after making his screen debut in 1905 he quickly became an enormously famous and successful film comedian on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to his character "Max," a top-hatted dandy. By 1912 he was the highest-paid film star in the world, with an unprecedented salary of one million francs. He began to direct films in 1911 and showed equal facility behind the camera, but his career suffered an almost terminal blow when he was drafted into the French army to fight in World War I. He was gassed, and the illness that resulted would blight his career. Although offered a contract in America, recurring ill health meant that his US films had little of the sparkle of his early French work, and a brief attempt to revive his career by making films for the recently-formed United Artists (one of whose founders, of course, was Chaplin) in the early 1920s came to little, although these later films are now regarded as classics. He returned to France and killed himself in a suicide pact with his wife in 1925.- Actor
- Producer
A stage actor since his early teenage years, Lester Cuneo made his first film, a comedy short, in 1910. It was quite successful, and he soon began appearing in a series of comedy shorts, which he also directed. Tiring of comedies, he decided to make himself a cowboy star and turned to making westerns. He was also successful in that endeavor, and soon became one of the country's first western stars. Unlike many other cowboy actors, however, Cuneo also played dramatic parts in other pictures. His career was interrupted by World War I, and after completing his military service, he returned to Hollywood and resumed his career in Westerns. He formed his own production company and made his own films, and his character was known as "The Smiling Daredevil." His pictures were initially successful, but their success didn't last long. Cuneo's career went downhill, and after a series of personal and professional failures, he shot himself to death in 1925.- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Lucille McVey was a writer at Vitagraph when she met Sidney Drew shortly after his wife's death. They married almost immediately although he was more than twice her age. She scripted and he directed a number of domestic comedies, said to be more subtle and wholesome than those previously filmed. After his death she lost interest in films. She died in 1925 after a lingering illness.- Marguerite Marsh was born Marguerite Clarice Marsh on April 18, 1888 in Lawrence, Kansas. Marguerite was the oldest of seven children, After her father died her mother moved the family to Los Angeles, California. She briefly worked as a nurse before deciding to pursue a career on the stage. In 1907 she married Donald Loveridge and had a daughter named Leslie. Marguerite was signed by Biograph studios in 1911 and made her film debut in The Primal Call. The dark haired beauty had bit parts in numerous shorts including A Siren Of Impulse, The Leading Man, and Too Many Maids. For several years she used the stage name Marguerite Loveridge. Her marriage to Donald ended in 1913. Then she started dating comedian Fred Mace. Meanwhile her younger sister Mae Marsh had become a popular movie star. The two sisters worked together in the film Fields Of Honor.
Her romance with Fred ended in 1916 when she refused to marry him. Sadly he died just a few months later. Marguerite had leading roles in the dramas The Phantom Honeymoon and The Eternal Magdalene. She also appeared in the 1918 serial The Master Mystery with magician Harry Houdini. In her free time she enjoyed reading and studying astrology. Although she made more than eighty movies she never became as successful as her sister Mae. Her final film was the 1923 British drama The Lion's Mouse. She suffered a nervous breakdown during the Fall of 1925. Then she went to live with her mother in New York City. Tragically on December 8, 1925 she died from bronchial pneumonia. Marguerite was only thirty-seven years old. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. - Actress
- Writer
- Art Department
Lottie Lyell has been called Australia's first movie star - which makes it all the more tragic that little of her work survives. That which does provides ample proof of her prodigious and versatile talent. The actress called the `gladsome centaur' by one critic (for her formidable talent as a horsewoman) acted, directed, scripted, and edited numerous films, with her partner, eminent film director and producer, Raymond Longford. Her best known role is undoubtedly that of Doreen in `The Sentimental Bloke' (1919), an adaptation of the popular poem by Australian poet C.J. Dennis. Its wide appeal, gentle humour and clever use of Australian slang made it one of the best loved films of early Australian cinema, as well as a commendable success in overseas markets such as England and America. Some critics commented that: `Doreen in the book charms us so little that we often feel like throwing things at her; but the little Australian girl who plays Doreen on the film is so sprightly and honest, so womanly and sweet, so un affectedly Australian and human, that we find ourselves really believing in Doreen' (`The Triad', 10th November 1919) Together, Lyell and Longford formed their own production company which, though successful, was liquidated in 1924 for reasons still unclear. Sadly, Lottie Lyell passed away at the age of 34 of tuberculosis, depriving the Australian film industry of one of its most influential early figures. `Everyones' Magazine called her `One who has left the mark of her genius on Australian screen progress'.- Mary Thurman was born Mary Christiansen on April 27, 1895, in Richfield, Utah. She was one of seven children raised in the Mormon faith. Sadly her father passed away when she was nine. Mary attended the University of Utah and got a job as a teacher. In 1915 she took a trip to Hollywood. A talent scout saw her and she became one of the famous Mack Sennett bathing beauties. She also began appearing in Sennett's comedy shorts. Mary started out as an extra and quickly worked her way up to leading lady. Between 1916 and 1918 she made more than twenty films. Mary married her childhood sweetheart Victor E. Thurman but the couple divorced in 1919. Mary costarred with Rosco "Fatty" Arbuckle in Leap Year and with William Desmond in The Prince And Betty.
Although she had become a popular comedienne she dreamed of being a serious actress. She signed with producer Allan Dwan who cast her in the 1920 drama In The Heart Of A Fool. Her performance got rave reviews. Allan would direct Mary in several more films including The Sin of Martha Queed and A Broken Doll. Off screen Mary and Allan fell in love and were engaged for a short time. In the fall 1925 she began work on the movie Down Upon The Suwanee River. While filming in Florida she came down with a serious case of pneumonia. She struggled with the illness for months and passed away on December 22, 1925. Mary was only thirty years old. Her mother and her best friend, actress Juanita Hansen, were by her side when she died. Mary was buried in Richfield City Cemetery in her hometown of Richfield, Utah. - Actress
- Writer
Barbara La Marr was born in Yakima, Washington, on July 28, 1896, as Reatha Watson. Her childhood was mostly uneventful, mainly because Yakima--today a medium-sized city with a population of over 50, 000-wasn't exactly a beehive of activity. Her parents eventually moved to the Los Angeles area, where she began to explore the show business lifestyle in whatever form she could. Barbara loved the L.A. way of living and was forced to grow up fast. She was still Reatha at the time, but her arrest for dancing in burlesque while still a teen caused her to change her name to Barbara La Marr to avoid being associated with her past. Her passion was dancing and writing, but the powers-that-be in the movie industry thought she was meant for other things--her dazzling beauty captured the imagination of all who came across her path. Moving to New York, she was ultimately lured into the film world, her first picture being Harriet and the Piper (1920). She was still going by her married name of Barbara Deely (already working to shed her fourth husband) and was being dubbed "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful." The next year she appeared in The Three Musketeers (1921) and Desperate Trails (1921). That same year, her role as Claudine Dupree in The Nut (1921) sent Barbara into super-stardom. Hordes of fans flocked to theaters to see this beautiful actress in movies such as Arabian Love (1922), Trifling Women (1922), Domestic Relations (1922) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) whose beauty kept them enthralled. In 1923, she kept up her frenzied filming pace with such pictures as Poor Men's Wives (1923), The Brass Bottle (1923) and Souls for Sale (1923). The public adored her, as evidenced by the volumes of fan mail she received, but Barbara was more interested in the late-night partying she was involved with. The combination of alcohol and drugs was, clearly, beginning to wear her down. She made four films in 1924 and three in 1925. Her last picture was The Girl from Montmartre (1926). On February 2, 1926, Barbara died of tuberculosis in Altadena, California. Her demise was, no doubt, brought about by her constant late-night partying. She had lived a lifetime and had made 30 films, but was only 29 when she died.- J. Herbert Frank was born on 12 May 1885 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Scandal (1917), Destruction (1915) and Up and at 'Em (1922). He died on 7 March 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Willard Louis was born on 19 April 1882 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Babbitt (1924), Beau Brummel (1924) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1917). He was married to Maude Louis. He died on 22 July 1926 in Glendale, California, USA.
- Joe Moore was born on 22 November 1894 in County Meath, Ireland. He was an actor, known for The Golden Web (1926), Goat Getter (1925) and Love's Battle (1920). He was married to Grace Cunard. He died on 22 August 1926 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
Hollywood's original Latin Lover, a term that was invented for Rudolph Valentino by Hollywood moguls. Alla Nazimova's friend Natacha Rambova (nee Winifred Hudnut) became romantically involved with Rudy and they lived together in her bungalow from 1921 (during the filming of Camille) until they eloped to Mexico on May 13, 1922 believing that his divorce from Jean Acker was official. After their re-marriage two years later she left him because he signed a contract that barred her from being involved in his pictures and wasn't allowed on set. She went to Nice to live with her parents and never entered their new mansion, Falcon Lair. He began to date sexy Pola Negri and was also linked to Vilma Banky. While he was touring to promote his last film, an editorial in the Chicago Tribune accused him of "effeminization of the American male". He defended his manhood by challenging the article's writer to a boxing match; it never took place, but another writer for the paper did enter the ring on behalf of the author who would not be named, and Valentino defeated him. He died shortly afterward while he was in New York attending the premiere of his last film. He collapsed in his hotel on August 15, 1926 and died on August 23, after an operation that led to an infection. 80,000 mourners nearly caused a riot at his New York funeral. Another funeral followed in California.- Actor
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Eddie Lyons was born on 25 November 1886 in Beardstown, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Everything But the Truth (1920), All Bound Around (1919) and Good Night, Ladies (1919). He was married to Virginia Kirtley. He died on 30 August 1926 in Pasadena, California, USA.- Actor
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Tom Forman was born on 22 February 1893 in Mitchell County, Texas, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Broken Wing (1923), The Fighting American (1924) and To Have and to Hold (1916). He was married to Mary Mersch. He died on 7 November 1926 in Venice, California, USA.- Charles Emmett Mack was born on 25 November 1895 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Driven (1923), Dream Street (1921) and Old San Francisco (1927). He was married to Marianne Lovera (actress). He died on 17 March 1927 in Riverside, California, USA.
- Einar Hanson was born on 16 June 1899 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. He was an actor, known for Barbed Wire (1927), Livet på landet (1924) and Skeppargatan 40 (1925). He died on 3 June 1927 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Married to actresses Dorcas Matthews and Ottie Ardine, George got his start at 14 years of age, as a singing and dancing waiter in Chicago. McKim began a long career on the stage with the Alcazar stock company in San Francisco. In vaudeville, he teamed for many years with Johnny Cantwell. He later worked for Triangle and the Ince Company and was one of the founders of the National Vaudeville Artists. McKim is best remembered as the rival of Douglas Fairbanks in "The Mark of Zorro" (1920). McKim was stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage while on stage in Salt Lake City and brought back to Hollywood where he passed away, leaving his wife, actress Dorcas, and two small children.
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- Director
On 26 January 1928, Metcalfe was taking his fifth lesson in how to pilot an aeroplane, flying over Glendale with Roy Wilson, an instructor from the Wilson Aero Service of that city. During the course of the lesson, Metcalf suddenly took an unexpected loop, and was hurled from the plane, falling to his death. His body was found at Lake and Stazier Streets, in Burbank, and was taken to the Powell Undertaking Company Morgue there. (Los Angeles Times, 27 January 1928)- Clara Williams was born on 3 May 1888 in Seattle, Washington, USA. She was an actress, known for The Criminal (1916), The Market of Vain Desire (1916) and A Cowboy's Vindication (1910). She was married to Reginald Barker and Franklyn Hall. She died on 8 May 1928 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- American actor of silent films. A native of Albany, New York, the son of a railroad engineer, he began a career in government, serving as confidential stenographer and then secretary to Governor William Sulzer of New York. Sulzer's impeachment and removal from office left Crane without a job, and he obtained a commission in the U.S. Navy. While stationed at the Navy's San Diego, California submarine base, Crane met a number of visiting movie personalities including Allan Dwan, who suggested the handsome young officer try the movies. Following the war, he did so, making his debut in 1919. He gained work as a leading man, but more frequently played darker roles. An attack of pleurisy led him to a rest cure in the resort of Saranac Lake, New York. Pneumonia developed and he died three months later, aged 37.
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Slapstick comedian known for his charming, white-painted face and clownish smile, mugged his way to being a very highly paid and popular actor. His career was marred by personal problems, and his fortune was lost to high spending. By the time he died, he'd already been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown and was penniless. He was 39 years old.- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
All but forgotten today, Fred Thomson was a silent movie westerner who at one time rivaled 1920s heroes Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson in popularity. Unlike the early, myth-inducing demise of a Rudolph Valentino or Jean Harlow, Fred's untimely death of tetanus prevented the actor, who was at one time billed "The World's Greatest Western Star," from creating a durable Hollywood legacy. Christened Frederick Clifton Thomson, he was born in Pasadena, California, in 1890 and proved a natural athlete, playing football at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and then at Princeton Theological Seminary, and breaking all sorts of various records while a student. Initially interested in the ministry, he became a pastor in both Washington, DC, and in Los Angeles, and subsequently married his college sweetheart, Gail Jepson, in 1913. Following her tragic death of tuberculosis in 1916, he left his fellowship and enlisted in the military.
During his duty as a serviceman, he served as a technical adviser for the film Johanna Enlists (1918), a Mary Pickford war feature. It was through Pickford that he met his second wife, pioneer screenwriter/director Frances Marion. They married in 1919 following his WWI overseas duty as an Army chaplain. Initially interested in directing, he ended up standing in front of the camera for one of Frances' films Just Around the Corner (1921) when an actor failed to show up for a shoot. The movie was a hit, and the handsome, highly appealing Fred was signed. Following a co-starring role in another Pickford movie, The Love Light (1921), which was also directed and written by Frances, Fred was off and running with his own action serial The Eagle's Talons (1923), in which he performed his own stunts. Over the years, he provided heroics in such oaters as The Dangerous Coward (1924), Ridin' the Wind (1925), The Lone Hand Texan (1924) and the title role in Lone Hand Saunders (1926). Towards the end of his career, he was seen playing the legendary Jesse James and Kit Carson. With his cowboy reputation solidified alongside faithful horse Silver King, Fred became the No. 2 box office star for 1926 and 1927.
In 1928, the unthinkable happened. Fred, who was in his movie prime at age 38, was just making his the transition into talkies. He apparently broke the skin of his foot stepping on a nail while working at his stables. Contracting tetanus, which the doctors initially misdiagnosed, he died in Los Angeles on Christmas Day in 1928. His wife and two young sons survived him.- The daughter of actress Billie Brockwell, Brockwell first appeared on the stage at the age of three. She made her screen debut in Philadelphia for the Lubin Company in 1913, later working with D.W. Griffith. Joining Fox Studios, Brockwell was one of the busiest actresses in town and easily made the transition to sound films. Married to director Robert Broadwell, she was also married for a brief period to Harry Edwards, former husband of actress Louise Glaum. On June 27, Brockwell was a passenger in a car with her boyfriend, advertising man Thomas Stanley Brennan, when the car plunged over a 75 foot embankment in Calabasas. Brockwell was pinned under the car and sustained compound fractures to her jaw, a fractured skull and several other serious injuries Brennan was seriously hurt and survived his injuries. While hospitalized, Brockwell received four blood transfusions and died from peritonitis which developed as a result of her several injuries. Brennan stated that dust and cinders blew into his eyes causing him to lose control of the vehicle, he was exonerated of blame by the coroner's jury.
- Jeanne Eagels, one of the most intriguing stars of late silent films and the early talkies, was born Amelia Jean Eagles on June 26, 1890 in Kansas City, Missouri, to Edward and Julia Sullivan Eagles. Young Jean was part of an impoverished family of eight, with three brothers and two sisters. She likely stopped going to school when she was 11 years old.
As a girl, she decided to become an actress after appearing in a Shakespearen play. Of that performance, she said, "I played the grave-digger in 'Hamlet,' first, at the age of seven. They gave me the chance to play Shakespeare because nobody else of the tender age of seven would do so. They wouldn't say the rather amazing words...the other kiddies. I took it all quite seriously and said ALL the words without a quiver. Once I had begun I could not be stopped. I was ill when I was not on the stage. It seemed to me I couldn't breathe in any other atmosphere."
She followed up the experience up by playing bit parts in local theatrical productions. When she was 12 years old, she became a member of the Dubinsky Brothers' traveling stock company, appearing at first as a dancer, but eventually working her way into speaking roles. Eagels soon was playing leading roles in the stock company's repertory, including "Camille," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Later, a myth arose that Eagels' began her career as a circus performer. The 1957 biographical film "The Jeanne Eagels Story" erroneously depicts Eagels' beginning as a hootchie-kootchie dancer in a carnival. The Dubinsky Brothers did use a tent to put on their shows, but they did not present carnival acts but performed popular comedies, musicals, and dramas. The tent was only used during the spring and summer months, while during the colder months, the company performed in theaters and halls in the Midwest.
Jeanne Eagels married the scion of the Dubinsky family, Morris, the oldest of the brothers. She was likely in her teens, and probably had a baby by Morris. Stories about Eagels' past diverge, and in one account, the child was adopted by family friends, while in another, Eagels' baby boy died in infancy, triggering a nervous breakdown for the bereft mother. Eagels and Dubinky separated, likely due to his infidelity. Jeanne eventually left the Dubinksy company and joined another touring stock company, which eventually brought her to New York City.
Eagels decided to make herself over in New York as she fought her way up in the fiercely competitive theatrical world. A brunette, Eagels dyed her hair blonde and said that she was of Spanish and Irish lineage, and that her surname was originally "Aguilar," which loosely translates into English as "eagle." She changed the spelling of her name from "Eagles" to "Eagels," reputedly as she thought it looked better on a marquee. Eliminating her past, she presented herself as an ingÃffÃ'©nue rather than as a divorced woman and mother of a dead infant. She also adopted an English accent as David Belasco, the legendary theatrical impresario, had commented that she spoke like an "earl's daughter."
She began her climb up the greasy pole of Broadway stardom by appearing as a chorus girl. She even served a stint as a Ziegfield girl, but Eagels was determined to establish herself as a dramatic roles, wining bit parts in the plays "Jumping Jupiter" and "The Mind the Paint Girl."
Eagels took a trip to Paris, where she likely studied acting with Beverly Sitgreaves, an expatriate American actress who had appeared with Sarah Bernhardt, Eagels' idol. After Jeanne Eagels' death, there arose a myth that she was a "raw," untrained talent who just happened to have the spark of genius on stage. This is demonstrably false as she had a thorough grounding in technique in her six-year apprenticeship in regional stock companies. She also studied acting with Sitgreaves and with acting coaches in New York. The myth likely is rooted in the biography of Eagels' stage co-star Leslie Howard that was written by his children. Howard was of the opinion that Eagels was untrained, but that likely was rooted in English snobbery vis-ÃffÃ'Â -vis America actors as he had the same opinion of the great Bette Davis. What Howard likely meant that the emotionally erratic Eagels was undisciplined rather than untrained. George Arliss, considered one of the great stage actors at the time he appeared on Broadway with Eagels, would hardly have chosen her to appear in three of his productions if she were not trained and up to giving a fine performance. Arliss was full of praise for Eagels.
In Paris, Eagels attracted the attention of Julian Eltinge, the famous Broadway female impersonator, though they were not introduced. Ironically, when he returned to New York, Eltinge found out that Eagels was to be his co-star in what turned out to be a long tour of the play "The Crinoline Girl." The two became good friends.
Eagels won the role of a prostitute who becomes a faith-healer in the touring company of the play "Outcast" by modeling herself after the play's star, Elsie Ferguson, for her audition. She won the part, and also won great reviews during the tour's swing through the South. When the touring company returned to New York for an off-Broadway engagement, some critics were there to see if Eagels actually did live up to the road reviews of her "Outcast" performance. She did, and the critics were suitably impressed.
The Thanhouser Film Co. cast Eagles in the film of "Outcast" in 1916, which was entitled The World and the Woman (1916) upon its release. Eagels was working during the daytime in films and at night on the stage. Suffering from fatigue and insomnia, she sought treatment and likely became hooked on drugs during this period. With the aid of physician-prescribed dope, Jeanne Eagels continued her hectic dual-career of making movies during the day while acting on stage at night. The routine continued until 1920. Suffering from chronic sinusitis and other maladies, Eagels descended the slippery slope of self-medicating her ills, an unfortunate situation exacerbated by her fondness for drink.
Eagels received great reviews when she starred with George Arliss in the Broadway hit "The Professor's Love Story" in 1917. She followed up their joint triumph with two more co-starring ventures with Arliss, "Disraeli" and the even-more-popular play "Hamilton." Of his co-star, Arliss said that each of the three distinctly different parts she acted were "played with unerring judgment and artistry."
In 1918, she appeared in Belasco's production of "Daddies," an original play about the plight of war orphans starring George Abbott. She quit the hit show either due to exhaustion or because, as rumor had it, she was fed up with Belasco's sexual harassment, though she praised him as a producer.
"Often in the theater there is a feeling of commercialism in every detail; it may not touch one directly, but it is there, and the consciousness that the financial success of the play is perhaps of first importance is decidedly unpleasant. Now, Mr. Belasco puts acting, like every other element of a production, upon an artistic basis. He makes you feel that a thing is important artistically or not at all. Money seems never to be a consideration, yet the making of it follows as a result of making the production as nearly perfect as possible.... That point of view on the producer's part means a great deal to the actor; it leaves him free to do so much, and is an incentive to work toward a faithful portrayal of character. To me everything about Mr. Belasco's theater points toward that one ideal of his -- perfection."
She next appeared in the comedy "A Young Man's Fancy" (1919), followed up by "The Wonderful Thing" (1920). By the time she appeared in the latter, a modest success that played for 120 performances, she had become a true Broadway diva, having to wait for the applause to die down after her entrance before she could deliver her lines. She had her own distinctive ideas on how to give a fresh impression to the audience for each performance:
"Audiences mean as much to an actress as the acoustics of a concert hall mean to a musician. The musician must vary his playing according to his acoustics--according to the sort of room in which his concert is given.... A sort of sixth sense enables me to discern the character of an audience within a few minutes after I have begun to play, and it is only the people for whom I am making this lovable girl live at that one performance that matter. Former audiences are swept from my thought as though they had never been. As far as the audience of the moment is concerned others have never been. What I have done, or have not done, for them doesn't matter to the folk who have come to see the play to-night. I am so very conscious of this that I am able to play to them as though I were creating the part for the first time... I do wrong in speaking of 'playing to an audience,' however. A true artist never 'plays to the audience.' Rather he or she keeps his or her own vision true, and the creation evolves itself."
Her next Broadway appearance, "In the Night Watch" (1921), was another modest success, but she soon was to appear in the play that would make her lasting reputation. The opportunity came her way when another actress turned down the role of the prostitute Sadie Thompson in the theatrical adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's short story "Rain."
On the road in Philidelphia, the play received discouraging reviews, necessitating a rewrite of the second act. By the time the rewritten "Rain" debuted on Broadway on November 7, 1922, at Maxine Elliott's Theatre, all the kinks had been worked out, and the play was a smash, running for 256 performances. When the company returned to Broadway after the road show, re-opening at the Gaiety Theatre on September 1, 1924, "Rain" starring Jeanne Eagels ran for another 648 performances, transferring to the New Park Theatre on December 15, 1924. "Rain" elevated Jeanne Eagels into the pantheon of American theater greats.
John D. Williams, the director of "Rain" said, "In my score of years in the theater Miss Eagels was one of the two or three highest types of interpretive acting intelligences I have met. To work with her on a play was once more to feel one's self in the theater when it was in its finest estate; when a play was not a 'show,' nor even a performance, but a work, which because it had something to say that might clarify life, was a living thing and simply demanded to be heard. It was then that somebody, known or unknown, wrote something that deserved fanatically true fulfillment--and somebody else of magic touch acted it.... Miss Eagels had that touch of magic in character interpretation- the quick exchange of ideas as to the sense of the scene. And then would come the superbly tragic entrance, for example, of Sadie Thompson in the last act of 'Rain,' with its flawless blend of bitter disillusionment, irony, revenge, terror."
Eagels' great performance was acknowledged as responsible for the great success of the play, and although Gloria Swanson had some success playing Sadie in the silent movie version of the play in 1928, Joan Crawford did less well in the role in the 1931 talkie version. Both Swanson and particularly Crawford were upstaged by their leading men, Lionel Barrymore and Walter Huston, respectively. Rita Hayworth's version in 1953, opposite José Ferrer, is barely remembered. Sadie Thompson belonged to Jeanne Eagels, and the touring company of "Rain" toured for four years.
In 1917, Eagels had said, "I am timid and afraid of men and far too busy to become well acquainted with them. My work fills my life, and I should not care to fall in love or marry before I am very, very old -- about thirty-five -- because a woman gives too much of herself when she loves, and that would interfere with her career."
By the time Eagels married her second husband, the stockbroker Edward H. Coy, in 1925 at the age of 35, she had developed a reputation as a temperamental actress who was a hard drinker. Coy had achieved Ivy League gridiron immortality as a 6-foot, 195-pound fullback at Yale, where he was named an All-American in 1908 and 1909 but had turned to the sauce for solace now that the cheers had faded. The incompatibility between the two did nothing to ameliorate her problems with her mood swings or with drink.
After "Rain," she took time off, either turning down offers such as the role of Roxie Hart in "Chicago" (1926) or quitting plays she did sign up for during rehearsals. Finally, she made her Broadway return in the George Cukor-directed light comedy "Her Cardboard Lover" (1926) opposite Leslie Howard. Broadway critics and audiences had grown accustomed to Eagels in more substantial fare, and on opening night, it was Leslie Howard whom the audience cheered, calling for Howard to take curtain calls. Controversially, Eagels took Howard's curtain calls, thanking the audience "on behalf of my Cardboard Lover." The critics, too, wound up praising Howard rather than Eagels.
Eagels fondness for medicating herself and for drink caused problems during the run of the show. Her on-stage behavior could be egregious, as when she stepped out of character and, thirty for the sauce, asked Howard's character for a drink of "water." This caused the stage manager more than once to bring down the curtain during a performance, and Howard left the stage in a huff at one point.
About bad acting, Eagels blamed it on "...[N]ot being a good listener. So few people are. For instance, when you and I are talking here and I say 'no' very deeply and quietly, your reply will be 'yes' with something of a rising inflection, a lighter modulation. You have listened to me and have made a correct tonal reply. On the stage, most of the actors and actresses know their cue words and take their cues, but they haven't listened to the speech preceding their own. The result is a correct enough answer as to word, but not as to tone. There is not tonal intelligence in the reply. Good listeners...so rare."
John D. Williams, her director in "Rain," attributed her greatness on the stage to her great ability to listen while on stage.
"First off, she knew to perfection, and adhered to as to a religion, the art of listening in acting. At every performance, whether the first, or the hundredth, the speeches of the character addressing her were not merely heard but listened to. Hence there was always thought and belief and conviction behind every speech and scene of her own-- the essence of theater illusion."
The drink and drugs apparently were eroding that greatness. However, despite her on-stage antics, "Her Cardboard Lover" was another modest success, playing for 152 performances. After shooting the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Man, Woman and Sin (1927) with John Gilbert, she toured with the play in the large cities.
Eagels' behavior during the filming of Man, Woman and Sin (1927) was atrocious. Gilbert, whom she reportedly had an affair with, said Eagels was the most temperamental actress he had ever worked with. She would appear late at the studio, and once, she disappeared for several days. The Hollywood trade press credited Eagels disappearance to a drink binge, and at one point, she took off on a two-week vacation to Santa Barbara without informing her director, Monta Bell. Bell asked studio management to terminate Eagels' contract, which they did. Fortunately, there was enough footage so Bell could salvage the film without re-shooting.
John Gilbert said of Eagels, "She seemed to hate the movies for a popularity they could not give her....[The] blind, unreasoning adulation of the movie fans was a type of popularity she spurned. Fundamentally, Jeanne was much superior to us. Movie actors are crazy to be worshiped. Jeanne Eagels wanted to be understood and appreciated."
When the film was released, Eagels' performance received mixed reviews, but the picture was a failure primarily due to the poor reviews garnered by Gilbert. Critics rejected the great lover playing a naive mama's boy in this film. Gilbert's career was salvaged shortly thereafter by the release of his second film with Great Garbo, Love (1927), which was a smash hit at the box office.
When Eagels began touring the East Coast in "Her Cardboard Lover," the Boston engagement was cut in half to one week as Eagels reportedly was ill. After the play moved to Chicago with a revivified Eagels, she divorced Coy in 1928, citing physically abuse and accusing him of breaking her jaw. Eagels claimed that Coy had threatened to wreck her budding movie career by ruining her face. Coy, a heavy boozer like his soon-to-be ex-wife, pleaded no contest and the divorce was granted.
The Mid-Western tour of "Her Cardboard Lover" moved on to Milwaukee, but Eagels was a no-show at both the Milwaukee and the subsequent St. Louis performances. She claimed that she was suffering from ptomaine poisoning, but eye-witness accounts placed her in Chicago on a long boozing binge when she was supposed to have been in Milwaukee. Her indefensible and unprofessional behavior brought her an 18-month suspension from Actor's Equity, which banned her from performing on stage with any other Equity actor for the length of the suspension. The ban essentially ended her stage career in New York and the rest of the country, although it could not stop her from appearing by herself on stage in non-Equity venues. Eagels hit the vaudeville circuit, performing scenes from "Rain." She also appeared in movies as producers were desperate for trained stage people with the advent of sound, and she eventually made more money from the film industry and vaudeville than she ever had from the "legitimate" stage.
Ironically, it was Monta Bell, now working at Paramount's Astoria Studios in New York, who hired Jeanne Eagels for her film comeback. In 1929, Bell announced that even though Equity didn't want Eagels, he wanted her, for she had been the consummate professional during the making of Man, Woman and Sin (1927). The man who had urged the MGM brass to fire her now told the press that he had actually urged MGM to sign Eagels to long-term contract for more pictures.
The first movie Eagels made for Paramount was the Monta Bell-produced The Letter (1929), which reunited Eagels with W. Somerset Maugham. Katharine Cornell had had a Broadway hit with Maugham's play as the murderous adulteress, and Eagels delivered an electrifying, legendary performance in the role on film. After Eagels received rave reviews for her The Letter (1929), Paramount took Bell's advice and signed her to a contract for two more pictures, Jealousy (1929) and The Laughing Lady (1929).
She began shooting "Jealousy" (1929) with the English actor Anthony Bushnell, whom she had hand-picked to be her leading man, but during filming it was apparent that Bushnell's voice was not registering well on the sound equipment. Bushnell was replaced by the up-and-coming star Fredric March, who later said Eagels was "great" to work with, but that the movie they made together was a "stinker." There were rumors that Eagels had suffered a nervous breakdown while filming "Jealousy", but Paramount denied there had been any trouble with their new diva. However, Eagels asked to be let out of her contract for "The Laughing Lady" on the grounds that she was either ill or because she didn't like the script, and the studio obliged, replacing her with Ruth Chatterton.
About her management of her personal affairs, Eagels said, "I cannot bear to transact any of my own business or make any of my own professional arrangements. I have an aversion to it I cannot overcome. I can't read the papers, either. Mention of my personal life, even tho I expect it, acts terribly on my nerves. I suppose I'm an odd person."
It was reported that now that the Actors Equity ban was due to expire in the fall of 1929, Eagels was preparing to return to Broadway. In September, Eagles underwent successful surgery to treat ulcers on her eyes, a condition was caused by her sinusitis. Two weeks after surgery, on the night of October 3, 1929, as Eagels was preparing for a night out on the town, she fell ill and was taken to a private 5th Avenue hospital. In the hospital waiting room, she suffered a convulsion and died.
Three autopsies were conducted over the following three months and reached three different conclusions as to the cause of her death, which was variously attributed as an overdose of alcohol, the tranquilizer chloral hydrate, and heroin in the successive autopsy reports. All three substances likely were in her system when she died, and it was suggested that the unconscious Eagels had received a sedative from the first doctor to treat her, and that subsequently a second doctor, not knowing she had already been sedated, had unknowingly given the unconscious actress a second shot, thus causing the overdose that killed her.
When her estate went through probate, it was worth an estimated $52,000 (approximately $562,000 in 2005 dollars) after her debts and funeral costs were deducted. Dying intestate, the estate went to her mother. A wake was held at Campbell's funeral home in New York City, the same establishment that had handled Rudolph Valentino's funeral. Reportedly, her movie "Jealousy" was playing across the street from the funeral home as she lay in her casket, finally at peace. Her body was sent to Kansas City, where a Catholic mass and requiem was held, and she was laid to rest with her father and a brother.
Eagels was posthumously nominated for a 1929 Best Actress Academy Award for her role in "The Letter," the first actor to be so honored. She lost out to superstar Mary Pickford, one of the founders of the Academy, who took the Oscar home to Pickfair for her performance in "Coquette," her first talkie.
Jeanne Eagels' life was limned in the 1957 film _Jeanne Eagels_, which starred Kim Novak. This film is fictionalized biography that whitewashed the truth about Eagels' life. In recent years, there have been rumors that Eagels enjoyed same-sex relationships with other women, but the rumors remain unsubstantiated. In her lifetime, she was romantically linked to many famous men, including the conductor Arthur Fiedler, the gambler "Nick the Greek" Dandalos, and the theater critic Ward Morehouse. She was pursued by producer David Belasco, theater owner Lee Shubert, and the Prince of Wales, the future Duke of Windsor.
About actors, Jeanne Eagels was quoted as saying, "We are glorious, unearthly people, set above all others because of our genius, our capacity to sway others, to make them laugh and cry, or make them live a romance we but play." In the Academy Award-winning All About Eve (1950), writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz has the critic Addison DeWitt tell the great fictional diva Margo Channing (played by Leslie Howard's other great "untrained" co-star, Bette Davis), "Margo, as you know, I have lived in the theater as a Trappist monk lives in his faith. I have no other world, no other life -- and once in a great while I experience that moment of revelation for which all true believers wait and pray. You were one. Jeanne Eagels another."
The actor playwright Noël Coward said, "Of all the actresses I have ever seen, there was never one quite like Jeanne Eagels," while actress-playwright-Academy Award-nominated-screenwriter Ruth Gordon, a friend of Eagels, said of her, "Jeanne Eagels was the most beautiful person I ever saw and if you ever saw her, she was the most beautiful person YOU ever saw."
Kathleen Kennedy, her co-star in "Rain," said, "I sincerely doubt if Jeanne Eagels really knew, in spite of her pretensions, that she was a great actress. She was. Many times backstage I'd be waiting for my entrance cue and suddenly Jeanne would start to build a scene, and [we] would look up from our books at once. Some damn thing- some power, something- would take hold of your heart, you senses, as you listened to her, and you'd thrill to the sound of her."
John D. Williams, the director of "Rain," called her an acting genius. "Acting genius--that is, the power of enhancing a written character to a plane that neither author nor director can lay claim to -- Miss Eagels had at her beck and call, whether in tragedy or in comedy." - Actress
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Mabel Normand was one of the comedy greats of early film. In an era when women are deemed 'not funny enough' it seems film history has forgotten her contributions. Her films debuted the Keystone Cops, Charlie Chaplin's tramp and the pie in the face gag. She co-starred with both Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in a series of shorts. She was a star in the first Keystone Comedy as well as the first feature film comedy. She was the only comedian to work with Charles Chaplin , Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mack Sennett, D.W. Griffith, Harold Lloyd, Mary Pickford, Hal Roach, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Fred Mace, Fred Sterling and John Bunny (she and Buster Keaton never had a chance to work together but they were friends.)
Born in Staten Island, New York to Claude and Mary Normand. Normand started out as an artist model for Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the Gibson girl). Friends suggested she try out for the new medium of film and she did, working as an extra in Kalem and Biograph shorts. With Biograph's move to California she went to work for Vitagraph where she made a series of comedic shorts as 'Betty', one co-starring the first comedy film star John Bunny.
Eventually Normand returned to Biograph where she began working with Mack Sennett on comedic shorts that would eventually turn into Keystone Comedies. Normand and Sennett were lovers, close friends and close co-workers. All of Sennett's early ideas seemed to revolve around Normand. His creation of Keystone was contingent on Normand joining him; and though he would underpay her as he underpaid everyone he worked with, he insisted Normand have credit and say in the company. When Normand eventually left Keystone for Goldwyn, Sennett left soon after.
By 1912 Normand was writing her own films and by 1914 she was directing her films. By this point she was a major star, continually topping fan polls by new movie magazines. While the discovery of Charlie Chaplin varies from telling to telling, everyone involved agreed Sennett would not have hired (or kept him on) had it not been for Normand. Chaplin's second short for the company was Normand's "Mabel's Strange Predicament" which she starred and directed in. This was the first film Chaplin created his iconic tramp character for.
Chaplin and Normand had a comedic chemistry and would go on to team in a series of shorts until Chaplin left Keystone in 1915. As Chaplin's star rose many fan magazines began to call Normand a 'female Chaplin'. Normand and Chaplin had similar subtle mannerisms and the influence Normand had on Chaplin can not be understated. Before Chaplin left Keystone, they starred, alongside Marie Dressler, in "Tillie's Punctured Romance" the first full length comedy film.
With the loss of Chaplin, Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle began to team together in a series of shorts (though they had acted together before). This series was also popular and the pair continued acting together until they both left Keystone for better pay.
Sennett and Normand became engaged around this time, though the engagement ended when Sennett was caught cheating on Normand. Friends report she suffered a severe head injury when Sennett's fling threw a vase at Normand's head. Those who knew Normand all believed Sennett was the love of her life; and she his. However they would never reconcile romantically. Sennett did convince Normand to create her own production company "Mabel Normand Film Company" to make her own features. The first project was "Mickey" and Sennett's handling of her business affairs resulted in the film not being released until 1918 (or having a definite version).
Normand dissolved the company and signed with Goldwyn where she went on to make comedy features. These movies would be more akin to sitcoms: they were shorter than a lot of features, but still features. Many are lost though several have turned up in the past 10 years.
Normand once again signed with Sennett to make features and this would result in her final feature films. However this would be a rocky venture. Normand's health was hit or miss (she had been diagnosed with tuberculosis when she was 10) and seemed to be worse than better. She also was drinking heavily. In 1922 her friend William Desmond Taylor was murdered. This case would become 'the case of the century' and became a media circus, it is still unsolved. Though Normand was cleared (she had been seen leaving his house with him waving goodbye to her; she was likely the last person to see him alive), the association left an unwelcome tarnish on her soon after the scandalous death of her friend Olive Thomas, and the unfair trial of Roscoe Arbuckle.
Normand continued working, making The Extra Girl. Soon after its release in 1923 she was again near another crime (a butler was shot at a party she attended; though he survived.) Soon after Normand took a break from film.
By 1926 Normand was ready for a comeback. She signed with Hal Roach to make comedy shorts. These were well received and by 1928 she had signed with the William Morris Agency to make talkies. However she did not realize how sick she was and her health soon interrupted these plans.
Over the years Normand's tuberculosis has turned into rumors of a drug addiction. This started during the Taylor scandal when it was claimed that maybe he had been killed for interrupting a drug ring, and maybe Normand was part of it. While not prominent during her life it has become more commonly believed as time has passed despite no evidence. Normand's family, estate and personal nurse were all adamant she had never used any drugs. Sadly this rumor has become common place in Hollywood lore.
Normand's drinking increased as did her partying. During one party she decided to marry longtime friend Lew Cody at 2am. She instantly regretted the marriage and they continued living separately. As Normand's health decreased and she was committed to a sanitarium (akin to a hospital/hospice in modern terms) by 1929. She died in 1930 from tuberculosis.- Diane Ellis was born Jeanne Diane Ellis on December 20, 1909 in Los Angeles, California. He father Walter Ellis was a butcher. After her mother died Diane was raised by her grandparents. She attended Virgil Junior High and Fairfax High School. The beautiful blonde got a job working as a secretary at the Film Research Bureau. A director saw her and offered her a role in the 1927 comedy Is Zat So? (she was billed as Dione Ellis). Then she appeared in the films Happiness Ahead and The Leatherneck. Her performances got good reviews and her future seemed bright. Diane was signed by Pathe Studios and costarred with Carole Lombard in High Voltage.
When Pathe decided not to renew her contract she went to New York City and appeared in the Broadway show Nine-Fifteen Review. She also had a supporting role in the 1930 comedy Laughter starring Nancy Carroll. Sadly it would be her final film. On October 15, 1930 Diane married Stephen C. Millet, a wealthy businessman, in Paris, France The couple decided to go on an extended honeymoon around the world. In early December they were in Madras, India when Diane came down with an infection. According to her grandmother she had an operation in Madras. Tragically she died on December 15, 1930 at the young age of twenty. She was cremated and her ashes were taken to Millet family estate in Milford, England. - Actor
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Art Acord was born on 17 April 1890 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Set Free (1927), The Set-Up (1926) and Winners of the West (1921). He was married to Edna Nores, Edythe Sterling and Louise Lorraine. He died on 4 January 1931 in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico.- Alma Rubens was born Alma Genevieve Reubens in San Francisco, California. She was interested in entertaining at an early age. Like most young girls, she enjoyed fantasy play acting and by the time she was 19 had become a full-fledged star. She didn't have to wait long like some of the starlets who haunted casting offices continually. Her break came in 1916 in the film Reggie Mixes In (1916). Six more films followed that year, and she won critical acclaim in The Half-Breed (1916). In 1917 she again starred in a box-office smash, The Firefly of Tough Luck (1917). She became a busy young actress with role after role and hit after hit. In 1924, as Mildred Gower, she performed magnificently in The Price She Paid (1924). After a busy 1925, Alma suddenly found it difficult to obtain work, but it was not because her star had suddenly dimmed--it was because of her addiction to heroin. The money she made dwindled away in search of the next high. She was in and out of mental asylums, but it didn't really help much because she was still dabbling in drugs. Weakened by her habit, she died in Los Angeles in 1931, of pneumonia. She was less than a month away from her 34th birthday. Her final two films were two years earlier, Show Boat (1929) and She Goes to War (1929).
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Dick Hatton was born on 11 November 1888 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Two Fisted Justice (1924), The Seventh Sheriff (1923) and Speeding Hoofs (1927). He was married to Annette Ophelia Burger. He died on 9 July 1931 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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It's fair to say that if 'Frank Capra (I)' hadn't cast Robert "Bobby" Williams in his 1931 film Platinum Blonde (1931) the actor would be entirely forgotten today. When the movie was made available on video in the 1980s the promotional copy on the video box emphasized the names most buffs would recognize: actresses Jean Harlow and Loretta Young, and director Capra himself. But for many viewers there's no question about it, Williams steals the show, with his low-key flair for comedy and unique, sleepy-eyed charm. Viewers may well ask "Who is this guy, and why haven't I heard of him?" The reason is simple, and sad: he died of peritonitis in 1931 just as 'Platinum Blonde (1931)_ went into wide release, just when he was on the brink of stardom.
Born in 1897 in the vicinity of Morganton, North Carolina, he was raised on a farm. The acting bug bit early: he ran away from home at age 11 to join a tent show. He endured a long, hard apprenticeship as an actor, performing on Mississippi river boats and in stock companies touring the Midwest before he reached New York as a young man. When Williams made his Broadway debut in the early 1920s, the New York stage had entered its richest era, when hundreds of shows opened each season. Williams' stage credits include Eyes of Youth opposite Marjorie Rambeau, The Trial of Mary Dugan, Milgrim's Progress, Scarlet Pages, and Love, Honor and Betray with Alice Brady. Several of these plays were made into silent movies but Bobby was not cast in the film versions, perhaps because he was based in New York. His best remembered Broadway role was that of Abie in the original production of Abie's Irish Rose (1922), an ethnic comedy considered old fashioned even when it opened. Critics hated it, but the show became the biggest success of its era, running for five years.
When Abie's Irish Rose opened, Bobby was married to singer Marion Harris, a vaudeville and recording artist who was far better known than he. Perhaps her greater fame was a source of tension, but for whatever reason the marriage did not last long. The couple had one daughter, also named Marion, who later became a singer in her own right under the name Marion Harris Jr.
Even at the time of Williams' greatest Broadway success in Abie's Irish Rose, he seemed stalked by tragedy. Just a few days after the show opened, Bobby was driving from his home in Great Neck, Long Island, to the theater for a matinée performance. When he reached Corona, Queens, a 7 year-old boy named James Cali dashed into the street in front of his car. Williams was unable to stop or swerve, and the boy was knocked to the ground. The child died of a skull fracture hours later while Williams was held by the police for questioning. Character actor Wallace Ford, who had played the role of Abie during the show's pre-Broadway tour, stepped back into the role for the matinée and the next few performances while Williams recovered from shock. It appears that no charges were filed against him in the wake of the tragedy. Williams resumed the role of Abie but did not stay with the show much longer.
In the spring of 1924, Williams married actress Alice Lake, best known as leading lady in several film comedies made by 'Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle' and Buster Keaton in the late 1910s. Once again, the marriage was brief. In February of 1925 the daily paper the New York Mirror detailed the couple's separation in an article with the headline: "Gay Life Parts Couple; Robert Williams, Juvenile Actor, Packs Trunk and Leaves His Wife, Alice Lake, Pal of Viola Dana ." Without directly stating that either Lake or Dana were gay or bisexual, the article strongly implied that their relationship went beyond friendship, and was responsible for the breakup of Lake's marriage to Williams. The following day the newspaper allowed Dana a rebuttal in which she denied being a home wrecker and said she knew nothing of the Williams' marital problems. In any event, the couple divorced soon afterward.
For the next several years Williams remained busy with stage work. He also married actress Nina Penn, and at last seemed to find marital stability. In 1930 Williams was cast in the Broadway production of Donald Ogden Stewart 's play Rebound which proved to be moderately successful, or at least successful enough to be purchased by RKO for filming. By this point the talkie revolution had hit Hollywood and the studios were snapping up plays, playwrights, and stage actors by the hundreds. Williams went to Hollywood and repeated his role of Johnnie Coles opposite Ina Claire in the film version of Rebound. In rapid succession he appeared in two other films for RKO, The Common Law (1931) opposite Constance Bennett, and Devotion (1931) with Ann Harding and Leslie Howard.
It was then that 'Frank Capra (I)' cast Bobby in Platinum Blonde (1931), for Columbia Pictures. Williams played down-to-earth reporter Stew Smith, who is drawn to socialite Anne Schuyler (Jean Harlow ) despite their obvious differences in background. Stew marries Anne while his fellow reporter Gallagher, a gal accepted in the city room as "one of the boys," waits patiently for Stew to recognize that his marriage was a mistake and that she is in love with him. The role of Gallagher was assigned, rather bizarrely, to the luminously beautiful Loretta Young, who was then 18 years old and would never be anyone's idea of "one of the boys." For that matter, Harlow wasn't all that believable as a haughty socialite either, but for Williams the role of Stew Smith fit like a glove. This was the sort of role that within a few years would become the province of actors like Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, and occasionally Clark Gable: the man's man with attitude, macho without being obnoxious about it, a guy who is good at his work but has a faint air of insolence about him. Williams pulls it off beautifully and effortlessly steals the show from his miscast co-stars. One wants to see more of his work.
Unfortunately, his work was at an end, for this star-making performance turned out to be Williams' swan song. Bobby was rehearsing with Constance Bennett for his next RKO picture, Lady with a Past (1932), when he complained of stomach pains. After a day or two the pain worsened, and despite his protests Williams was rushed to a hospital for an appendicitis operation. Before the operation was completed his appendix burst. Days later, on November 3, 1931, Williams died of peritonitis. He was 34 years old. Platinum Blonde (1931) had been released just four days earlier, and the first reviews proclaimed that Hollywood had a new star. Instead, Robert Williams became one of Hollywood's great might-have-beens.- The daughter of a Hungarian baroness and a military officer, Lya De Putti went on to perform classical ballet in Berlin, Germany, after a brief stint in Hungarian vaudeville. She later made several films at the German UFA studios, most notably Variety (1925), before going to Hollywood in 1926. While in America she starred in several movies, mostly in vamp roles.
- Norma Phillips was born in 1893 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She was an actress, known for Our Mutual Girl (1914), Runaway June (1915) and Forget-Me-Not (1917). She was married to Robert Gleckler. She died on 12 November 1931 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Peg Entwistle was born on February 5, 1908 in Port Talbot, Wales at the home of her maternal grandparents, John and Caroline Stevenson because Caroline was to act as midwife. Peg's mother was Emily Stevenson Entwistle and her father was actor/ stage manager Robert Symes Entwistle (1872-1922). They married on November 3, 1904. When mother and child were able to travel, the family returned to their modest home in the London neighborhood of West Kensington where Peg spent the first few years of her life.
Both Robert and his brother Charles Harold Entwistle were actors. This no doubt influenced Peg Entwistle's acting aspirations from a very early age. So much of Robert and Peg's history is tied to Charles because it was Charles who was their lifeline, the one who saved the day, time after time. By 1908 when Peg was born, both brothers were working steadily as actors. Charles Entwistle not only had more experience, he had better contacts. His New York employer was famous stage producer Charles Frohman who, with his two brothers Daniel and Gustave Frohman, owned or had access to over 800 theaters in Europe and the United States. Charles Entwistle trained as an actor in Paris and Heidelberg, but it was his great organizational skills that showed he was best suited to working as a manager and business agent in England. He was accustomed to dealing with actor contracts, touring arrangements, and temperamental theater owners. In 1906, producer Charles Frohman paid Charles Entwistle's way to America and introduced him to the Broadway stage. It was around this time that Frohman gave him the job of managing the great Shakespearean actor Walter Hampden. They became fast friends which lasted until Charles Entwistle's death in 1944. At least once a year, Charles Frohman sailed from New York to Europe, to check on his theaters and to shop for new plays. As a valued employee, Charles Entwistle often accompanied him and was trusted to manage Frohman's affairs in his absence.
Peg's father Robert evidently got enough work as an actor to comfortably take care of his family because while their home was not lavish, it was in a London neighborhood where the homes were slightly upscale. No doubt it probably came as quite a surprise to their family, friends and neighbors when Robert Entwistle decided to divorce his wife Emily in 1910. After a bitter custody dispute, Robert was granted full custody of his two year old daughter. However he lied when he told Peg that her mother had died. Peg believed it, because she never saw her mother again. But, she wasn't dead.
Years later when Robert Entwistle died in 1922, Peg was 14 years old. There was a mysterious statement in Robert Entwistle's Last Will and Testament dated December 15, 1922 in which Robert Entwistle stated: " Millicent Lilian Entwistle is the daughter of my first wife whom I divorced and the custody of my said daughter was awarded to me. I do not desire said daughter to be at any time in the custody or control of her said mother."
If Emily Stevenson were dead, such a statement would not have been necessary at all. Her Uncle Charles verified that her mother did not die in 1910 as she was told, that her parents had divorced in 1910 because Emily Stevenson had been having an affair with an actor named Julius Shaw who later died in 1918 during WWI. This explanation, in part, explains Robert's mysterious statement.
The date of the letter and Will are suspicious because they were dated December 15, 1922, almost 12 years after her mother supposedly died. The date is also suspect because Robert Entwistle was hit by the limo on the evening of November 2, 1922, and was in a coma until he died on December 19, 1922. He was likely heavily medicated due to his injuries which according to the interview Charles Entwistle gave to the New York Times, his ribs and his spine were lodged in his brain. Robert Entwistle could not have been of sound mind to authorize the Will or the letter.
The year 1910 was momentous for King Edward VII too. When he died, everything stopped for about a year. For the coronation of his successor, King George V, celebrations were planned on a grand scale. Charles Entwistle's employer, producer Charles Frohman was chosen for the planning committee to choose and schedule the festivities at His Majesty's Theater in London. To perform Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the committee chose Robert and Charles Entwistle. Peg, at not quite three years old, had a ringside seat to watch her father and uncle perform for King Edward V and Queen Mary.
When the festivities were over, Charles Entwistle went back to work in New York and Robert stayed in England to raise Peg with help from his family. In 1911, Charles Entwistle, age 45, met successful stage actress Jane Ross, age 26. Their courtship consisted of commuting back and forth between stage work in New York and relaxing at her ranch in Santa Monica, California. They married on June 5, 1912 at her family's home in Ohio. When they returned from their honeymoon, they were hired by the Shubert brothers to tour the United States with one play after another with short and long engagements. In April 1913, Charles and his bride sailed back to England on the SS Olympic so Jane could meet Robert, Peg and the rest of the Entwistle family. His employer, Charles Frohman also happened to be traveling on the SS Olympic. After dinner, Charles Entwistle inquired if Frohman had an open position for his brother Robert. Charles Frohman promised to hire him initially as a stage manager and to bring Robert and his daughter to New York.
Charles Frohman interviewed Robert Entwistle in England and hired him as stage manager in Frohman's New York theaters. Charles, Jane, Robert and Peg sailed from England on the SS Chicago and arrived in New York on July 29, 1913, marking Peg's official move to the US. Various accounts give the year 1916 as the year Robert and Peg 'first' sailed from England to New York on the SS Philadelphia. They did sail on the SS Philadelphia in 1916, but that was not Robert's or Peg's first trip. The reason their names were on the ship's 1916 manifest was because Robert, Peg, new wife Lauretta, Charles and Jane were sailing home to England from New York to attend a family reunion. Further proof was that Robert had been working on plays in the United States several times since 1912 with Charles Frohman's touring companies. It is Jane's diary that documents everyone's movements from 1911 onward when she first met Charles Entwistle, proving that Robert Entwistle and his daughter had sailed to the United States long before the 1916 date.
When Charles Entwistle introduced his new wife to his brother, Robert was bowled over and not so jokingly inquired if she had any sisters. She did.
From July 1913 on, life got busy and stayed busy. Rehearsals began for Robert's Broadway debut in The Younger Generation at Charles Frohman's Lyceum Theater which was scheduled for September 1913. That same month, Robert Entwistle was introduced to Jane's sister Lauretta Ross who would become his second wife. While Robert enjoyed acting and being a stage manager, more than anything he wanted to own his own business and raise a family. He opened a specialty shop on Madison Avenue where he made elaborate gift boxes for wealthy clients.
On July 29, 1914, Robert and Lauretta were married in Clarklake, Michigan. Peg was six years old and stayed with her new Ross relatives while her father and her new mother went on their honeymoon to Niagara Falls. In September 1914, the New York Times reviewed the Broadway production of The Beautiful Adventure with Robert Entwistle's name simply as a mention on the cast list. Meanwhile, Charles and Jane began the transition from stage plays in New York to making motion pictures in California. Charles already made his directorial debut and he felt that films were the next step. Peg spent a lot of time at both her father's home and her uncle's two homes. She was introduced to Jane's Santa Monica ranch, and enjoyed spending time in the stables.
On May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat and over 1198 people were killed. Among the passengers who were killed was Charles Frohman, the Entwistle's New York employer. His body (#24) was recovered the next day. There were several memorial tributes held in the US and in England. Robert, Lauretta and Peg Entwistle attended his funeral with Charles Entwistle's friend Walter Hampden and his wife Mabel Moore. Charles and Jane attended one of the memorials held in California.
Robert and Lauretta had two sons: Milton Ross Entwistle was born in 1917. He died in 2018 at the age of 100. Robert Bleaks Entwistle was born in 1919. He died in 2004 at age 85. Tragedy struck this family again and again: On April 2, 1921, Lauretta died suddenly from meningitis leaving Robert with 14 year old Peg, 4 year old Milton and 2 year old Robert. Charles and Jane came to the rescue to help out as did the Ross family in Ohio and Michigan. Then, a little over a year later, at 10:30pm on November 2, 1922 (Election Day), Peg's father, Robert was struck by a limousine driver on Park Avenue at 72nd Street after leaving his Madison Avenue specialty shop. The limo driver was observed looking at the injured man lying on the ground, then he ran back to the limo and quickly drove away. A man and woman at the scene transported Robert Entwistle to the Accident Ward at Presbyterian Hospital where it was determined that he was in a coma due to his injuries. When he was stabilized, Robert Entwistle was moved to Bellevue Hospital and then moved one last time to Prospect Heights Hospital, a private hospital in Brooklyn. None of the pedestrian observers wrote down the correct license number of the limo. Robert Entwistle lay in coma for 47 days and died on December 18th, 1922 at Prospect Heights Hospital. His brother Charles Harold Entwistle said, when he was interviewed by the New York Times at his Hotel Flanders suite, that Robert's spine was broken in two places and had penetrated the brain which was the actual cause of death. The newspaper reported that Robert was about 50 years old, and left three children: Millicent, age 15, Milton, age 5, and Robert, age 4. His body was taken to Cincinnati and buried next to his second wife Lauretta Ross Entwistle in Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio.
Charles and Jane Entwistle adopted Peg, Milton and Robert. In 1924, they enrolled Peg in Henry Jewett's Repertory School in Boston to study acting. She was one of the Henry Jewett Players and studied with famed director & actress, Blanche Yurka. In 1925, Charles Entwistle's friend and employer, actor Walter Hampden, gave Peg her first Broadway role in his production of Hamlet, starring Ethel Barrymore. It was an uncredited walk-on part where she carried the King's train and brought in the poison cup, but it was enough for Peg to attract the attention of scouts from the prestigious New York Theatre Guild. She was the youngest actress ever to be recruited. At age 17, Peg played the role of Hedvig in the 1925 production of Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck." It was after seeing this play that Bette Davis said to her mother that she wanted to be exactly like Peg Entwistle. She claimed Peg was her inspiration to study acting.
Peg went on to play good supporting roles with Dorothy Gish, Laurette Taylor, Henry Travers, William Gillette, Robert Cummings, Romney Brent, and other famous directors, producers, actors and actresses. George M. Cohan personally directed her in one of his original Broadway comedies. Peg traveled around the country as a representative of the Guild during a special tour celebrating the Theatre Guild's ten-year birthday. The tour was orchestrated by the great Bernard Shaw. Peg received rave reviews in each play, including plays the critics did not like. Her longest running play was the 1927 hit play Tommy starring Sidney Toler. It ran for 232 performances and is the play for which Peg is most remembered.
On April 18, 1927, Peg married actor Robert Keith in the chapel of the New York City Clerk's office. Keith, who was also a writer, notably "The Tightwad," wasn't exactly truthful with her. Nearly a year after they married, Peg learned that Robert had been married twice before and had a son by his second wife that he was now expected to take care of while his mother, stage actress Helen Shipman, toured with plays. In 1928, feeling there was no other choice, Peg became the stepmother of Robert's son, a child actor named Brian, who grew up to become Brian Keith, star of the 1960's TV series Family Affair (aired 1966-1971). Peg divorced Robert Keith in May of 1929 on the grounds of infidelity, cruelty and concealing that he had a child. Robert Keith married again in 1930 to Dorothy Tierney and remained married till he died in 1966 at age 68. His son Brian Keith committed suicide (by gunshot) at age 75 on June 24, 1997. He left a suicide note saying he was in despair about his health problems (lung cancer) and depressed because he missed his daughter Daisy Keith Sampson, an actress who starred with Brian Keith on Heartland, who had committed suicide two months prior on April 16, 1997.
In 1932, after the popular James Barrie revival of "Alice Sit-By-The-Fire" was pulled because of problems with the star actress, Laurette Taylor, Peg Entwistle was brought out to Los Angeles by producers Edward DeBlasio and Homer Curran especially to co-star opposite Billie Burke and Humphrey Bogart in a tryout production of Romney Brent's "The Mad Hopes." The show was a huge smash and Peg was again given accolades. Three days after the production had ended, Peg was in her room at her uncle and aunt's California house at 2428 Beachwood Drive, packing to go back to New York, when RKO Pictures called. They asked if she would come in to do a screen test. She did and was soon signed to a small role in David O. Selznick's Thirteen Women (1932), with Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy. The film was a flop despite the talents of movie stars like Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy. Peg's contract was not renewed.
It was the worst year of The Great Depression. Money was tight for everyone. Peg was broke and had no way to get back to New York. There were no stage roles to be had in Los Angeles. In her mind, with no prospects, everything seemed hopeless. On Friday evening, September 16th, 1932, Peg left a note for her Uncle Charles and Aunt Jane Entwistle saying that she was going to visit friends and to buy some books. On Sunday, September 18th, 1932, a hiker found Peg's coat, one of her shoes and her purse containing her suicide note. The hiker saw her body lying about one hundred feet below the 50-foot tall letter "H" of the Hollywoodland sign. She gathered up Peg's things, went to the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Station and left them on their step. Then the hiker called Central Station to report where she left the items and to give them the location of the body.
When police found her body, they believed that Peg had climbed up a workman's ladder that had been leaning up against the back of the letter "H" and she jumped head-first to her death. The note found in Peg's purse read: "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." (the initials of her name). An autopsy was performed showing the cause of death was internal bleeding caused by "multiple fractures of the pelvis." No alcohol was present. Because of no identification found in her purse, it took two days for her uncle to recognize the details from a newspaper report and to come forward to identify her body.
Peg's only film credit was Thirteen Women (1932) starring Myrna Loy and Irene Dunne. It was produced by David O Selznick and was released about one month after her death on October 14, 1932.
The nickname, "The Hollywoodland Sign Girl" was given by an editor at the now defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner newspaper.
Peg is buried in the family plot with her father and her stepmother Lauretta in Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio. (not to be confused with Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA).
Charles Harold Entwistle (b. September 5, 1866 - d. April 1, 1944) died at the age of 77. Jane Ross Entwistle (b. December 22, 1885 - d. January 14, 1957) died at the age of 71. Both are buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA.
Milton Ross Entwistle was cremated when he died at age 100 on February 1, 2018.
Robert Bleaks Entwistle died on October 31, 2004 at age 85 and is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood, CA
What a talented family, some of whom met with their own tragic ends. Although she only made one film, it is Peg's stage accomplishments for which she should be most remembered. But unfortunately, she will always be remembered as the only person to ever jump to her death from the Hollywoodland sign. - Belle Bennett's parents were William and Mary Bendon (stage name Bennett). They appeared in "Billy Bennett's Big Shows" which were traveling shows appearing in tents and local 'opera' houses. The shows presented vaudeville acts and melodramas. Belle was headlining in her teens before moving on to stage and film in her twenties. Dozens of advertisements and articles appeared in the local paper "The Mille Lacs Co. Times." None refer to a circus but to the above mentioned 'shows'.
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Nepotism certainly has had its advantages in Hollywood, none more so than in the cinematic career of Jack Pickford, whose famous older sis, "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, saw to it that Jack had every advantage her star weight could muster. In Jack's case, it only added fuel to a self-starting tragic fire.
The youngest of three children, if Jack was christened with the extremely common name of John (aka Jack) Smith, his life would resemble anything but. Born in Toronto, Canada, on August 18, 1896, his middle sister was minor actress Lottie Pickford (née Charlotte Smith, (1893-1936)). Both younger children were prompted by their actress/mother, Charlotte Smith, to follow Mary (née Gladys Louise Smith) into show business after her husband (also John Charles Smith), an alcoholic, deserted the family.
A child actor on the theatre stage, it was Mary who got both her baby brother and baby sister into the Biograph film company as steady fixtures starting in 1909. They all appeared in scores of short films for D.W. Griffith -- Jack's list included Wanted, a Child (1909), To Save Her Soul (1909), The Smoker (1910), Muggsy Becomes a Hero (1910), Sweet Memories (1911), As a Boy Dreams (1911), The Speed Demon (1912), Heredity (1912), The Sneak (1913) and Home, Sweet Home (1914). Lottie had her own lead pictures, including The Pilgrimage (1912) and They Shall Pay (1921). Mary, Jack and Lottie all appeared together in the films Sweet Memories (1911) and Fanchon, the Cricket (1915), among others. Jack occasionally worked for other film companies, as he did when he played the title role in Giovanni's Gratitude (1913) for Reliance; and starred in The Making of Crooks (1915), The Hard Way (1916), The Conflict (1916) and Cupid's Touchdown (1917) for Selig Polyscope,
Jack followed along with sister Mary when she left Biograph and moved to the Famous Players Film Company (later Paramount Pictures) in 1914, and proved a personable light leading man. When Mary signed her famous million-dollar contract with First National in 1917, one of her stipulations was that Jack receive a lucrative contract as well. He appeared with Mary in such films as A Girl of Yesterday (1915) and Poor Little Peppina (1916), and starred on his own as lovelorn Bill Baxter in Seventeen (1916); as Pip in Great Expectations (1917); as Jack in The Dummy (1917); and as Tom Sawyer in both Tom Sawyer (1917) and Huck and Tom (1918); as well as the title roles in His Majesty, Bunker Bean (1918), Mile-a-Minute Kendall (1918) and Sandy (1918) (all co-starring lovely Louise Huff, and the films Freckles (1917), The Girl at Home (1917), What Money Can't Buy (1917) and Jack and Jill (1917).
The young man, however, just couldn't stay out of trouble. A 1918 stint in the Navy Reserve to straighten up proved disastrous when Jack, among others, was accused of accepting bribes from draftees who wanted light shore duty and stay out of front-line action. With the help of his family, he avoided a court martial, was exonerated and received a general discharge -- more than he deserved.
Earning a modicum of naïve "boy-next-door" success, Jack went on to produce a few of his own films (Burglar by Proxy (1919), Garrison's Finish (1923) and In Wrong (1919)), as well as co-direct (with Alfred E. Green) a couple of Mary's films (Through the Back Door (1921) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)). Some of Jack's better silents during the "Roaring 20's" included The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1920), The Man Who Had Everything (1920), Waking Up the Town (1925), The Goose Woman (1925), Brown of Harvard (1926) and the classic Beatrice Lillie backstage comedy vehicle Exit Smiling (1926) as a young leading man of the troupe.
Tragically, Jack's obsessive taste for the high life quickly took over. A ne'er-do-well playboy and constant carouser, his scandalous private life aroused more public interest than his on-camera work in light romantic films. He picked up severe alcohol, drug and gambling addictions to accommodate his partying decadence with bouts of syphilis adding to the complications. Jack's wedded life was anything but blissful. All three wives were Ziegfeld girls at one time. His stormy marriage to despondent, drug-addicted first wife, actress Olive Thomas, ended after four years when the 25-year-old died by swallowing mercury bichloride. His next two marriages to legendary Broadway musical star Marilyn Miller and minor actress Mary Mulhern also ended quickly due to his acute alcoholism.
By the late 1920s Jack was completely undependable and, with the advent of sound, his career ground to a screeching halt, despite Mary's continued attempts to rescue it. Jack's health deteriorated considerably after this letdown. His last two films were the (lost) silent feature (with talking sequences) The Dancer Upstairs (2002) co-starring Olive Borden and a lead in the short film All Square (1930).
He died aged 36 on January 3, 1933, in Paris. The cause was listed as "progressive multiple neuritis", but it was almost certainly precipitated by his chronic alcoholism-- a tragic and seemingly unnecessary end for a young man who chose to tarnish the silver platter readily handed to him. Sister Lottie too fell into extreme excess and died in 1936 at age 43 of alcohol-related causes. Jack later earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.- Renee Adoree was born Jeanne de la Fontein in Lille in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, on September 30, 1898. She had what one could call a normal childhood. Her background is, perhaps, one of the most difficult to find information on any actress in existence. What we do know that her interest in acting surfaced during her teen years with minor stage productions in France. By 1920 she had attracted the attention of American producers and came to New York. Her first film before US audiences was The Strongest (1920) that same year. That was to be it until 1921,, when she appeared in Made in Heaven (1921). Renee wondered if she had made the right move by going into motion pictures because of two minor roles in as many films. Finally MGM saw fit to put her in more films in 1922. Movies such as West of Chicago (1922), Day Dreams (1922), Mixed Faces (1922) and Monte Cristo (1922) saw her with meatier roles than she had had previously. Renee was, finally, hitting her stride. Better roles to be sure, but still she was not of first-class caliber yet.
All that changed in 1925 when she starred as Melisande with John Gilbert in The Big Parade (1925). The picture made stars out of Renee, Gilbert and Karl Dane. Based on the film's success, Renee was put in another production, Excuse Me (1925). It lacked the drama the previous picture but was well-received. In a plot written by Elinor Glyn, Renee starred as Suzette in Man and Maid (1925). This was Renee's most provocative role yet and she was fast becoming one of the sexiest actresses on the screen. In 1927 Renee starred as Nang Ping in Mr. Wu (1927), along with her sister Mira Adoree. The film was a hit, with co-stars Ralph Forbes and Lon Chaney, but it was Renee's character that carried the film. After several more pictures, her career was slowing down. She appeared in a bit part in Show People (1928) later that year. The following year she had an uncredited bit role in His Glorious Night (1929). Re-discovered by First National Pictures after being released by MGM, she appeared in The Spieler (1928), in which she was a struggling carnival manager trying to overcome the dishonesty that went on in her organization.
Ill with tuberculosis, she retired in 1930. Less than a week after her 35th birthday, on Oct. 5, 1933, Renee Adoree died in Tujunga, CA. - Lilian Hall Davis was born June 23, 1898, in Mile End, London, England, the daughter of a London cab driver. For publicity purposes, she changed the spelling of her name to to the tonier Lillian Hall-Davis and reported her birthplace as the more fashionable Hampstead, London. She began acting in films in 1917 and by the early 1920s, Hall-Davis was one of the leading actresses of British silent film. She was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite actress during the early days of his career. He directed her in The Ring (1927) and The Farmer's Wife (1928) Hall-Davis was married to Walter Pemberton, a British stage actor. Her last film was a supporting role in Her Reputation (1931). By 1933, her film career was over, she was being treated for neurasthenia and was suffering a nervous breakdown. On October 25, 1933, she locked herself in the kitchen of her home in Golders Green, turned on the gas, stuck her head in the oven, and cut her throat with her brother's straight razor. Her 14-year-old son Grovsvenor, came home from school, found her suicide note in the hall and summoned the neighbors for help. They were too late. Hall-Davis was dead at the age of 34.
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Educated at Collegiate Prepitory-Columbia Extension Institute, Hugh Trevor-Thomas was planning an altogether different future for himself until following the advice of his distant relative, producer William Le Baron. He left New York where he had successfully begun his own insurance company (Thomas and Blomer, Inc.) and instead decided to pursue an acting career. After completing a positive screen test reportedly directed by actor Richard Dix, he made his film debut at the end of the silent era. Often cast in collegiate roles, this handsome, ingratiating young actor continued as a successful leading man in both sound features as well as radio. In 1931, he once more turned his attention to the insurance business, forming another company. Although not appearing in films for the next two years, he was still in demand and roles continued being offered for his consideration. Sadly, as it was, both careers were abruptly ended by his death two weeks after his 30th birthday; dying from post-operative complications following an appendectomy.- Lilyan Tashman was born on October 23, 1896 in Brooklyn, New York to Rose (Cook) from Germany and Morris Tashman from Bialystock, Poland. After toying with stage work, Lilyan made her film debut with Experience (1921), followed the next year by Head Over Heels (1922) (this was at a time when some studios and their performers were turning out one film per week. She had no other offers for 1923, but her constant rounds of the casting offices finally did some good. In 1924 she appeared in no fewer than 6 films. For a while she averaged 7 films per year. She was one of relatively few performers who easily made the transition to the sound era, In 1934 she finished filming Frankie and Johnnie (1936) and went into a New York City hospital to have some tumors removed; she died there on March 21, 1934 at age 37. The film was released two years after her death.
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Dorothy Dell was born to Elbert and Lillan Goff in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on January 30, 1915. She won the most beautiful baby in Hattiesburg beauty contest when she was thirteen months old. She lived in New Orleans from the age of ten. She attended the Sophie Wright High School for girls. Winning the Miss New Orleans title, when she was fifteen, she went on a Fanchon and Marco vaudeville tour for six months. She got a job with the Ziegfield Follies of 1931 when she arrived in New York City. She sang a solo, "Was I Drunk?", in the production. All of her films at Paramount were released in 1934. She died that year in an automobile accident on June 8, 1934, She had left an all-night party at an inn in Altadena and was going to Pasadena in the wee hours when the car left the highway, hit a telephone pole, bounced off a palm tree and hit a boulder. Miss Dell was killed instantly. Her date, Dr. Carl Wagner, who was driving, died several hours later.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Russ Columbo was born on 14 January 1908 in Camden, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Raging Bull (1980), Magic in the Moonlight (2014) and Wake Up and Dream (1934). He died on 2 September 1934 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Francelia Billington was born in Dallas, Texas, where she was raised on a ranch and became an expert horsewoman. The pretty young Texan was also on stage from a young age and soon journeyed to Hollywood and became a star of westerns and melodramas, first working with the Kalem Film Co. in 1912, then moving on to Reliance-Majestic and Thanhouser the following year. She starred in many films for legendary director D.W. Griffith and later joined Universal Pictures, where she worked with such directors as Rupert Julian and Rex Ingram, She didn't confine herself to just horse operas, though. One of her best roles was in Erich von Stroheim's epic Blind Husbands (1919)). She also starred alongside her husband Lester Cuneo in many westerns in the 1920s. He committed suicide after their marriage broke up in 1925, and she died of tuberculosis at the tragically-young age of 39.
- Quiet, benign, blue-eyed, rangy-framed child/teen actor Junior Durkin, who was an absolute natural on film and possessed major "down home" appeal, showed strong promise in just the few 1930s films he appeared in. A fatal roadster accident quickly ended the dreams of this young "Henry Fonda" type just as he was about to transition into grownup-roles.
He was born Trent Bernard ("Junior") Durkin in Atlantic City, New Jersey on July 2, 1915. His father, Bernard, was a hotel owner who abandoned the family while Junior was quite young. His mother, Florence "Molly" Edwards, was an actress who quickly geared Junior and his two older sisters, Gertrude Durkin and Grace Durkin toward performing. Junior first set foot on stage at age 2 1/2 playing the part of Cupid in the play "Some Night". From there he was seen in such shows as "The Squaw Man," "The Blue Bird," "Poppy," "Paid" and "Floradora." Following a role in "Dagmar" starring legendary 'Nazimova' as a countess in January 1923, the 8-year-old Junior took his first bow on Broadway with the melodrama "The Lady" toward the end of that year with veterans 'Mary Nash' and Elisabeth Risdon.
Junior returned to Broadway as Tommy Tucker in Gilbert & Sullivan's musical "H.M.S. Pinafore" (1926), then earned his strongest reviews yet in the Broadway comedy "Courage" (1928), also starring Janet Beecher and featuring sister Gertrude, which ran for 8 months. He and sister Gertrude also toured on the vaudeville circuit around this time.
Following his mother's death in 1930, the young actor and both his sisters, who now had stage and Broadway experience, headed West to Hollywood to test "early sound" pictures. Junior was immediate placed in the Warner Bros. domestic drama Recaptured Love (1930) and received noticeable reviews as the son of estranged parents. Junior was next paired well with child actress Mitzi Green in The Santa Fe Trail (1930) headlining Richard Arlen, with both children receiving their share of praise.
Brief as it was, Junior became life-long friends with superstar Jackie Coogan when he tested and won the role of Huckleberry Finn opposite Coogan's Sawyer in what would prove to be a highly popular movie version of the Mark Twain classic Tom Sawyer (1930). Both boys were the same age. With Mitzi Green delightful as Becky Thatcher, the three young actors received heaps of praise for their naturalistic performances. The movie was so well received, in fact, that all three were reunited in the film version of Huckleberry Finn (1931). Blessed with a shy, ingratiating smile, Junior, along with the other two, received equal applause for these same roles.
Junior co-starred in the drama Hell's House (1932) with an early Bette Davis and Pat O'Brien as a bucolic "good kid" who gets mixed up with the wrong city crowd, a bootlegger and his dame, and takes the fall for a crime his mentor committed. Junior's next film Man Hunt (1933) showed off Junior's natural charm as a boy sleuth who involves himself in a murder and robbery. Returning then to the stage with a starring role in the comedy "Growing Pains" at the Pasadena Playhouse, the show moved to Broadway in November 1933 but ran only 29 performances.
Dropping the name "Junior" from the marquee, the young actor was fourth billed as "Trent Durkin" in the Richard Arlen/Ida Lupino comedy Ready for Love (1934) in his pursuit of a grownup image. Big Hearted Herbert (1934) with Guy Kibbee and Louisa May Alcott's Little Men (1934) with fellow kid actors Dickie Moore, Frankie Darro, Tommy Bupp and Cora Sue Collins followed. Junior's last film would be RKO's Chasing Yesterday (1935), which would be released posthumously.
Junior had just been cast to play "Tommy" in the hotly anticipated film version of Eugene O'Neill's drama Ah Wilderness! (1935) when the boy decided to take some spring time off to relax with his good friend Jackie Coogan at the Coogan ranch just outside San Diego. On their way back to the ranch while out on a dove-hunting expedition one day in Coogan's new car, a 20th birthday present from his dad, the vehicle (driven by Coogan, Sr.) swerved to avoid an oncoming car, lost control and plunged into a ravine, overturning more than seven times. Of all the occupants -- Jackie, Jackie's father, Junior, actor-writer Robert J. Horner and ranch foreman Charles Jones -- young Jackie Coogan was the sole survivor, the only one not thrown from the car.
Junior's death was attributed to a fractured skull. The highly beloved youth had over two hundred guests attend his funeral, which was held at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. Gone at 19, one can only image what talents he still had to share or what kind of Hollywood career he would have had as a full-fledged adult star. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Pretty-as-a-picture Marjorie White was a charming comedienne, and although she was never the star, she stole many scenes from stars. She co-starred with some of the leading comedians of the day, such as Wheeler and Woolsey, the Three Stooges, and Joe E. Brown, and brought smiles to the faces of moviegoers and theatergoers alike. It's easy to tell she was a favorite in the 1930s.
In addition to having acting talent and screen presence, she could sing and dance, which made her fantastic in musical comedies on stage and screen. In her early career, she was teamed up with Thelma White, another popular performer and actress, and together they became a popular singing and dancing duo known as the "White Sisters".- Edith Roberts was born in New York City on September 17, 1899. She was a starstruck 19-year-old when she made her debut in The Deciding Kiss (1918). Although she didn't get the acclaim that her more successful counterparts did, she remained very busy throughout the decade and into the 1920s. After The Wagon Master (1929), Edith left films. On August 20, 1935, she died in Los Angeles, California, from complications from a horrendous childbirth. She was only 35 years old.
- Gordon Westcott was born on 6 November 1903 in St. George, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for The World Changes (1933), Dark Hazard (1934) and 6 Day Bike Rider (1934). He was married to Anne Weston Brandreth, Hazel Betha McArthur and Margaret Cardon. He died on 30 October 1935 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Thelma Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, an industrial city near the New Hampshire state line. She was a lovely child with good academic tendencies, so much so that she decided early on to become a schoolteacher. After high school she went on to college but at her mother's insistence entered several beauty contests (apparently her mother wanted her to be more than just a "schoolmarm"). Thelma was so successful in these endeavors that she entered on the state level and won the title of "Miss Massachusetts" in 1925 and went on to the "Miss America" pageant; though she didn't win, the pageant let her be seen by talent scouts looking for fresh new faces to showcase in films. She began to appear in one- and two-reel shorts, mostly comedy, which showcased her keen comic timing and aptitude for physical comedy--unusual in such a beautiful woman.
She had been making shorts for Hal Roach when she was signed to Paramount Pictures. Her first role--at age 21--was as Lorraine Lane in 1927's Fascinating Youth (1926), a romantic comedy that was Paramount's showcase vehicle for its new stars. Thelma received minor billing in another film that year, God Gave Me Twenty Cents (1926). The next year she starred with Gary Cooper and William Powell in the western Nevada (1927). That year also saw her in three more films, with The Gay Defender (1927) being the most notable. It starred Richard Dix as a man falsely accused of murder.
As the 1920s closed, Thelma began to get parts in more and more films. In 1928 and 1929 alone she was featured in 20 pictures, and not just comedies--she also did dramas and gothic horror films. Unlike many silent-era stars whose voices didn't fit their image or screen persona, Thelma's did. She had a bright, breezy, clear voice with a pleasant trace of a somewhat-aristocratic but unsnobbish New England accent and easily made the transition to sound films. In 1930 she added 14 more pictures to her resume, with Dollar Dizzy (1930) and Follow Thru (1930) being the most notable. The latter was a musical with Thelma playing a rival to Nancy Carroll for the affections of Buddy Rogers. It was a box-office hit, as was the stage production on which it was based. The following year Thelma appeared in 14 more films, among them Let's Do Things (1931), Speak Easily (1932), The Old Bull (1932), and On the Loose (1931). Her most successful film that year, however, was the Marx Brothers farce Monkey Business (1931). While critics gave the film mixed reviews, the public loved it. In 1932 Thelma appeared in another Marx Brothers film directed by Norman Z. McLeod, Horse Feathers (1932). She also starred in This Is the Night (1932), a profitable film which featured Cary Grant in his first major role. In 1934 Thelma made 16 features, but her career would soon soon come to a grinding halt. In 1935 she appeared in such films as Twin Triplets (1935) and The Misses Stooge (1935), showcasing her considerable comic talents. She also proved to be a savvy businesswoman with the opening of "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café", a nightclub/restaurant that catered to show-business people. Unfortunately, it also attracted some shady underworld types as well, and there were rumors that they were trying to take over her club and use it as a gambling establishment to fleece the wealthy Hollywood crowd. According to these tales, Thelma and her boyfriend, director Roland West, wouldn't sell their establishment once they found out what the gangsters had in mind, which incurred the enmity of the wrong people with whom to have differences of opinion. Whether or not the stories were true, on December 16, 1935, 29-year-old Thelma was found dead in her car in her garage in Los Angeles. Her death was ruled suicide-by-carbon-monoxide-poisoning. At the time, as today, many felt that her death was actually a murder connected to the goings-on at her club, a theory that was lent credence by the fact that no one who knew her had ever seen her depressed or morose enough to worry about her committing suicide. Another factor that aroused suspicion was that her death was given a cursory investigation by the--at the time--notoriously corrupt Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the case was quickly and unceremoniously closed. Her death has remained controversial to this day.
Three films she made before her death weren't released until the following year: Hot Money (1936), An All American Toothache (1936), and The Bohemian Girl (1936). The latter saw her quite substantial role cut down so much that she was barely glimpsed in the picture. Thelma had made an amazing 115 films in such a short career, and her beauty and talent would no doubt have taken her right to the top if not for her untimely demise.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
John Gilbert was born into a show-business family - his father was a comic with the Pringle Stock Company. By 1915 John was an extra with Thomas H. Ince's company and a lead player by 1917. In those days he was assistant director, actor or screenwriter. He also tried his hand at directing. By 1919 he was being noticed in films and getting better roles. In 1921 he signed a three-year contract with Fox Films. His popularity continued to soar and he was turning from villain to leading man. In 1924 he signed with MGM which put him into His Hour (1924). In 1925 he appeared in the very successful The Big Parade (1925) and was, by now, as popular as Rudolph Valentino. Lillian Gish, who had a new contract with MGM, picked Gilbert to co-star with her in La Bohème (1926). With the death of Valentino, his only competition, John was on top of the world. Then came Greta Garbo, who starred with him in Love (1927), Flesh and the Devil (1926) and A Woman of Affairs (1928). The screen chemistry between these two was incredible and led to a torrid off-screen affair. The studio publicity department worked overtime to publicize the romance between the two, but when it came time to marry, John was left at the altar. His performances after that were devoid of the sparkle that he once had and he began to drink heavily. Added to that, the whole industry was moving towards sound, and while his voice was not as bad as some had thought, it did not match the image that he portrayed on the screen. Even his characters had changed, in such films as Redemption (1930) and Way for a Sailor (1930). He was no longer the person that bad things happened to, but he now was the cause of bad things which happen. MGM did little to help John adjust to the new sound medium, as studio chief Louis B. Mayer and Gilbert had a fierce and nasty confrontation over Garbo. John was still under contract to MGM for a very large salary, but the money meant little to him. His contract ran out in 1933 after he appeared in Fast Workers (1933) as a riveter.
Garbo tried to restore some of his image when she insisted that he play opposite her in Queen Christina (1933), but by then it was too late. He appeared in only one more film and died of a heart attack in January 1936.