500 Legendary Old Hollywood Actors

Today screen actor Robert (Bobby) Harron is one of Hollywood's forgotten souls, although he was a huge celebrity in his time and he graced some of the silent screen's most enduring masterpieces. A talented, charismatic star in his heyday, Bobby had everything going for him but he died far too young to make the longstanding impression he certainly deserved to make.

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 looking for work when he was still quite young. At the age of 13 he found a job working for the American Biograph Studio on East 14th Street as a messenger boy and he was given a couple of film bit parts 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 silent movies, usually playing characters that were much younger and much more naive than he was in real life. He appeared opposite 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 of leaving the Griffith fold and of 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 is claimed that 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 actor siblings who also died quite young: Tessie Harron (1896-1918) died of Spanish influenza at the age of 22, and John Harron (1904-1939), nicknamed Johnnie, collapsed and died of spinal meningitis at the age of 35. Both appeared, though unbilled, with Bobby in Hearts of the World (1918).

In recalling silent movie comedian Harry "Snub" Pollard, his slight frame (5' 6"), bullet-shaped head and dark, droopy mustache are definitive identification badges. Born in Melbourne, Australia as Harold Fraser on November 9, 1889, he started off performing with the Pollard's Lilliputian Opera Company at an early age and was also a church choirboy. Adopting the last name of "Pollard" as his last name moniker in tribute to the company, he went on to perform with other Down Under children's troupes. When a vaudeville company he was touring with in 1910 made it to the United States, Harry decided to stay in the country.

Nicknamed (and billed) "Snub," he started off in bit parts at the Essenay Film Studios in 1911 and briefly worked with the Keystone Kops. Moving up into support roles, often with the Keystone Cops series, Hal Roach took an avid interest in him and, by 1915, had Snub co-starring with Harold Lloyd and Bebe Daniels in the highly successful Lonesome Luke series, which ran for years (86 films in all). In 1919, Snub took a chance and ventured on with his own solo one- and two-reeler's with zany slapstick, sights gags and gimmicks-a-plenty. He performed many of his own stunts and was often seriously injured as a result. Many of them were ably directed by Charley Chase and co-starred Marie Mosquini as his frequent leading lady. Snub's "second banana" status, however, was firmly entrenched, and his starring vehicles were met with only a modicum of interest. One of his most notable is the short comedy It's a Gift (1923) in which he played an eccentric inventor pursued by oil magnates interested in his newest creation.

In between Snub made personal appearances on the farcical stage. His production film company, created in 1926, was forced to fold and found himself relegated to supporting other top comedians again, notably Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and Andy Clyde. He was further financially strapped when the Depression hit. By the late 1930s, he was appearing in "poverty row" films. One last hurrah would be his playing of Pee Wee, the sidekick to cowboy Tex Ritter, in a series of minor westerns. Relegated now to atmospheric bits, it is noted that in the film Singin' in the Rain (1952), he is the rained-on passerby that Gene Kelly gives his umbrella to toward the end of the title song. Snub continued to work in relative obscurity until his death on January 19, 1962 of cancer. Earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in silent films, the thrice-married actor was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.

Billy Bevan's show-business career began in his native Australia, with the Pollard theatrical organization. The company had two theater troupes, one which toured Asia and the other traveling to North America. Bevan wound up in the latter, performing in skits and plays all over Canada and Alaska then down into the continental US. While in a road company of the play "A Knight for a Day", Bevan was noticed by comedy pioneer Mack Sennett, who hired him on the spot. Bevan made many one- and two-reel shorts for Sennett over a ten-year period, and then transitioned into a reliable comic actor in many Hollywood comedies over the next 20 years or so (even doing voice-overs for cartoons). He made his last film in 1950, then retired. He died in Escondido, CA, in 1957.

Bobby Vernon was born in the U.S. in 1897, was trained in Vaudeville and became a talented comic in the silent era. He began working in 1913, appearing in Lon Chaney's Almost an Actress (1913) and later worked for Mack Sennett, who teamed him up with young Gloria Swanson in 9 comedies between 1916 and 1917, most memorably in Teddy at the Throttle (1917), which also co-starred Wallace Beery, Gloria Swanson's husband, off-screen.

When the sound era arrived, he starred in three more films and retired to be a writer and comedy supervisor at Paramount for W.C. Fields and Bing Crosby.

Popular Hollywood leading man of late silents and early talkies. He is best remembered for his teaming with Janet Gaynor in 12 screen romances between 1927 and 1934. He retired from films in the early 1940s, but TV audiences of the 1950s would see him as Gale Storm's widower dad in the popular television series My Little Margie (1952).

While Charley Chase is far from being as famous as "The Big Three" (Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd) today, he's highly respected as one of the "greats" by fans of silent comedy.

Chase (real name Charles Parrott) was born in Maryland, USA, in 1893. After a brief career in vaudeville, burlesque, and musical comedy he appeared with Al Christie at Universal Studios as a comedian in 1913 before moving to the Mack Sennett Studios the following year. His career in films did not start off with remarkable success. He played bit parts in a large number of short comedies, coming to notice in 'The Knockout' with Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Edgar Kennedy and The Keystone Cops. This was followed by appearing in a number of films written and directed by Chaplin. At the end of 1914 he was one of the stars in the spectacular Tillie's Punctured Romance featuring all the stars on the lot, and which took 14 weeks to shoot. He spent another year with Sennett starring in his own shorts, one of his first being Settled at the Seaside co starring Mae Busch. In 1915he started directing films using his real name and switching to his stage name when starring. He moved to Fox Studios in 1916 where he directed, wrote and starred in comedies some of which featured Chester Conklin. After a couple of further studio moves he rejoined Sennett then went to Paramount before arriving at Hal Roach Studios in 1920 as a director, before Roach realized what a gifted performer he had hired. "I can play anything!" Chase told Roach, and eventually his claim was confirmed. Although Mack Sennett's Keystone studio has earned legendary status as the ultimate factory of comic invention, it can hardly be denied that Roach developed a more refined style of comedy which obviously fitted Chase better (indeed, Sennett's unsophisticated product increasingly lost favor with the movie-going public by the early 1920s, while Roach's studio flourished). During five years, 1924-29, he starred in nearly a hundred two-reelers, most of which were directed by Leo McCarey.

Chase usually portrayed an apparently gentle and charming man who in reality, it eventually turned out, was quite a loser after all. His character was largely inspired by Lloyd Hamilton, another neglected comedian whom Chase had directed in several two-reelers. Among Charley's most memorable shorts are Innocent Husbands, Mighty Like a Moose, and Movie Night.

From the beginning, Charley Chase was a "critics' darling," but none of his movies were remarkably successful at the box office. There is no official "explanation" to this, but one reason may be that Chase, in contrast to the more popular clowns, never starred in any feature during the silent period. On a personal level, Chase was severely hobbled by alcoholism, which is unapparent in his films.

Chase made several promising appearances after the talkies arrived, in 1929-30, especially in Laurel and Hardy's highly acclaimed feature Sons of the Desert (1933). Despite this, he was never offered any further appearances in features. But he continued to perform in shorts and did also direct some of the Three Stooges' early movies. He died in 1940, not yet 47 years of age, of a heart attack. It is reasonable to believe that his early death was to a large extent caused by his addiction to alcohol, a problem which had troubled his family for several years. His brother James, also an actor, had died the year before. The two brothers had been close throughout their lives, although their personal problems frequently affected each other (or perhaps that was the reason for their being so close.) Chase was married to Bebe Eltinge from 1914, a marriage that lasted until his death and produced two daughters, Polly and June.

Chase's silent work was celebrated on DVD in two volumes from Kino Video. At long last his comic genius is being recognized.

This old codger film favorite, born in 1869 (some reports say 1875), got into the entertainment field at an early age, first as a circus performer (aerialist and trapeze artist). When acting sparked his interest, he worked in a series of stock companies while writing stage plays that he himself could star in. He married actress Anna Chance around the turn of the century, and they remained a devoted couple until her death 47 years later. They had no children. Charley came into his own in films at the ripe old age of 60 as the ultimate humorous, toothless character in a range of films with rustic settings. Notable movies include The Petrified Forest (1936) with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart, The Good Earth (1937) with Paul Muni and Luise Rainer, and They Died with Their Boots On (1941) with Errol Flynn. However, his best-remembered parts were as huggable Uncle Henry in the classic The Wizard of Oz (1939), ornery Grandpa Joad, who refused to leave the homestead in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Inspector Queen in the Ellery Queen whodunits that ran from 1940 through 1942, and the amiable ne'er-do-well Jeeter Lester in Tobacco Road (1941). A soft, humorous presence who seemed frail around the edges, he was a thorough delight, his folksy presence gracing over 100 films. He died in 1956.

Iowa-born Chester Conklin was raised in a coal-mining area by a devoutly religious father who hoped that his son would go into the ministry. However, Chester got the performing bug one day when he gave a recitation at a community singing festival and won first prize. Knowing his father would never approve of his desire to become a comedian, he left home. One night in St. Louis he caught a vaudeville act by the famous team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, who were doing what was called at the time a "Dutch" act. Conklin thought that he could do that act himself, and better, so he decided to develop a character patterned after his boss at the time, a German baker named Schultz. Schultz had a thick accent and a very bushy "walrus"-type mustache, which Conklin appropriated for his new character. He managed to break into vaudeville with this act and spent several years on tour with various stock companies. Eventually he secured a job as a clown with a traveling circus. After seeing several of Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops shorts in theaters, Conklin went to the Sennett studio and applied for a job there. Sennett hired him as a Keystone Kop (at $3 a day). He stayed with Sennett for six years, and became famous for his pairing with burly comic Mack Swain in a series of "Ambrose and Walrus" shorts and appeared in several of Charles Chaplin's shorts for the studio (Chaplin adapted Conklin's "walrus" mustache as part of the costume for his "Little Tramp" character). Conklin was approached by Fox Films to do a series of comedy shorts, and when Sennett refused to match the offer Fox made, Conklin left Sennett and signed with Fox. He stayed with Fox for several years, then freelanced for several independent producers in a series of comedy shorts. Conklin worked steadily into the sound era, and retired from the screen in 1966. His last movie was the well-received Western comedy A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966), in which his character was named "Chester."

This West Point-educated actor was a tall, dark and handsome American co-star who romanced some of the most illustrious femme stars ever to appear on the silent silver screen. Conway Tearle was born in New York City on May 17, 1878 to a family of entertainers. Christened Frederick Conway Levy, his father, Jules, was a jazz musician, and mother Marianne Conway, an American actress. Divorced when Conway was quite young, his mother subsequently married British Shakespearean actor/theatre manager Osmond Tearle and Conway was raised in England from the age of 10.

Tearle gained experience on his stepfather's stage and was alternately billed as "Frederick Levy" and "Frederick Conway" before settling on the marquee name of Conway Tearle. Having returned to the U.S. in 1905, he made his Broadway debut with "Abigail" that same year and would make a name for himself as a reliable romancer for nearly a decade before attempting films in 1914. His two half brothers, Godfrey Tearle and Malcolm Tearle would also become actors on both the stage and screen.

Tearle's more famous films are deemed "women's pictures," where he appeared meticulously as a dashing hero or ardent lover. Among his more notable were Helene of the North (1915) opposite Marguerite Clark, The Foolish Virgin (1916) and The Common Law (1916) both starring Clara Kimball Young, Stella Maris (1918) with Mary Pickford, A Virtuous Vamp (1919) with Constance Talmadge, She Loves and Lies (1920) and The Eternal Flame (1922), both opposite Norma Talmadge, Lilies of the Field (1924) featuring Corinne Griffith, and Dancing Mothers (1926) starring Clara Bow. Conway made a smooth transition into sound pictures and remained a leading star or prime support in "B" level pictures.

Tearle ended his film career spurned by Mae West in Klondike Annie (1936) and with a lesser role in the lavish production Romeo and Juliet (1936) starring Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard. In 1937 he appeared in his final stage lead with the comedy "Hey, Diddle Diddle." Headed for a Broadway run, the show had to close early in Washington, D.C. because of Tearle's poor health. He died in Hollywood of a heart attack at age 60, on October 1, 1938.

Tall, athletic leading man, the son of a judge. Lowe was initially slated for the priesthood but switched career paths on several occasions, at one time studying law, then teaching English and elocution. The latter led to his involvement in the acting profession. After briefly appearing in vaudeville, he joined the Oliver Morosco stock company in 1911 and made his Broadway debut six years later in 'The Brat'. Motion pictures soon beckoned, and, with his imposing physique and debonair manner, he quickly rose to becoming a popular matinée idol, the Tuxedo-attired star of such A-grade productions as East of Suez (1925).

In 1926, Lowe was cast, against type, in the role he would be identified with for the remainder of his career: that of the brash and profane Sergeant Harry Quirt in Maxwell Anderson's World War I drama What Price Glory (1926). He also featured in several sequels, invariably co-starring his on-screen adversary Victor McLaglen. After that, Lowe alternated between romantic lead (such as Dinner at Eight (1933)) and tough guy. In the latter category, he gave a strong central performance in the role of Specs Green in Dillinger (1945), one of the slickest productions turned out by little poverty row studio Monogram. The film elicited complaints from a few meekly-inclined civic groups and was even banned in Chicago for two years because of its 'brutal, sensational subject matter'. Irrespectively, it was a winner at the box office.

Edmund Lowe remained much sought-after by producers, having eased effortlessly into supporting roles once his days as a star were over. He worked under contract at 20th Century Fox (1924-27, 1929-32, 1934-35), Paramount (1932-33), MGM (1936) and Universal (1938-39). From the 1940's, he still played leads for smaller studios, free-lanced and later acted in television. Late in his career, he starred in his own half-hour series, Front Page Detective (1951), as a sleuthing newspaper columnist. In private life, Lowe had a reputation for impeccable attire and sartorial elegance. Not as well remembered today as he deserves to be, he is nonetheless immortalized with a star on the 'Walk of Fame' on Hollywood Boulevard.

Boston-born Franklyn Farnum was on the vaudeville stage at the age of 12 and was featured in a number of theatre and musical productions by the time he entered silent films near the age of 40. He appeared to be at his most comfortable in the saddle, his career dominated mostly by westerns. Some of his more famous films include the serial Vanishing Trails (1920) and features The Clock (1917), The Firebrand (1922), The Drug Store Cowboy (1925) and The Gambling Fool (1925). In 1925 he left films, but returned five years later at the advent of sound, only to find himself billed much further down the credits, if at all. He continued on, however, in these obscure roles well into the 1950s. Largely forgotten today, he is not related to silent actors and brothers Dustin Farnum and William Farnum. One of his three wives was the ill-fated Alma Rubens, to whom he was briefly married in 1918. Farnum passed away from cancer in 1961.

George was the son of the San Francisco Chief of Police who became a college athlete. He was the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the Pacific Fleet during World War I. In the early 1920s, George wound up in Hollywood where he worked as a stuntman and part time actor. In 1924, Director John Ford picked virtually unknown George to star in his first picture, The Iron Horse (1924). Over the next two years, he would appear in four more Ford films and would co-star with Janet Gaynor in The Blue Eagle (1926) and Sunrise (1927). "Sunrise," a winner of two Academy Awards, was the story of a simple farmer who lets another woman talk him into murdering his wife. George remained popular until sound came along. By that time, his popularity was sliding, but he did make the transition to sound. With his rugged looks and physical size, he was soon a Western Cowboy Star. He was in some of the best stories ever written, Riders of the Purple Sage (1931), and in some of the worst. But he was consistently in the Top Ten money-making Western Stars. He would appear in a few films outside the horse set, such as Ever Since Eve (1934), but those roles would be few. By the end of the 1930s, George was still a popular 'B' movie Cowboy Star, but he would not take the parts as seriously as he did a decade before. During World War II, he hung up his spurs, and he re-enlisted in the Navy where he fought in the Pacific and was decorated many times. After the war, when he would not find work in acting, John Ford, his old Director, would give him work with the cavalry in three of his films.

Henry Byron Warner was the definitive cinematic Jesus Christ in Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927). He was born into a prominent theatrical family on October 26, 1875 in London. His father was Charles Warner, and his grandfather was James Warner, both prominent English actors. He replaced J.B. Warner as Jesus in The King of Kings (1927) when J.B. died of tuberculosis at age 29. (J.B. was not Henry's brother. J.B. had taken the professional last name "Warner" because Henry's family took him in.)

Henry Warner's family wanted him to become a doctor, and he graduated from London University but eventually gave up his medical studies. The theater was in his blood, and he studied acting in Paris and Italy before joining his father's stock company, making his debut in the English production of "Drink." It was from his father that he honed his craft.

Warner made it to the United States in the early 1900s, after touring the British Empire. Billed as Harry Warner, he made his Broadway debut in the US colonial drama "Audrey" at Hoyt's Theatre on November 24, 1902, starring James O'Neill, the father of playwright Eugene O'Neill. He was billed as H.B. Warner in his next appearance on Broadway, in the 1906 comedy "Nurse Marjorie." He appeared in 13 more Broadway productions in his career, from the twin-bill of "Susan in Search of a Husband" & "A Tenement Tragedy" (also 1906) to "Silence" in 1925.

He moved into motion pictures, making his debut in the Mutual short Harp of Tara (1914). Also in 1914, he appeared in a film written by Cecil B. DeMille for Famous Players Lasky, The Ghost Breaker (1914), in which he had played on Broadway the year before. Warner became a leading man and a star in silent pictures, reaching the zenith of his career playing Jesus in DeMille's The King of Kings (1927). His excellent performance was actually enhanced by the silent screen, allowing the audience to imagine how Jesus would sound. Warner could be extremely moving in silent pictures, notably in the melodrama Sorrell and Son (1927) as a war veteran father who sacrifices all for his son.

When talkies arrived, he became a busy supporting player. A favorite of Frank Capra, appeared in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). Cast again by Capra, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Lost Horizon (1937). He also appeared in You Can't Take It with You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Other major talkies included The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) and Topper Returns (1941). Other than Jesus, the role he is best remembered role for today is in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), in which he played Mr. Gower, the druggist who is saved from committing a lethal medication error by the young George Bailey (the James Stewart character as a child). H.B. Warner appeared in Sunset Boulevard (1950) as himself. His last credited role was as Amminadab in DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), a remake of the earlier silent The Ten Commandments (1923). He last role was an uncredited bit part in Darby's Rangers (1958).

Henry Warner died on December 21, 1958 in Woodland Hills, California. He was 82 years old.

Silent screen leading man in films from 1915-1932. He left films in 1932 due to the arrival of sound. He was hit by a car on September 13, 1951, never fully recovered from his injuries and died on December 2, 1957.

Born in New York City to a Judge of Special Sessions who was also president of a sewing machine company. Grew up on City Island, New York. Attended Hamilton Military Academy and turned down an appointment to West Point to attend New York Law School, where his law school classmates included future New York City mayor James J. Walker. After a boating accident which led to pneumonia, Carey wrote a play while recuperating and toured the country in it for three years, earning a great deal of money, all of which evaporated after his next play was a failure. In 1911, his friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to director D.W. Griffith, for whom Carey was to make many films. Carey married twice, the second time to actress Olive Fuller Golden (aka Olive Carey, who introduced him to future director John Ford. Carey influenced Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle to use Ford as a director, and a partnership was born that lasted until a rift in the friendship in 1921. During this time, Carey grew into one of the most popular Western stars of the early motion picture, occasionally writing and directing films as well. In the '30s he moved slowly into character roles and was nominated for an Oscar for one of them, the President of the Senate in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He worked once more with Ford, in The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), and appeared once with his son, Harry Carey Jr., in Howard Hawks's Red River (1948). He died after a protracted bout with emphysema and cancer. Ford dedicated his remake of 3 Godfathers (1948) "To Harry Carey--Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky."

A pioneering cowboy star of silent and early talking Westerns, Hoot Gibson was one of the 1920s' most popular children's matinée heroes. In his real life, however, he had a rather painful rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags career, a problem that seemed to plague a number of big stars who fell victim to their high profile and wound up living too high on the hog.

An unfortunate byproduct of stardom is, of course, the misinformation that is often fed to the public over the years by either overzealous publicity agents or the actor himself. The many variations of just how Gibson earned the name tag "Hoot" is one of them: (1) As a youth, he loved to hunt owls; (2) while a teenager working on a rodeo ranch, other ranch hands called him "Hoot Owl" and that the name was shortened to just "Hoot"; (3) he picked up the nickname while a messenger with the Owl Drug Company; and (4) while touring briefly in vaudeville, he would hoot when the audience cheered and, thus, the nickname.

What facts are known about Hoot is that he was born Edmund Richard Gibson on August 6, 1892, in Tekamah, Nebraska. As a child he grew up among horses and received his first pony at the age of 2-1/2. His family moved to California when he was 7. At age 13 the adventurous youth ran away from home and joined a circus for a time. Later work included punching cows in both Wyoming and Colorado (at the time, a territory and not a state). While working on the Miller 101 Ranch at Fort Bliss, Oklahoma, as a horse wrangler, Hoot developed a strong, active interest in the rodeo scene--in particular, bronco busting. In 1907 he signed a four-year contract with the Dick Stanley-Bud Atkinson Wild West Show, which toured throughout the US and (later) Australia.

By 1910 Hoot had found an "in" to the movie business as one of the industry's first stuntmen (for which he was paid $2.50 for performing stunts or training horses). Director Francis Boggs was looking for experienced cowboys and stunt doubles to appear in his western short Pride of the Range (1910) starring Tom Mix; both Hoot and another future cowboy star, Art Acord, were hired. Hoot lost a solid Hollywood contact in Boggs, however, when the director and his working partner, producer William Nicholas Selig, were both shot in October, 1911, by a mentally disturbed employee (Selig was injured, but Boggs was killed). Gibson managed to find other stunt work in director D.W. Griffith's western short The Two Brothers (1910) and several others for the next few years.

Acting, at this point, was not his bread-and-butter income. Hoot still continued to forge a name for himself on the rodeo circuit with his pal Acord. In 1912, at age 20, he won the title "All-Around Champion Cowboy" at the famed annual Pendleton (Oregon) Round-Up. He also won the steer-roping World Championship at the Calgary Stampede. While on the circuit, he met fellow rodeo rider Rose August ("Helen") Wenger. They eventually married (there is still some question about whether they legally exchanged vows) and she took on the marquee name of Helen Gibson. She even found film stunt work herself and eventually was chosen to replace Helen Holmes as star of the popular movie serial The Hazards of Helen (1914) during mid-filming. Hoot himself had a minor role in the Universal cliffhanger.

Hoot picked up a couple of more strong connections in the film industry with western star Harry Carey and director John Ford. Gibson gained some momentum as a secondary player in a few of their films, including Cheyenne's Pal (1917), Straight Shooting (1917), The Secret Man (1917) and A Marked Man (1917). With the outbreak of World War I, however, Gibson's film career was put on hold. He joined the US Army, eventually attaining the the rank of sergeant while serving with the Tank Corps, and was honorably discharged in 1919. He returned immediately to Universal and was able to restart his career, quickly working his way up to co-star status in a series of short westerns, most of which were directed by his now close friend Ford. The two-reelers usually co-starred either Pete Morrison or Hoor's wife Helen, or sometimes both. Films such as The Fighting Brothers (1919), The Black Horse Bandit (1919), Rustlers (1919), Gun Law (1919), The Gun Packer (1919) and By Indian Post (1919) eventually led to his solo starring success.

During this prolific period, he was frequently directed by George Holt (The Trail of the Holdup Man (1919)), Phil Rosen (The Sheriff's Oath (1920)) and Lee Kohlmar (The Wild Wild West (1921)). It was at this time that he and wife Helen separated and divorced. In the early 1920s, Hoot went on to marry another Helen--Helen Johnson. They had one child, Lois Charlotte Gibson, born in 1923. The couple divorced in 1927.

Superstardom came with the John Ford (I)full-length feature western Action (1921), which was taken from "The Three Godfathers" story. It starred Hoot, Francis Ford and J. Farrell MacDonald as a trio of outlaws on the lam who find a baby. From that point on, both Hoot and Tom Mix began to "rule the west". Gibson's light, comedic, tongue-in-cheek manner only added to his sagebrush appeal, especially to children and women. His vehicles were non-violent for the most part, and he rarely was spotted carrying a gun while riding his palomino horse Goldie. Not a particularly handsome man, his boyish appeal and non-threatening demeanor were his aces in the hole--a major distinction that separated him from the more ascetic cowboy stars of the past.

By 1925 Hoot was making approximately $14,500 a week and spending it about as fast as he was making it. He successfully made the transition to talkies and, in 1930, married popular Jazz-era actress Sally Eilers, a third party to his previous divorce. The couple made three features together: The Long, Long Trail (1929), Trigger Tricks (1930) and Clearing the Range (1931). When she found celluloid success on her own with Bad Girl (1931), Sally decided to split from Hoot professionally and personally. They divorced in 1933.

Hoot lost his Universal contract in 1930, which signified the start of his decline. While he secured contracts with lesser studios during the early 1930s, such as Allied Pictures and First Division Pictures, the quality of his films suffered. By this time Hoot had already begun to feature race cars and airplanes in his pictures. such as The Flyin' Cowboy (1928) and The Winged Horseman (1929). Airplanes in particular became a large, expensive passion of his. In 1933 he crashed his biplane during a National Air Race in Los Angeles, which had pitted him against another cowboy star, Ken Maynard. Fortunately, he survived his injuries.

With the advent of talking films, singing cowboys such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were becoming the new rage, and both Hoot and Tom Mix felt the kick. Yet he managed a couple of "comebacks" by pairing up with others stars. He joined old silent film teammate Harry Carey and 'Guinn Big Boy Williams' in the "Three Mesquiteers" western Powdersmoke Range (1935), and was billed second to Ray Corrigan in the Republic serial The Painted Stallion (1937).

Hoot left films and toured with the Robbins Brothers and Russell Brothers circuses during 1938 and 1939 before retiring from show business altogether. His multiple divorces and reckless spending habits had taken their toll on his finances. For a time he found work in real estate before Monogram Pictures offered the stocky-framed actor a chance to return in 1943. Hoot teamed up with cowboy star Ken Maynard in the popular "Trail Blazers" series, and the duo were later joined by Bob Steele. Chief Thundercloud replaced a difficult Maynard on a couple of the films, but by the end of the series Gibson and Steele were riding alone together. The nearly dozen films in the series began with Wild Horse Stampede (1943) and ended with Trigger Law (1944), the latter being his last hurrah in films.

Hoot then returned to real estate. By the time he appeared as a surprise guest on the popular sitcom I Married Joan (1952) starring Joan Davis, his Western features of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as those of Maynard, Steele and others were a large staple of films seen by a TV audience that couldn't get enough Western fare. He did a favor for old friend John Ford by appearing in a cameo role in the director's 1959 film The Horse Soldiers (1959). His last movie spotting was a guest cameo in the "Rat Pack" film Ocean's Eleven (1960).

Hoot married a fourth and final time on July 3, 1942, to one-time radio singer and actress Dorothea Dunstan. This marriage took hold and lasted for 20 years until his death. By the 1960s Gibson was on the verge of financial collapse after a series of bad investments. Diagnosed with cancer in 1960, rising medical costs forced him to find any and all work available. He was relegated at one point to becoming a greeter at a Las Vegas casino and, for a period, worked at carnivals.

It was an unhappy end for a cowboy who brought so much excitement and entertainment to children and adults alike. Gibson died of cancer at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, just a couple of weeks after his 70th birthday. He was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. In remembrance, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, in 1979, was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Staunch, granite-jawed American leading man of silent and early talkie films, much associated with Westerns. A native of New York City, Holt often claimed to have been born in Winchester, Virginia, where he grew up. The son of an Episcopal minister, he attended Trinity School in Manhattan, then the Virginia Military Institute, from which he was expelled for bad behavior. Giving up his vague hopes of becoming a lawyer, he went on the road, engaging in numerous occupations. He mined gold in Alaska, worked as both a railroad and a civil engineer, delivered mail, rode herd on cattle, and played parts in traveling stage productions. While looking for work as a surveyor in San Francisco in 1914, he volunteered to ride a horse over a cliff in a stunt for a film crew shooting in San Rafael. In gratitude, the director gave him a part in the film. Holt followed the movie people to Hollywood and began getting bits and stunt jobs in the many Westerns and serials being made there. He impressed a number of co-workers at Universal Pictures, among them Francis Ford and his brother John Ford, and Grace Cunard. Holt soon became a frequent supporting player in their films, and then a star in serials.

A move to Paramount studios in 1917 cemented his leading man status, and he became one of the studio's great stars, particularly in a very successful series of Westerns based on the novels of Zane Grey. Talkies proved no problem for Holt, and his career thrived, although mostly in run-of-the-mill adventure films. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Holt entered the U.S. Army at the age of 54, serving at the request of General George C. Marshall as a horse buyer for the cavalry. Upon his return to pictures following the war, he alternated between character roles in major films such as John Ford's They Were Expendable (1945) and leading roles in minor Westerns. He made a cameo appearance in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) which starred his son Tim Holt. That same year father and son played father and son in a B-Western, The Arizona Ranger (1948). Less than three years later, on January 18, 1951, Holt died of a heart attack at the Los Angeles Veterans Hospital in Sawtelle, a couple of blocks west of the Los Angeles National Cemetery where he is now buried.

Being one of numerous important comedians during the silent era whose popularity has turned into almost complete obscurity, Lloyd Hamilton has nevertheless earned a reputation as an original talent among film historians and enthusiasts. Born into a conservative middle-class family in California, presumably in 1891, Hamilton began his career as an extra in theatre-productions. He entered films at an early age, although the exact year remains hard to specify; he claimed to have appeared in his first films at Lubin Company in 1914, but he can be glimpsed in a few surviving Frontier-comedies from the year before. However, it is correct that it was in the year of 1914 that he first gained success, when he teamed up with Bud Duncan in Kalem's 'Ham and Bud'-series, being one of the very first permanent comedy teams produced in the movies. The series turned out moderately popular and ran for three years, although it can be hard to understand this success for modern viewers; by common agreement, the 'Ham and Bud'-films have not aged well and remain of interest mostly due to the limited insight into Hamilton's maturity as a performer that they provide.

Hamilton left Kalem for Fox in late 1917, where he appeared on his own under the direction of Henry Lehrman and Jack White. Along with White and another director who would later reach fame as a performer in his own right, Charley Chase, Hamilton established 'Mermaid Comedies' in 1920, a production unit exclusively dedicated to comedy shorts. He appeared in a number of films over the next few years; sadly, only a few of these are known to exist today, but comedies such as "Moonshine" and "The Simp" (both 1920) confirm Hamilton's progression as a performer during this time. Indeed, by 1922 he was hailed in the press as a "great comedy coup" and audiences had already taken notice of him. Hamilton's screen personality was something of its own, inheriting very few traits of the other major comedians of the time; tubby and baby-faced though he was, his character was a childish man of personal contrasts: he possessed a touch of bewilderment, irresponsibility, incredible self-assurance and frustration that gave him a partly tragic complexion, which in return probably made his comedy more appealing to adults than children.

By the mid-1920s, Hamilton's popularity had grown such a degree that he considered it appropriate to establish his own production company. It was about this time that he starred in his first feature-length film, "The Darker Self," a film which does not only seem rather tasteless today due to the use of racial stereotypes, but which in fact was a disaster also when originally released and Hamilton's reputation suffered a blow because of it. He nevertheless produced many fine short comedies throughout the decade, such as "Move Along" (1926), "Nobody's Business" (1926) and "Somebody's Fault" (1927), most of which were directed by Norman Taurog. While it may be argued that some of the films suffer from lack of continuity, they often provide many clever visual gags and camera-tricks which still make them pleasant to watch; in fact, in one respect absence of continuity suits Hamilton's character well, as his movies are not so often based upon a particular story as of him being constantly haunted by bad luck, with one bad situation leading up to an even worse situation.

Despite being so very amusing on-screen, Hamilton led a troublesome private life. He was a hard drinker, which severely affected his family life. His first marriage was to actress Ethel Lloyd, five years his senior, which took place at an early point of his movie career and lasted just a few years; they were separated by 1923, and their split caused a two-year long court battle. He married a second time in 1927 to Irene Dalton, who had appeared in some of his films. Dalton accused her husband of being violent when drunk, and the couple divorced after a year. (None of the marriages produced any children.) In the midst of these personal difficulties, Hamilton was suddenly banned from the screen after a boxer was murdered in a street-fight in which he was involved; the comedian was not a suspect, but the tolerance of scandals was minimal in Hollywood at this time and he remained unemployed for more than a year. He did a comeback in a series of two-reeler's for Mack Sennett at Educational Films in 1929, this time in sound pictures, which had just done its lasting entrance in the medium. Lloyd had a good voice which suited his character perfectly, but by this time his troubled life-style had begun to get the better of him. After the contract with Sennett expired, it was rumored that he would begin a new series of two-reeler's for Hal Roach, but being informed of Hamilton's alcoholism, Roach refused to hire him. He died unemployed and ill in 1935, aged 43.

During his brief period as a star, Charlie Chaplin is reported to have remarked that Lloyd Hamilton "is the one actor of whom I am jealous," and Charley Chase confessed that whenever he had difficulties in doing a scene, he'd always ask himself, "How would Lloyd have done it?" Buster Keaton also expressed great fondness of his work, stating in a late interview that Hamilton was "one of the funniest men in pictures." Critic and playwright Walter Kerr, considered by many the most insightful authority on silent comedy, discusses his work with great respect and admiration in his 1975-book "The Silent Clowns." However, despite all acclaim, Lloyd Hamilton is exceedingly seldom given a mention today even among silent comedy fans. One significant reason to this is his sad lack of surviving output; most of his negatives were destroyed in a laboratory fire at Universal shortly after his death. Happily, a fine collection of his work is now available on DVD through silent comedy specialists "Looser Than Loose."

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.

By the time that he was 20, Lewis Stone had turned prematurely grey. He enlisted to fight in the Spanish American War and when he returned, he returned to be a writer. This turned to acting and he began to appear in films during the middle teens. His career was again interrupted by war as he served in the cavalry during World War I. After the war, he returned to films and quickly graduated to lead roles. With his distinguished look and grey hair, he was able to play the roles of well mannered romantic men. In 1921, Lewis starred in Don't Neglect Your Wife (1921). In the next year, he starred with Alice Terry, who played the heroine, and Ramon Novarro in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and Scaramouche (1923). In 1924, Metro merged into the new MGM where Lewis remained for the rest of his career. He was busy over the next few years and garnered an Academy Award nomination for The Patriot (1928). In 1928, he appeared in the first of a series of pictures with Greta Garbo. In A Woman of Affairs (1928) he played the older doctor, a friend of the family. But two years later in Romance (1930), he played her lover.

Lewis made the transition from silent to sound with The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929), which starred Norma Shearer. Sound did not cause Lewis any problems and he continued to be busy with his roles as the distinguished lead. The Big House (1930) was highly successful for MGM and he appeared in other popular movies such as The Phantom of Paris (1931) with John Gilbert and Red-Headed Woman (1932) with Jean Harlow. He appeared with Garbo in Inspiration (1931), Mata Hari (1931), Grand Hotel (1932) and Queen Christina (1933). In the late 30s he took on a role for which he was long remembered - the role of Judge James Hardy who had a son named Andy. Judge Hardy was the father audiences wanted in the late 30s early 40s. He was kind, intellectual, fair and as patient as he had to be with Andy, played by Mickey Rooney. This series occupied most of his screen time until it ended and he did slow down during the late 40s. In the 50s he continued to appear in a number of pictures including remakes of the two he had made 30 years before with Alice Terry. He suffered a heart attack and died in 1953 after appearing in over 200 films.

Marc McDermott was born Marcus Patrick McDermott in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia, on July 24, 1871. His father Patrick James McDermott and mother Annie Massey McDermott were born in Ireland, and Marc later became an English citizen when he moved to London. His younger sister May, was born in Australia in 1881. He received his early education at a Jesuit school in Sydney. When Marc was 15, his father died suddenly. To support his mother and little sister, Marc joined a small local theater company. A year later, he was discovered by the famous Shakespearean actor George Rignold and made his first appearance on the stage in Sydney. He stayed with the company for several years, learning his craft. When Rignold's company departed for London, Marc quickly caught the eye of Charles Frohman, a New York agent and producer, whose clients included Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the first lady of the London stage. Tall with thick auburn hair and dark brown eyes, Marc cut an impressive figure. Mrs. Pat, as she was called, chose the 20-year-old to be her leading man. The company sailed to the US and landed in New York, where he played opposite her as Sir George Orreyed in "The Second Mrs. Tanqeray." The company returned to London, where he was hired by Frohman to play "Sherlock Holmes" in London for two years. For the next several years, Marc became a celebrated West End actor. In 1906, he accepted Frohman's offer to sail to New York and join the company of the great classical actor Richard Mansfield. He toured the US for several years, and in 1909 was approached by Charles Brabin, a fellow stage actor (and soon to be director) who was working at Thomas Edison's film studio in the Bronx. Marc was quickly hired to appear as a featured player, replacing Maurice Costello, who had moved to Vitagraph. His first film was Les Misérables (1909), followed by Lochinvar (1909) (Lochinvar was released first but he filmed "Les Miserables" prior to it). From 1909 through the summer of 1916, he starred in over 140 films for Edison, appearing frequently in popular early film magazines like Photoplay, Motion Picture, and Moving Picture World, voted as one of the most popular leading men during these years. In 1911, Marc costarred with Mary Fuller in Edison's first popular series "What Ever Happened to Mary?" Another favorite leading lady of Marc's was Miriam Nesbitt, who was eight years his senior. Their on-screen romance soon grew into a real-life love affair. On April 7, 1914, Marc made film history when he appeared in the first-ever "chapter" series; each chapter was a complete story in and of itself. The 10-chapter series was titled The Man Who Disappeared (1914), and was filmed on location in New York and New Jersey. Each printed chapter story was featured in "Popular Magazine" as each filmed chapter simultaneously appeared on the screen. As Marc told "Motion Picture" writer Gladys Roosevelt, he did all his own stunts, including driving an automobile into the icy East River, fighting a villain on top of a NYC skyscraper that was actually being built at the time, and being handcuffed to the railroad tracks. On April 20, 1916, Marc and Miriam married in Leonia, New Jersey. By this time, he had made more than 140 films. Later that year, Marc left the Edison Studio to join his best friends Charles Brabin and Ashley Miller at the Vitagraph Studio, where he starred in a number of films. In 1918, Marc moved to Fox Films in New York to star with Theda Bara in "Kathleen Mavourneen," directed by Charles Brabin, who would soon marry his star. Marc left Fox in 1920 to freelance, appearing with Norma Talmadge in "The New Moon." He then costarred with Estelle Taylor in "While New York Sleeps," with Brabin working as both writer and director. Another director friend from his Vitagraph days, John Robertson, directed him in "Footlights" (1921) with Elsie Ferguson. In 1922, his marriage began to unravel when Miriam discovered some love letters to actress Helen Gilmore and filed for a separation. The New York Times reported that he was arrested on August 11 and held in Ludlow Street Jail until he was released after paying $5,000 in bail. Marc left to visit his older brother's family, who had settled in Lowell, Massachusetts. After appearing in a vaudeville skit, he boarded a train in Boston and headed to Hollywood. Marc immediately went to work for Fox Films in "Hoodman Blind" directed by John Ford. At Warner Bros., he appeared in "Lucretia Lombard" with Irene Rich, Monte Blue, and Norma Shearer, which was produced by Harry Rapf. Marc next appeared with Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl, in "The Satin Girl." When M-G-M was formed in 1924, Marc was contracted to appear in their very first film, "He Who Gets Slapped." The cast included Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert. Mary Pickford, an old friend from his New York days, cast him in "Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall" as Sir Malcolm Vernon. Another director friend, Marshall "Micky" Neilan, directed. Marc was in high demand at different studios for the next two years: "In Every Woman's Life" and "Siege" both with Virginia Valli; "This Woman" with Irene Rich, Ricardo Cortez, and Clara Bow in a minor role; and "The Sea Hawk" with Milton Sills, Enid Bennett, and Wallace Beery. At Universal Pictures in 1925, he appeared in "The Goose Woman" with Louise Dresser, Jack Pickford, and Constance Bennett. The film was directed by his friend Clarence Brown. Once again, Norma Talmadge cast him as the villain in "Graustark." In 1926, Marc was busy at M-G-M playing in both "The Temptress" with Greta Garbo and Antonio Moreno and "Flesh and the Devil" with Garbo and John Gilbert. One of his favorite costars was Greta Nissen, with whom he appeared in "The Love Thief" for Universal and "Lucky Lady" for Paramount. Norma Talmadge tapped his talent once again for "Kiki," a saucy little comedy with Ronald Coleman. During 1927, Marc starred in several M-G-M films, including "California" with Tim McCoy and Dorothy Sebastian, directed by W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke; and "Man, Woman and Sin" with Jeanne Eagels and John Gilbert, directed by Monta Bell. When the newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences held their first meeting at the Biltmore Hotel's Crystal Ballroom on May 11, 1927, Marc was among the 230 pioneer members in attendance. His name appears in the program listing of 102 actors. Later that year, his old friend John Robertson recruited him for "The Road to Romance" with Ramon Navarro and Marceline Day, and he also appeared in "Taxi Dancer" with Joan Crawford, as well as "Resurrection" with Rod La Rocque and Dolores Del Rio at United Artists. In 1928, during a vaudeville tour to Chicago, Marc became ill and returned to Hollywood to recuperate. His next film for M-G-M was "Under the Black Eagle" directed by Woody Van Dyke. For "Glorious Betsy" at Warner Bros., some Vitaphone talking sequences were included. The film starred Dolores Costello, the beautiful wife of John Barrymore and daughter of Maurice Costello, whom Marc had replaced at Vitagraph back in 1916. First National cast Marc in "The Yellow Lily" starring the lovely Bessie Dove. His last two films were "The Mysterious Island" shot in Technicolor with black and white sequences. Vitaphone sound sequences, a musical score, and sound effects were later added. Marc's old friend Charles Brabin directed him in his last film, "The Whip," which starred Dorothy Mackaill, Ralph Forbes, and Anna Q. Nilsson. During filming, Variety reported that Marc became very ill from ptomaine poisoning, lapsed into a three-month coma, and died from a gallbladder operation. However, Dr. E.F. Miller wrote on the death certificate that he had attended to Marc at home for eight months and then in the hospital from December 5, 1928 until his death at 5:20 a.m. on January 5, 1929. Further, he stated that no operation had preceded his death. The diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver was confirmed by clinical and laboratory tests performed on January 6. His body was cremated at the Hollywood Crematory, and his ashes were placed in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, where the brass plaque reads: Marcus McDermott, 1881-1929 (his correct birth date is 1871 according to his will and Australian birth records). His untimely death coincided with the death of silent films.

This versatile artist, who had spent his 20's in New Zealand farming sheep, became novelist, playwright and film exhibitor on his return to Britain in 1918. Eventually he would observe success with The First Born (1928), which he directed and acted in and which was based on his own novel and play. He is better remembered, however, for his character portrayals of oily types, many of them upper-crust cads - such as Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers (1939). (In his Hollywood debut, he had portrayed King Louis XIII in the 1935 version of that same Dumas classic.)

Norman Kerry was born on 16 June 1894 in Rochester, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Annie Laurie (1927), The Unknown (1927) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). He was married to Kay English, Helen Mary Wells and Rosina Tripp. He died on 12 January 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Born in 1884, virile and dashing silent screen idol Owen Moore, equipped with incredibly handsome reddish and ruddy features, came to America with his family from Ireland at the age of 11. After some stage work, he entered films at the Biograph Studio in 1908 and appeared in many of D.W. Griffith's early productions.

Owen was Mary Pickford's stylish leading man in her early career-starters and they secretly married in 1911. Some of their classic pictures together include Cinderella (1914), in which he played her Prince Charming, and Mistress Nell (1915). Mary left Owen for Douglas Fairbanks, however, and the couple eventually divorced in 1920. A couple of years later Owen met and wed silent film actress Kathleen Perry, a marriage that lasted until his sudden death of a heart attack at age 54. This couple also made several pictures together.

A talented singer in his own right, Owen's timing was off for he was much too old to see what kind of impression he could have made in musicals come the advent of sound. A popular romantic leading man during his heyday, his career took a nosedive once talkies arrived. His last film would be Janet Gaynor's A Star Is Born (1937), in which he played a movie director.

Owen's brothers Tom Moore and Matt Moore were also popular leading men at around the same time, but Owen was probably the best known due to his association with Pickford. The three of them appeared together in only one feature film, Side Street (1929). His mother Mary Moore was a character actress for a time, featured in Clara Kimball Young's film Lola (1914). She eventually quit the business, returned to the British Isles and became Lady Wyndham, and died there in 1931. Two other siblings were also briefly actors, Mary Moore and Joe Moore (aka Joseph Moore), but they died young and remain much lesser known. Owen died fairly young himself at age 54 of a heart attack in 1939.

Sometime in the early 1930s, Denny was between scenes on a movie set when he met a neighborhood boy who was trying to fly a bulky gas-powered model plane. When he tried to help by making an adjustment on the machine, Denny succeeded only in wrecking it. But this launched his infatuation with model aviation, and his new hobby grew into Reginald Denny Industries, maker of model plane kits.

When the U.S. Army began hunting for a better and safer way to train anti-aircraft gunners than using targets towed by piloted planes, Denny and his associates Walter Righter and Paul Whittier began work on a radio-controlled target drone, and their third prototype won them an Army contract. Radioplane was formed in 1940, and during WWII produced nearly 15,000 target drones (the RP-5A) for the Army. Radioplane was later purchased by Northrop in 1952.