1930 Israel FILM Hebrew RARE CATALOG Book 50 MOVIE POSTERS Jewish BOOK Judaica

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Seller: judaica-bookstore ✉️ (2,803) 100%, Location: TEL AVIV, IL, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 285685138821 1930 Israel FILM Hebrew RARE CATALOG Book 50 MOVIE POSTERS Jewish BOOK Judaica. Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. DESCRIPTION :Up for sale is an  IMPORTANT , RICHLY ILLUSTRATED and mostly SOUGHT AFTER Hebrew ISRAELI JEWISH BOOK , Being a CATALOGUE which presents an extremely  impressive and important collection of around 50 COLORFUL ILLUSTRATED FILM MOVIE POSTERS which were designed and were used to advertise 1930's fims in ISRAEL in these  years .  LEGENDARY mythological CINEMA HALLS in TEL AVIV ERETZ ISRAEL ( Palestine ) : GAN RINA , OPHIR , EDEN and more. Legendary FILMS , ACTORS and ACTRESSES , PRODUCERS and DIRECTORS .  Names such as  DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, MARY PICKFORD, EMIL JANNINGS , JOHN BARRYMORE , RAMON NOVARRO and MANY OTHERS.  50 such COLORFUL POSTERS are depicted in ILLUSTRATIONS and ENGLISH & HEBREW data and explanatory TEXT .Quite a few relevant Hebrew ARTICLES regarding the 1930's MOVIES – FILMS and POSTERS . RARE and Sought after . Illustrated wrappers. Around 11 x 9" . 110 throughout illustrated PP.  English & Hebrew. Good condition. Used. Clean. Tightly bound. The leaves are somewhat wavy.  ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images ) . Will be sent inside a rigid protective packaging. PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : PAYPAL & All credit cards . SHIPPING : SHIPP worldwide via registered airmail is $ 29 (  Domestic $15 only with buy it now ) .  Will be sent in a special protective rigid sealed package. Handling around 5-10 days after payment.  Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. As of 2021, Jannings is the only German ever to have won the category. Jannings is best known for his collaborations with F. W. Murnau and Josef von Sternberg, including 1930's The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel), with Marlene Dietrich. The Blue Angel was meant as a vehicle for Jannings to score a place for himself in the new medium of sound film, but Dietrich stole the show. Jannings later starred in a number of Nazi propaganda films, which made him unemployable as an actor after the fall of the Third Reich. Contents 1 Childhood and youth 2 Career 2.1 America 2.2 Nazi Germany 2.3 Death 3 Marriages 4 Cultural depictions 5 Filmography 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Childhood and youth[edit] Jannings was born in Rorschach, Switzerland, the son of Emil Janenz, an American businessman from St. Louis, and his wife Margarethe (née Schwabe), originally from Germany.[2][3] Jannings held German citizenship; while he was still young the family moved to Leipzig in the German Empire and further to Görlitz after the early death of his father. Jannings ran away from school and went to sea. When he returned to Görlitz, his mother finally allowed him to begin a traineeship at the town state theatre, where Jannings started his stage career. From 1901 onwards he worked with several theatre companies in Bremen, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Königsberg, and Glogau before joining the Deutsches Theater ensemble under director Max Reinhardt in Berlin.[4] Permanently employed since 1915, Jannings met with playwright Karl Vollmöller, fellow actor Ernst Lubitsch, and photographer Frieda Riess. After World War I all were at the heart of Weimar Culture in 1920s Berlin. Jannings made his breakthrough in 1918 with his role as Judge Adam in Kleist's Broken Jug at the Schauspielhaus. Career[edit] Jannings as Kreon in Hasenclever's Antigone, Großes Schauspielhaus, 1920 Jannings was a theater actor who went into films, though he remained dissatisfied with the limited expressive possibilities in the silent era. Having signed a contract with the UFA production company, he starred in Die Augen der Mumie Ma (The Eyes of the Mummy, 1918) and Madame DuBarry (1919), both with Pola Negri in the main female part. He also performed in the 1922 film version of Othello and in F. W. Murnau's 1924 film The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann), as a proud but aged hotel doorman who is demoted to a restroom attendant. Jannings worked with Murnau on two other films; playing the title character in Tartuffe (Herr Tartüff, 1925), and as Mephistopheles in Faust (1926). America[edit] His increasing popularity enabled Jannings to sign an agreement with Paramount Pictures and eventually follow his acting colleagues Lubitsch and Negri to Hollywood. He started his career in 1927 with The Way of All Flesh directed by Victor Fleming (now lost) and in the following year performed in Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command. In 1929, Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for his work in both films. He and Sternberg also cooperated in Street of Sin (1928), though they actually differed about Jannings' acting in front of the camera. His Hollywood career came to an end with the advent of talkies as his thick German accent was difficult to understand. His dialogue was initially dubbed by another actor in the part-talkie The Patriot (1928) directed by Ernst Lubitsch, although Jannings' own voice was restored after he objected. Returning to Europe, he starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 film The Blue Angel, which was filmed simultaneously in English with its German version Der blaue Engel. According to Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend, Jannings was not actually the winner of the first best actor vote, but the runner-up. While researching her book, Orlean thought she discovered that it was in fact Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd dog, one of the biggest movie stars of his time, who won the vote. The Academy, however, worried about not being taken seriously if they gave the first Oscar to a dog, chose to award the Oscar to the human runner-up.[5] In 1960, Jannings was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1630 Vine Street for his contribution to motion pictures.[6] Nazi Germany[edit] Jannings with Joseph Goebbels on Wolfgangsee, 1938 After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Jannings continued his career in the service of Nazi cinema. During the Third Reich, he starred in several films which were intended to promote Nazism, particularly the Führerprinzip by presenting unyielding historical characters, such as Der alte und der junge König (The Old and the Young King 1934), Der Herrscher (The Ruler 1937) directed by Veit Harlan, Robert Koch (1939), Ohm Krüger (Uncle Kruger, 1941) and Die Entlassung (Bismarck's Dismissal, 1942).[7] He also performed in his famed role in The Broken Jug directed by Gustav Ucicky. Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels named Jannings an "Artist of the State" (Staatsschauspieler)[8] The shooting of his last film Wo ist Herr Belling? was aborted when troops of the Allied Powers entered Germany in Spring 1945. Jannings reportedly carried his Oscar statuette with him as proof of his former association with Hollywood. However, his active role in Nazi propaganda meant that he was subject to denazification, effectively ending his career. In the same period Dietrich became a US citizen and an influential anti-Nazi activist, spending much of the war entertaining troops on the front lines and broadcasting on behalf of the OSS. Dietrich particularly loathed Jannings for his Nazi ties, and would later refer to her former co-star as a "ham".[9] Death[edit] Emil Jannings' grave at St Wolfgang im Salzkammergut Jannings retired to Strobl near Salzburg, Austria, and became an Austrian citizen in 1947.[4] He died in 1950, aged 65, from liver cancer.[10] He is buried in the St. Wolfgang cemetery. His Best Actor Oscar is now on display at the Berlin Filmmuseum. Marriages[edit] Jannings was married four times. His first three marriages ended in divorce, his last with his death. His last three marriages were to German stage and film actresses, Hanna Ralph, Lucie Höflich, and Gussy Holl.[7] He had a daughter, Ruth-Maria (born 1920), from his first marriage to Lucy Höfling.[11][12] Cultural depictions[edit] Hilmar Eichhorn [de] portrayed a fictionalized version of Jannings in Inglourious Basterds (2009), directed by Quentin Tarantino. This fictional version of Jannings dies at the end of the film. In the 1972 film Cabaret, singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) finds herself at a high-society dinner party; she tries to impress someone at the table by suggesting that she is a friend of Emil Jannings. Filmography[edit] Year Title Role Notes 1914 Arme Eva Im Schützengraben Passionels Tagebuch 1916 Aus Mangel an Beweisen Dr. Langer Die Bettlerin von St. Marien Baron Gelsburg Frau Eva Im Angesicht des Toten Paul Werner Life Is a Dream Verführer (the seducer) A Night of Horror Banker Stein unter Steinen 1917 Das fidele Gefängnis [de] Quabbe, the jailer The Merry Jail (Europe: English title) When Four Do the Same Segetoff Hoheit Radieschen The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach Wilhelm Rohrbach Der Zehnte Pavillon der Zitadelle Das Geschäft S. H. Haßler Lulu The Ring of Giuditta Foscari The Sea Battle Unheilbar 1918 The Seeds of Life James Fraenkel, Börsenmarktler John Smith, amerikanischer Ingenieur The Eyes of the Mummy Radu, an Arab Fuhrmann Henschel Nach zwanzig Jahren Horst Lundin 'Korn' 1919 Rose Bernd Arthur Streckmann Madame DuBarry Louis XV a.k.a. Passion Vendetta Tomasso The Daughter of Mehemed Vaco Juan Riberda, Fabrikbesitzer The Man of Action Jan Miller 1920 Colombine Carlo Anna Boleyn Henry VIII a.k.a. Deception The Skull of Pharaoh's Daughter Osorcon, Pharao of Egypt Algol Robert Herne The Big Light Lorenz Ferleitner Kohlhiesel's Daughters Peter Xaver 1921 The Rats Bruno The Oath of Peter Hergatz Danton Georges Danton a.k.a. All for a Woman The Bull of Olivera General François Guillaume The Brothers Karamazov Dimitri Karamasoff a.k.a. Die Brüder Karamasoff 1922 Peter the Great Peter the Great a.k.a. Peter der Große Othello Othello The Loves of Pharaoh Pharao Amenes a.k.a. Das Weib des Pharao The Countess of Paris Ombrade 1923 All for Money S. I. Rupp Tragedy of Love Ombrade 1924 The Last Laugh Hotel Porter The Last Laugh (USA) Husbands or Lovers Husband Waxworks Harun al-Rashid Quo Vadis Nero Extant 1925 Variety Boss Huller a.k.a. Jealousy (USA) Love is Blind Emil Jannings 1926 Tartuffe Tartuffe Faust – A German Folktale Mephisto Extant 1927 The Way of All Flesh August Schilling Academy Award for Best Actor; Lost film 1928 Sins of the Fathers Wilhelm Spengler excerpts and clips are preserved of this film. Unconfirmed about the total film The Patriot Czar Paul I Lost film Street of Sin Basher Bill Lost film The Last Command Gen. Dolgorucki / Grand Duke Sergius Alexander Academy Award for Best Actor; Extant 1929 Betrayal Poldi Moser 1930 Darling of the Gods Albert Winkelmann a.k.a. Darling of the Gods The Blue Angel Prof. Immanuel Rath a.k.a. The Blue Angel (USA) 1932 Storms of Passion Gustav Bumke a.k.a. Stürme der Leidenschaft a.k.a. Tempest 1933 Die Abenteuer des Königs Pausole King Pausole a.k.a. The Adventures of King Pausole The Merry Monarch 1934 The Black Whale Peter Petersen a.k.a. The Black Whale (International: English title) 1935 The Old and the Young King Frederick William I of Prussia a.k.a. The Making of a King (USA) 1936 The Dreamer Direktor Prof. Niemeyer 1937 The Broken Jug Adam, Dorfrichter a.k.a. The Broken Jug Der Herrscher Matthias Clausen a.k.a. The Ruler 1939 Robert Koch Robert Koch Der Trichter. (Nr. III) scenes deleted 1941 Ohm Krüger Paul Kruger a.k.a. Uncle Kruger (International: English title) 1942 Die Entlassung Otto von Bismarck a.k.a. Bismarck's Dismissal (UK) 1943 Altes Herz wird wieder jung Fabrikdirektor Hoffmann 1945 Wo ist Herr Belling? Firmenchef Eberhard Belling a.k.a. Where Is Mr. Belling? ****** Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr.[1] (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer.[2] He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro, but spent the early part of his career making comedies. Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists. He was also a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy and hosted the 1st Academy Awards in 1929. With his marriage to actress and film producer Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became 'Hollywood royalty', and Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood",[3] a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable. Though he was considered one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the 1910s and 1920s, Fairbanks's career rapidly declined with the advent of the "talkies". His final film was The Private Life of Don Juan (1934). Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Early career 2.2 Hollywood 2.3 Career decline and retirement 3 Death 4 Legacy 5 Filmography 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Early life[edit] Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman (spelled "Ulman" by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in his memoirs) in Denver, Colorado, the son of Hezekiah Charles Ullman (1833–1915) and Ella Adelaide (née Marsh; 1847–1915). He had two half-brothers, John Fairbanks, Jr. (born 1873) and Norris Wilcox (1876–1946),[4] and a full brother, Robert Payne Ullman (1882–1948). His father, known as Charles, was born in Berrysburg, Pennsylvania, and raised in Williamsport. He was the fourth child in a Jewish family consisting of six sons and four daughters. Charles' parents, Lazarus Ullman and Lydia Abrahams, had immigrated to the U.S. in 1830 from Baden, Germany. When he was 17, Charles started a small publishing business in Philadelphia. Two years later, he left for New York to study law. Charles met Ella Adelaide Marsh after she married his friend and client John Fairbanks, a wealthy New Orleans sugar mill and plantation owner. The couple had a son, John, and shortly thereafter John Senior died of tuberculosis. Ella, born into a wealthy southern Roman Catholic family, was overprotected and knew little of her husband's business. Consequently, she was swindled out of her fortune by her husband's partners. Even the efforts of Charles Ullman, acting on her behalf, failed to regain any of the family fortune for her.[citation needed] Distraught and lonely, she met and married a courtly Georgian, Edward Wilcox, who turned out to be an alcoholic. After they had another son, Norris, she divorced Wilcox, with Charles acting as her own lawyer in the suit. She soon became romantically involved with Charles, and agreed to move to Denver with him to pursue mining investments. They arrived in Denver in 1881 with her son John. (Norris was left in Georgia with relatives and was never sent for by his mother.) They were married; in 1882 they had a son, Robert, and then a second son, Douglas, a year later. Charles purchased several mining interests in the Rocky Mountains, and re-established his law practice. After hearing of his wife's philandering, he abandoned the family when Douglas was five years old. Douglas and his older brother Robert were brought up by their mother, who gave them the family name Fairbanks, after her first husband.[citation needed] Career[edit] Early career[edit] Fairbanks in the Broadway production A Case of Frenzied Finance, 1905 Douglas Fairbanks began acting at an early age, in amateur theatre on the Denver stage, performing in summer stock at the Elitch Theatre, and other productions sponsored by Margaret Fealy, who ran an acting school for young people in Denver.[5] He attended Denver East High School, and was expelled for cutting the wires on the school piano.[5] He left school in the spring of 1899, at the age of 15.[5] He variously claimed to have attended Colorado School of Mines and Harvard University, but neither claim is true. He went with the acting troupe of Frederick Warde, beginning a cross country tour in September 1899. He toured with Warde for two seasons, functioning in dual roles, both as actor and as the assistant stage manager in his second year with the group.[5] After two years he moved to New York, where he found his first Broadway role in Her Lord and Master, which premiered in February 1902. He worked in a hardware store and as a clerk in a Wall Street office between acting jobs.[6] His Broadway appearances included the popular A Gentleman from Mississippi in 1908–09. On July 11, 1907, Fairbanks married Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of wealthy industrialist Daniel J. Sully, in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. They had one son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., also a noted actor. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1915.[citation needed] Hollywood[edit] D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin (seated) and Fairbanks at the signing of the contract establishing United Artists in 1919 After moving to Los Angeles, Fairbanks signed a contract with Triangle Pictures in 1915 and began working under the supervision of D. W. Griffith. His first film was titled The Lamb, in which he debuted the athletic abilities that would gain him wide attention among theatre audiences.[7] His athleticism was not appreciated by Griffith, however, and he was brought to the attention of Anita Loos and John Emerson, who wrote and directed many of his early romantic comedies. In 1916, Fairbanks established his own company, the Douglas Fairbanks Film Corporation,[8] and would soon get a job at Paramount.[8] Fairbanks speaking in front of a crowd at a 1918 war bond drive in New York City Fairbanks met actress Mary Pickford at a party in 1916, and the couple soon began an affair. In 1917, they joined Fairbanks's friend Charlie Chaplin[7] selling war bonds by train across the United States and delivering pro-war speeches as Four Minute Men. Pickford and Chaplin were the two highest-paid film stars in Hollywood at that time. To curtail these stars' astronomical salaries, the large studios attempted to monopolize distributors and exhibitors. By 1918, Fairbanks was Hollywood's most popular actor,[9] and within three years of his arrival, Fairbanks's popularity and business acumen raised him to the third-highest paid. In 1917, Fairbanks capitalized on his rising popularity by publishing a self-help book, Laugh and Live which extolled the power of positive thinking and self-confidence in raising one's health, business and social prospects.[10] To avoid being controlled by the studios and to protect their independence, Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith formed United Artists in 1919, which created their own distributorships and gave them complete artistic control over their films and the profits generated. The Mark of Zorro Sully was granted a divorce from Fairbanks in late 1918, the judgment being finalized early the following year. After the divorce, the actor was determined to have Pickford become his wife, but she was still married to actor Owen Moore. Fairbanks finally gave her an ultimatum. She then obtained a rapid divorce in the small Nevada town of Minden on March 2, 1920. Fairbanks leased the Beverly Hills mansion Grayhall and was rumored to have used it during his courtship of Pickford. The couple married on March 28, 1920. Pickford's divorce from Moore was contested by Nevada legislators, however, and the dispute was not settled until 1922. Even though the lawmakers objected to the marriage, the public widely supported the idea of "Everybody's Hero" marrying "America's Sweetheart". That enthusiasm, in fact, extended far beyond the borders of the United States. Later, while honeymooning in Europe, Fairbanks and Pickford were warmly greeted by large crowds in London and Paris. Both internationally and at home, the celebrated couple were regarded as "Hollywood Royalty" and became famous for entertaining at "Pickfair", their Beverly Hills estate. Fairbanks in the title role in Robin Hood (1922) By 1920, Fairbanks had completed twenty-nine films (twenty-eight features and one two-reel short), which showcased his ebullient screen persona and athletic ability. By 1920, he had the inspiration of staging a new type of adventure-costume picture, a genre that was then out of favor with the public; Fairbanks had been a comic in his previous films.[3] In The Mark of Zorro, Fairbanks combined his appealing screen persona with the new adventurous costume element. It was a smash success, and parlayed the actor into the rank of superstar. For the remainder of his career in silent films, he continued to produce and star in ever more elaborate, impressive costume films, such as The Three Musketeers (1921), Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), The Black Pirate (1926), and The Gaucho (1927). Fairbanks spared no expense and effort in these films, which established the standard for all future swashbuckling films. In 1921, he, Pickford, Chaplin, and others, helped to organize the Motion Picture Fund to assist those in the industry who could not work, or were unable to meet their bills. During the first ceremony of its type, on April 30, 1927, Fairbanks and Pickford placed their hand and foot prints in wet cement at the newly opened Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. (In the classic comedy Blazing Saddles, Harvey Korman's villain character sees Fairbanks's prints at Grauman's and exclaims, "How did he do such fantastic stunts ... with such little feet?") Fairbanks was elected first President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences that same year, and he presented the first Academy Awards at the Roosevelt Hotel. Today, Fairbanks also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7020 Hollywood Boulevard. Career decline and retirement[edit] Fairbanks in The Private Life of Don Juan, 1934 While Fairbanks had flourished in the silent genre, the restrictions of early sound films dulled his enthusiasm for film-making. His athletic abilities and general health also began to decline at this time, in part due to his years of chain-smoking.[11] On March 29, 1928, at Pickford's bungalow, United Artists brought together Pickford, Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, D.W. Griffith and Dolores del Río to speak on the radio show The Dodge Brothers Hour to prove Fairbanks could meet the challenge of talking movies.[12][13] Fairbanks's last silent film was the lavish The Iron Mask (1929), a sequel to the 1921 release The Three Musketeers. The Iron Mask included an introductory prologue spoken by Fairbanks. He and Pickford chose to make their first talkie as a joint venture, playing Petruchio and Kate in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (1929). This film, and his subsequent sound films, were poorly received by Depression-era audiences. The last film in which he acted was the British production The Private Life of Don Juan (1934), after which he retired from acting.[citation needed] Fairbanks and Pickford separated in 1933, after he began an affair with Sylvia, Lady Ashley. Pickford had also been seen in the company of a high-profile industrialist. They divorced in 1936, with Pickford keeping the Pickfair estate.[14] Fairbanks and Ashley were married in Paris in March 1936.[15] He continued to be marginally involved in the film industry and United Artists, but his later years lacked the intense focus of his film years. His health continued to decline. During his final years he lived at 705 Ocean Front (now Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California, although much of his time was spent traveling abroad with his third wife, Lady Ashley. Death[edit] On December 12, 1939, Fairbanks suffered a heart attack. He died later that day at his home in Santa Monica at the age of 56.[16] His last words were reportedly, "I've never felt better."[17] His funeral service was held at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather Church in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery where he was placed in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum. Fairbanks's tomb at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Two years following his death, he was removed from Forest Lawn by his widow, Sylvia, who commissioned an elaborate marble monument for him featuring a long rectangular reflecting pool, raised tomb, and classic Greek architecture in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.[citation needed] The monument was dedicated in a ceremony held in October 1941, with Fairbanks's close friend Charlie Chaplin reading a remembrance. The remains of his son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., were also interred there upon his death in May 2000.[citation needed] Legacy[edit] Reissued film poster for 1916 "cocaine comedy" The Mystery of the Leaping Fish In 1992, Douglas Fairbanks was portrayed by actor Kevin Kline in the film Chaplin. In 1998, a group of Fairbanks fans started the Douglas Fairbanks Museum in Austin, Texas. The museum building was temporarily closed for mold remediation and repairs in February 2010.[18] In 2002, AMPAS opened the "Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study" located at 333 S. La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The building houses the Margaret Herrick Library.[19] On November 6, 2008, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebrated the publication of their "Academy Imprints" book Douglas Fairbanks, authored by film historian Jeffrey Vance, with the screening of a new restoration print of The Gaucho with Vance introducing the film.[20] The following year, opening on January 24, 2009, AMPAS mounted a major Douglas Fairbanks exhibition at its Fourth Floor Gallery, titled "Douglas Fairbanks: The First King of Hollywood". The exhibit featured costumes, props, pictures, and documents from his career and personal life.[21] In addition to the exhibit, AMPAS screened The Thief of Bagdad and The Iron Mask in March 2009. Concurrently with the Academy's efforts, the Museum of Modern of Art held their first Fairbanks film retrospective in over six decades, titled "Laugh and Live: The Films of Douglas Fairbanks" which ran from December 17, 2008, to January 12, 2009. Jeffrey Vance opened the retrospective with a lecture and screening of the restoration print of The Gaucho.[22] Recently, due to his involvement with the USC Fencing Club, a bronze statue of Fairbanks was erected in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Courtyard of the new School of Cinematic Arts building on the University of Southern California campus. Fairbanks was a key figure in the film school's founding in 1929, and in its curriculum development.[23][citation needed] The 2011 film The Artist was loosely based on Fairbanks, with the film's lead portraying Zorro in a silent movie featuring a scene from the Fairbanks version.[citation needed] While thanking the audience in 2012 for a Golden Globe award as Best Actor for his performance in the film, actor Jean Dujardin added, "As Douglas Fairbanks would say", then moved his lips silently as a comedic homage. When Dujardin accepted the 2011 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Fairbanks was cited at length as the main inspiration for Dujardin's performance in The Artist.[citation needed] The Thief of Bagdad was screened at the 2012 edition of the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival. On April 15, 2012, the festival concluded with a sold-out screening of the Fairbanks film held at the historic Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The evening was introduced by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz and Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance.[24] The nickname for the sports teams of the University of California-Santa Barbara is 'The Gauchos' in honor of Fairbanks's acting in the eponymous film.[25] Filmography[edit] Fairbanks in 1916 Year Title Credited as Role Producer Writer Director 1915 The Lamb Gerald Martyrs of the Alamo Joe / Texan Soldier Double Trouble Florian Amidon / Eugene Brassfield 1916 His Picture in the Papers Pete Prindle The Habit of Happiness Sunny Wiggins The Good Bad-Man Passin' Through Yes Reggie Mixes In Reggie Van Deuzen The Mystery of the Leaping Fish Coke Ennyday / Himself Flirting with Fate Augy Holliday The Half-Breed Lo Dorman (Sleeping Water) Intolerance Man on White Horse (French Story) Manhattan Madness Steve O'Dare American Aristocracy Cassius Lee The Matrimaniac Jimmie Conroy The Americano Blaze Derringer 1917 All-Star Production of Patriotic Episodes for the Second Liberty Loan Himself In Again, Out Again Teddy Rutherford Yes Wild and Woolly Jeff Hillington Down to Earth Billy Gaynor Yes Yes The Man from Painted Post "Fancy Jim" Sherwood Yes Reaching for the Moon Alexis Caesar Napoleon Brown Yes A Modern Musketeer Ned Thacker/d'Artagnan Yes 1918 Headin' South Headin' South Yes Mr. Fix-It Dick Remington Yes Say! Young Fellow The Young Fellow Yes Bound in Morocco George Travelwell Yes Yes He Comes Up Smiling Jerry Martin Yes Sic 'Em, Sam Democracy Arizona Lt. Denton Yes Yes Yes 1919 The Knickerbocker Buckaroo Teddy Drake Yes Yes His Majesty, the American William Brooks Yes Yes When the Clouds Roll by Daniel Boone Brown Yes Yes 1920 The Mollycoddle Richard Marshall III, IV and V Yes The Mark of Zorro Don Diego Vega / Señor Zorro Yes Yes 1921 The Nut Charlie Jackson Yes Yes The Three Musketeers d'Artagnan Yes Yes 1922 Robin Hood Robin Hood Yes Yes 1923 Hollywood Himself 1924 The Thief of Bagdad The Thief of Bagdad Yes Yes 1925 Don Q, Son of Zorro Don Cesar Vega / Zorro Yes Ben-Hur Crowd extra in chariot race 1926 The Black Pirate The Black Pirate Yes Yes 1927 A Kiss From Mary Pickford Himself The Gaucho The Gaucho Yes Yes 1928 Show People Himself 1929 The Iron Mask d'Artagnan Yes Yes The Taming of the Shrew Petruchio 1930 Reaching for the Moon Larry Day Yes 1932 Mr. Robinson Crusoe Steve Drexel Yes Yes 1934 The Private Life of Don Juan Don Juan 1937 Ali Baba Goes to Town Himself – at Fictional Premiere Non-profit organization positions Preceded by Position created President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 1927–1929 Succeeded by William C. deMille  *****  Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the American film industry, she co-founded Pickford–Fairbanks Studios and United Artists, and was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[3] Cited as "America's Sweetheart" during the silent film era,[4][5][6] and the "girl with the curls",[6] she was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. She was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her own name,[7] and was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and 1920s, earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies". She is credited with having defined the ingénue type in cinema.[8] She was awarded the second Academy Award for Best Actress for her first sound film role in Coquette (1929). By the late 1920s Pickford's career went into decline. She received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976 in consideration of her contributions to American cinema. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Early years 2.2 Stardom 2.3 The film industry 3 Personal life 3.1 Political views 3.2 Later years and death 4 Legacy 5 Filmography 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 8.1 Citations 8.2 General sources 9 Further reading 10 External links Early life[edit] Bust of Mary Pickford on University Avenue, near her Toronto birthplace Mary Pickford was born Gladys Marie Smith in 1892 (although she later claimed 1893 or 1894 as her year of birth) at 211 University Avenue,[a] Toronto, Ontario.[1] Her father, John Charles Smith was the son of English Methodist immigrants, and worked a variety of odd jobs. Her mother, Charlotte Hennessey, was of Irish Catholic descent and worked for a time as a seamstress. She had two younger siblings, Charlotte, called "Lottie" (born 1893), and John Charles, called "Jack" (born 1896), who also became actors. To please her husband's relatives, Pickford's mother baptized her children as Methodists, the religion of their father. John Charles Smith was an alcoholic; he abandoned the family and died on February 11, 1898, from a fatal blood clot caused by a workplace accident when he was a purser with Niagara Steamship.[1] When Gladys was four years old, her household was under infectious quarantine as a public health measure. Their devoutly Catholic maternal grandmother (Catherine Faeley Hennessey) asked a visiting Roman Catholic priest to baptize the children. Pickford was at this time baptized as Gladys Marie Smith.[9][10] After being widowed in 1899, Charlotte Smith began taking in boarders, one of whom was a Mr. Murphy, the theatrical stage manager for Cummings Stock Company, who soon suggested that Gladys, then age seven, and Lottie, then age six, be given two small theatrical roles – Gladys portrayed a girl and a boy, while Lottie was cast in a silent part in the company's production of The Silver King at Toronto's Princess Theatre (destroyed by fire in 1915, rebuilt, demolished in 1931), while their mother played the organ.[11][1] Pickford subsequently acted in many melodramas with Toronto's Valentine Stock Company, finally playing the major child role in its version of The Silver King. She capped her short career in Toronto with the starring role of Little Eva in the Valentine production of Uncle Tom's Cabin, adapted from the 1852 novel.[1] Career[edit] Early years[edit] Mary Pickford, 1914-1915 (digitally restored) Mary Pickford, 1916 By the early 1900s, theatre had become a family enterprise. Gladys, her mother and two younger siblings toured the United States by rail, performing in third-rate companies and plays. After six impoverished years, Pickford allowed one more summer to land a leading role on Broadway, planning to quit acting if she failed. In 1906 Gladys, Lottie and Jack Smith supported singer Chauncey Olcott on Broadway in Edmund Burke.[12] Gladys finally landed a supporting role in a 1907 Broadway play, The Warrens of Virginia. The play was written by William C. deMille, whose brother, Cecil, appeared in the cast. David Belasco, the producer of the play, insisted that Gladys Smith assume the stage name Mary Pickford.[13] After completing the Broadway run and touring the play, however, Pickford was again out of work. On April 19, 1909, the Biograph Company director D. W. Griffith screen-tested her at the company's New York studio for a role in the nickelodeon film Pippa Passes. The role went to someone else but Griffith was immediately taken with Pickford. She quickly grasped that movie acting was simpler than the stylized stage acting of the day. Most Biograph actors earned $5 a day but, after Pickford's single day in the studio, Griffith agreed to pay her $10 a day against a guarantee of $40 a week.[14] Pickford, like all actors at Biograph, played both bit parts and leading roles, including mothers, ingenues, charwomen, spitfires, slaves, Native Americans, spurned women, and a prostitute. As Pickford said of her success at Biograph: I played scrubwomen and secretaries and women of all nationalities ... I decided that if I could get into as many pictures as possible, I'd become known, and there would be a demand for my work. She appeared in 51 films in 1909 – almost one a week – with her first starring role being in The Violin Maker of Cremona opposite future husband Owen Moore.[3] While at Biograph, she suggested to Florence La Badie to "try pictures", invited her to the studio and later introduced her to D. W. Griffith, who launched La Badie's career.[15] In January 1910, Pickford traveled with a Biograph crew to Los Angeles. Many other film companies wintered on the West Coast, escaping the weak light and short days that hampered winter shooting in the East. Pickford added to her 1909 Biographs (Sweet and Twenty, They Would Elope, and To Save Her Soul, to name a few) with films made in California. Actors were not listed in the credits in Griffith's company. Audiences noticed and identified Pickford within weeks of her first film appearance. Exhibitors, in turn, capitalized on her popularity by advertising on sandwich boards that a film featuring "The Girl with the Golden Curls", "Blondilocks", or "The Biograph Girl" was inside.[16] Pickford left Biograph in December 1910. The following year, she starred in films at Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP). IMP was absorbed into Universal Pictures in 1912, along with Majestic. Unhappy with their creative standards, Pickford returned to work with Griffith in 1912. Some of her best performances were in his films, such as Friends, The Mender of Nets, Just Like a Woman, and The Female of the Species. That year, Pickford also introduced Dorothy and Lillian Gish – whom she had befriended as new neighbors from Ohio[17] – to Griffith,[1] and each became major silent film stars, in comedy and tragedy, respectively. Pickford made her last Biograph picture, The New York Hat, in late 1912. She returned to Broadway in the David Belasco production of A Good Little Devil (1912). This was a major turning point in her career. Pickford, who had always hoped to conquer the Broadway stage, discovered how deeply she missed film acting. In 1913, she decided to work exclusively in film. The previous year, Adolph Zukor had formed Famous Players in Famous Plays. It was later known as Famous Players-Lasky and then Paramount Pictures, one of the first American feature film companies. Mary Pickford, 1916 Pickford left the stage to join Zukor's roster of stars. Zukor believed film's potential lay in recording theatrical players in replicas of their most famous stage roles and productions. Zukor first filmed Pickford in a silent version of A Good Little Devil. The film, produced in 1913, showed the play's Broadway actors reciting every line of dialogue, resulting in a stiff film that Pickford later called "one of the worst [features] I ever made ... it was deadly".[1] Zukor agreed; he held the film back from distribution for a year. Pickford's work in material written for the camera by that time had attracted a strong following. Comedy-dramas, such as In the Bishop's Carriage (1913), Caprice (1913), and especially Hearts Adrift (1914), made her irresistible to moviegoers. Hearts Adrift was so popular that Pickford asked for the first of her many publicized pay raises based on the profits and reviews.[18] The film marked the first time Pickford's name was featured above the title on movie marquees.[18] Tess of the Storm Country was released five weeks later. Biographer Kevin Brownlow observed that the film "sent her career into orbit and made her the most popular actress in America, if not the world".[18] Her appeal was summed up two years later by the February 1916 issue of Photoplay as "luminous tenderness in a steel band of gutter ferocity".[1] Only Charlie Chaplin, who slightly surpassed Pickford's popularity in 1916,[19] had a similarly spellbinding pull with critics and the audience. Each enjoyed a level of fame far exceeding that of other actors. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Pickford was believed to be the most famous woman in the world, or, as a silent-film journalist described her, "the best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history".[1] Stardom[edit] Mary Pickford, 1920 Pickford starred in 52 features throughout her career. On June 24, 1916, Pickford signed a new contract with Zukor that granted her full authority over production of the films in which she starred,[20] and a record-breaking salary of $10,000 a week.[21] In addition, Pickford's compensation was half of a film's profits, with a guarantee of $1,040,000 (US$18,720,000 in 2021),[22] making her the first actress to sign a million dollar contract.[3] She also became vice-president of Pickford Film Corporation.[3] Occasionally, she played a child, in films such as The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Daddy-Long-Legs (1919) and Pollyanna (1920). Pickford's fans were devoted to these "little girl" roles, but they were not typical of her career.[1] Due to her lack of a normal childhood, she enjoyed making these pictures. Given how small she was at under five feet, and her naturalistic acting abilities, she was very successful in these roles. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., when he first met her in person as a boy, assumed she was a new playmate for him, and asked her to come and play trains with him, which she obligingly did.[23] In August 1918, Pickford's contract expired and, when refusing Zukor's terms for a renewal, she was offered $250,000 to leave the motion picture business. She declined, and went to First National Pictures, which agreed to her terms.[24] In 1919, Pickford, along with D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks, formed the independent film production company United Artists. Through United Artists, Pickford continued to produce and perform in her own movies; she could also distribute them as she chose. In 1920, Pickford's film Pollyanna grossed around $1,100,000.[25] The following year, Pickford's film Little Lord Fauntleroy was also a success, and in 1923, Rosita grossed over $1,000,000 as well.[25] During this period, she also made Little Annie Rooney (1925), another film in which Pickford played a child, Sparrows (1926), which blended the Dickensian with newly minted German expressionist style, and My Best Girl (1927), a romantic comedy featuring her future husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers. A lobby card for Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921) The arrival of sound was her undoing. Pickford underestimated the value of adding sound to movies, claiming that "adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo".[25] She played a reckless socialite in Coquette (1929), her first talkie,[26] a role for which her famous ringlets were cut into a 1920s' bob. Pickford had already cut her hair in the wake of her mother's death in 1928. Fans were shocked at the transformation.[27] Pickford's hair had become a symbol of female virtue, and when she cut it, the act made front-page news in The New York Times and other papers. Coquette was a success and won her an Academy Award for Best Actress,[28] although this was highly controversial.[29] The public failed to respond to her in the more sophisticated roles. Like most movie stars of the silent era, Pickford found her career fading as talkies became more popular among audiences.[28] Her next film, The Taming of The Shrew, made with husband Douglas Fairbanks, was not well received at the box office.[30] Established Hollywood actors were panicked by the impending arrival of the talkies. On March 29, 1928, The Dodge Brothers Hour was broadcast from Pickford's bungalow, featuring Fairbanks, Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, John Barrymore, D. W. Griffith, and Dolores del Río, among others. They spoke on the radio show to prove that they could meet the challenge of talking movies.[31] A transition in the roles Pickford selected came when she was in her late 30s, no longer able to play the children, teenage spitfires, and feisty young women so adored by her fans, and was not suited for the glamorous and vampish heroines of early sound. In 1933, she underwent a Technicolor screen test for an animated/live action film version of Alice in Wonderland, but Walt Disney discarded the project when Paramount released its own version of the book. Only one Technicolor still of her screen test still exists. She retired from film acting in 1933 following three costly failures with her last film appearance being Secrets.[3][32] She appeared on stage in Chicago in 1934 in the play The Church Mouse and went on tour in 1935, starting in Seattle with the stage version of Coquette.[3] She also appeared in a season of radio plays for NBC in 1935 and CBS in 1936.[3] In 1936 she became vice-president of United Artists[32] and continued to produce films for others, including One Rainy Afternoon (1936), The Gay Desperado (1936), Sleep, My Love (1948; with Claudette Colbert) and Love Happy (1949), with the Marx Brothers.[1] The film industry[edit] Mary Pickford giving President Herbert Hoover a ticket for a film industry benefit for the unemployed, 1931 Pickford used her stature in the movie industry to promote a variety of causes. Although her image depicted fragility and innocence, she proved to be a strong businesswoman who took control of her career in a cutthroat industry.[33] During World War I she promoted the sale of Liberty Bonds, making an intensive series of fund-raising speeches, beginning in Washington, D.C., where she sold bonds alongside Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Theda Bara, and Marie Dressler. Five days later she spoke on Wall Street to an estimated 50,000 people. Though Canadian-born, she was a powerful symbol of Americana, kissing the American flag for cameras and auctioning one of her world-famous curls for $15,000. In a single speech in Chicago, she sold an estimated five million dollars' worth of bonds. She was christened the U.S. Navy's official "Little Sister"; the Army named two cannons after her and made her an honorary colonel.[1] Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith, with whom Mary Pickford founded United Artists in 1919 In 1916, Pickford and Constance Adams DeMille, wife of director Cecil B. DeMille, helped found the Hollywood Studio Club, a dormitory for young women involved in the motion picture business.[3] At the end of World War I, Pickford conceived of the Motion Picture Relief Fund, an organization to help financially needy actors. Leftover funds from her work selling Liberty Bonds were put toward its creation, and in 1921, the Motion Picture Relief Fund (MPRF) was officially incorporated, with Joseph Schenck voted its first president and Pickford its vice president. In 1932, Pickford spearheaded the "Payroll Pledge Program", a payroll-deduction plan for studio workers who gave one half of one percent of their earnings to the MPRF. As a result, in 1940, the Fund was able to purchase land and build the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California.[1] An astute businesswoman, Pickford became her own producer within three years of her start in features. According to her Foundation, "she oversaw every aspect of the making of her films, from hiring talent and crew to overseeing the script, the shooting, the editing, to the final release and promotion of each project". She demanded (and received) these powers in 1916, when she was under contract to Zukor's Famous Players in Famous Plays (later Paramount). Zukor acquiesced to her refusal to participate in block-booking, the widespread practice of forcing an exhibitor to show a bad film of the studio's choosing to also be able to show a Pickford film. In 1916, Pickford's films were distributed, singly, through a special distribution unit called Artcraft. The Mary Pickford Corporation was briefly Pickford's motion-picture production company.[34] Mary Pickford War Funds bungalow, 1943 In 1919, she increased her power by co-founding United Artists (UA) with Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, and her soon-to-be husband, Douglas Fairbanks. Before UA's creation, Hollywood studios were vertically integrated, not only producing films but forming chains of theaters. Distributors (also part of the studios) arranged for company productions to be shown in the company's movie venues. Filmmakers relied on the studios for bookings; in return they put up with what many considered creative interference.[citation needed] United Artists broke from this tradition. It was solely a distribution company, offering independent film producers access to its own screens as well as the rental of temporarily unbooked cinemas owned by other companies. Pickford and Fairbanks produced and shot their films after 1920 at the jointly owned Pickford-Fairbanks studio on Santa Monica Boulevard. The producers who signed with UA were true independents, producing, creating and controlling their work to an unprecedented degree. As a co-founder, as well as the producer and star of her own films, Pickford became the most powerful woman who has ever worked in Hollywood. By 1930, Pickford's acting career had largely faded.[28] After retiring three years later, however, she continued to produce films for United Artists. She and Chaplin remained partners in the company for decades. Chaplin left the company in 1955, and Pickford followed suit in 1956, selling her remaining shares for $3 million.[34] She had bought the rights to many of her early silent films with the intention of burning them on her death, but in 1970 she agreed to donate 50 of her Biograph films to the American Film Institute.[26] In 1976, she received an Academy Honorary Award for her contribution to American film.[26] Personal life[edit] Mary Pickford, 1921 Pickford was married three times. She married Owen Moore, an Irish-born silent film actor, on January 7, 1911. It is rumored she became pregnant by Moore in the early 1910s and had a miscarriage or an abortion. Some accounts suggest this resulted in her later inability to have children.[1] The couple's marriage was strained by Moore's alcoholism, insecurity about living in the shadow of Pickford's fame, and bouts of domestic violence.[citation needed] The couple lived together on-and-off for several years.[35] Pickford became secretly involved in a relationship with Douglas Fairbanks. They toured the U.S. together in 1918 to promote Liberty Bond sales for the World War I effort. Around this time, Pickford also suffered from the flu during the 1918 flu pandemic.[36] Pickford divorced Moore on March 2, 1920, after she agreed to his $100,000 demand for a settlement ($1.4 million in 2021, adjusted for inflation).[37] She married Fairbanks just days later on March 28, 1920, in what was described as the "marriage of the century" and they were referred to as the King and Queen of Hollywood.[3] They went to Europe for their honeymoon; fans in London and in Paris caused riots trying to get to the famous couple. The couple's triumphant return to Hollywood was witnessed by vast crowds who turned out to hail them at railway stations across the United States. The Mark of Zorro (1920) and a series of other swashbucklers gave the popular Fairbanks a more romantic, heroic image. Pickford continued to epitomize the virtuous but fiery girl next door. Even at private parties, people instinctively stood up when Pickford entered a room; she and her husband were often referred to as "Hollywood royalty". Their international reputations were broad. Foreign heads of state and dignitaries who visited the White House often asked if they could also visit Pickfair, the couple's mansion in Beverly Hills.[13] Dinners at Pickfair became celebrity events. Charlie Chaplin, Fairbanks' best friend, was often present. Other guests included George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, Elinor Glyn, Helen Keller, H. G. Wells, Lord Mountbatten, Fritz Kreisler, Amelia Earhart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Noël Coward, Max Reinhardt, Baron Nishi, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko,[38] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Austen Chamberlain, Sir Harry Lauder, and Meher Baba, among others. However, the public nature of Pickford's second marriage strained it to the breaking point. Both she and Fairbanks had little time off from producing and acting in their films. They were also constantly on display as America's unofficial ambassadors to the world, leading parades, cutting ribbons, and making speeches. When their film careers both began to flounder at the end of the silent era, Fairbanks' restless nature prompted him to overseas travel (something which Pickford did not enjoy). When Fairbanks' romance with Sylvia, Lady Ashley became public in the early 1930s, he and Pickford separated. They divorced January 10, 1936. Fairbanks' son by his first wife, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., claimed his father and Pickford long regretted their inability to reconcile.[1] On June 24, 1937, Pickford married her third and last husband, actor and band leader Charles "Buddy" Rogers. They adopted two children: Roxanne (born 1944, adopted 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted 1943, a.k.a. Ronnie Pickford Rogers). A PBS American Experience documentary described Pickford's relationship with her children as tense. She criticized their physical imperfections, including Ronnie's small stature and Roxanne's crooked teeth. Both children later said their mother was too self-absorbed to provide real maternal love. In 2003, Ronnie recalled that "Things didn't work out that much, you know. But I'll never forget her. I think that she was a good woman."[39] Political views[edit] In 1926, while in Italy, she (together with Fairbanks) met fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Pickford supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election, Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election[40] and Ronald Reagan in his race for governor in 1966.[41] Later years and death[edit] Mary Pickford in Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove (1934), her only film appearance in Technicolor After retiring from the screen, Pickford became an alcoholic, as her father had been. Her mother Charlotte died of breast cancer in March 1928. Her siblings, Lottie and Jack, both died of alcohol-related causes in 1936 and 1933, respectively. These deaths, her divorce from Fairbanks, and the end of silent films left Pickford deeply depressed. Her relationship with her adopted children, Roxanne and Ronald, was turbulent at best. Pickford withdrew and gradually became a recluse, remaining almost entirely at Pickfair and allowing visits only from Lillian Gish, her stepson Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and few select others. In 1955, she published her memoirs, Sunshine and Shadows.[26] She had previously published Why Not Try God in 1934, an essay on spirituality and personal growth, My Rendevouz of Life (1935), an essay on death and her belief in an afterlife and also a novel in 1935, The Demi-Widow.[32][3] She appeared in court in 1959, in a matter pertaining to her co-ownership of North Carolina TV station WSJS-TV. The court date coincided with the date of her 67th birthday; under oath, when asked to give her age, Pickford replied: "I'm 21, going on 20."[42] In the mid-1960s, Pickford often received visitors only by telephone, speaking to them from her bedroom. Charles "Buddy" Rogers often gave guests tours of Pickfair, including views of a genuine western bar Pickford had bought for Douglas Fairbanks, and a portrait of Pickford in the drawing room. A print of this image now hangs in the Library of Congress.[34] When Pickford received an Academy Honorary Award in 1976, the Academy sent a TV crew to her house to record her short statement of thanks – offering the public a very rare glimpse into Pickfair Manor.[43] Charitable events continued to be held at Pickfair, including an annual Christmas party for blind war veterans, mostly from World War I.[3] Mary Pickford posing with a group of employees during her visit to the General Engineering Company (Canada) munitions factory on June 5, 1943 Pickford believed that she had ceased to be a British subject when she married an American citizen upon her marriage to Fairbanks in 1920.[44] Thus, she never acquired Canadian citizenship when it was first created in 1947. However, Pickford held and traveled under a British/Canadian passport which she renewed regularly at the British/Canadian consulates in Los Angeles, and she did not take out papers for American citizenship. She also owned a house in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toward the end of her life, Pickford made arrangements with the Canadian Department of Citizenship to officially acquire Canadian citizenship because she wished to "die as a Canadian". Canadian authorities were not sure that she had ever lost her Canadian citizenship, given her passport status, but her request was approved and she officially became a Canadian citizen.[45][46] The tomb of actress Mary Pickford in the Garden of Memory, Forest Lawn Glendale On May 29, 1979, Pickford died at a Santa Monica, California, hospital of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage she had suffered the week before.[47] She was interred in the Garden of Memory of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in Glendale, California. ***John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942)[a] was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly attempted a career as an artist, but appeared on stage together with his father Maurice in 1900, and then his sister Ethel the following year. He began his career in 1903 and first gained attention as a stage actor in light comedy, then high drama, culminating in productions of Justice (1916), Richard III (1920) and Hamlet (1922); his portrayal of Hamlet led to him being called the "greatest living American tragedian".[2] After a success as Hamlet in London in 1925, Barrymore left the stage for 14 years and instead focused entirely on films. In the silent film era, he was well received in such pictures as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Sherlock Holmes (1922) and The Sea Beast (1926). During this period, he gained his nickname, the Great Profile. His stage-trained voice proved an asset when sound films were introduced, and three of his works, Grand Hotel (1932), Twentieth Century (1934) and Midnight (1939) have been inducted into the National Film Registry. Barrymore's personal life has been the subject of much attention before and since his death. He struggled with alcohol abuse from the age of 14, was married and divorced four times, and declared bankruptcy later in life. Much of his later work involved self-parody and the portrayal of drunken has-beens. His obituary in The Washington Post observed that "with the passing of the years – and as his private life became more public – he became, despite his genius in the theater, a tabloid character."[3] Although film historians have opined that Barrymore's "contribution to the art of cinematic acting began to fade" after the mid-1930s,[4] Barrymore's biographer, Martin Norden, considers him to be "perhaps the most influential and idolized actor of his day".[5] Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life: 1882–1903 1.2 Early stage career: 1903–1913 1.3 Entry into motion pictures, and theatrical triumphs: 1913–1924 1.4 Films with the major studios: 1924–1932 1.5 Years of transition: 1932–1936 1.6 Decline and death: 1936–1942 2 Legacy 3 Portrayals and characterizations 4 Notes and references 4.1 Notes 4.2 References 4.3 Sources 5 External links Biography[edit] Early life: 1882–1903[edit] Maurice and Georgiana, Barrymore's parents Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth in Philadelphia, and was known by family, friends and colleagues as "Jack".[6] Although the Barrymore family Bible puts his date of birth as February 15, 1882, his birth certificate shows February 14.[7] He was the youngest of three children. His siblings were Lionel (1878–1954), and Ethel (1879–1959).[8] His father was Maurice Barrymore, an Indian-born British actor who had been born Herbert Blyth, and had adopted Barrymore as a stage name after seeing it on a poster in the Haymarket Theatre in London.[9] Barrymore's mother, Georgie Drew Barrymore, was born into a prominent theatrical family. Barrymore's maternal grandparents were Louisa Lane Drew, a well-known 19th-century American actress and the manager of the Arch Street Theatre, and John Drew, also an actor whose specialty was comedy.[b] Barrymore's maternal uncles were two more thespians, John Drew Jr. and Sidney.[11][12] Much of Barrymore's early life was unsettled. In October 1882, the family toured in the US for a season with Polish actress Helena Modjeska. The following year his parents toured again with Modjeska but left the children behind.[13] Modjeska was influential in the family, and she insisted that all three children be baptized into the Catholic Church.[14] In 1884 the family traveled to London as part of Augustin Daly's theatrical company, returning to the US two years later.[15] As a child, Barrymore was sometimes badly behaved, and he was sent away to schools in an attempt to instill discipline. The strategy was not always successful, and he attended elementary schools in four states.[16] He was sent first to the boys' annex of the Convent of Notre Dame in Philadelphia. One punishment that he received there was being made to read a copy of Dante's Inferno; he later recounted that, as he looked at the illustrations by Gustave Doré, "my interest was aroused, and a new urge was born within me. I wanted to be an artist".[17] He was expelled from the school in 1891 and was sent to Seton Hall Preparatory School in New Jersey, where Lionel was already studying.[18] Barrymore was unhappy at Seton and was soon withdrawn, after which he attended several public schools in New York, including the Mount Pleasant Military Academy.[19] In 1892, his grandmother Louisa Drew's business began to suffer, and she lost control of her theater, causing disruption in the family. The following year, when Barrymore was 11 years old, his mother died from tuberculosis; her consistent touring and his absence at school meant that he barely knew her, and he was mostly raised by his grandmother.[16] The loss of their mother's income prompted both Ethel and Lionel to seek work as professional actors.[20] Barrymore's father was mostly absent from the family home while on tour, and when he returned he would spend time at The Lambs, a New York actors' club.[16] In 1895, Barrymore entered Georgetown Preparatory School, then located on Georgetown University Campus, but he was expelled in November 1897, probably after being caught waiting in a brothel.[21] One of his biographers, Michael A. Morrison, posits the alternate theory that Barrymore was expelled after the staff saw him inebriated and/or smoking a cigarette.[22] By the time he left Georgetown he was, according to Martin Norden in his biography of Barrymore, "already in the early stages of a chronic drinking problem".[16][c] 1897 was an emotionally challenging year for Barrymore: he lost his virginity when he was molested by his step-mother, Mamie Floyd,[24][d] and in August his grandmother, the main female role model in his life, died.[26][27] Barrymore traveled with his father to England in 1898, where he joined King's College School, Wimbledon. A year later he joined the Slade School of Fine Art, to study literature and art. After a year of formal study, he left and "devoted much of his subsequent stay in London to bohemianism and nocturnal adventures", according to his biographer Margot Peters.[28] Barrymore returned to New York in the summer of 1900, and by November he found work as an illustrator on The New York Evening Journal, at a salary of $50 a week.[29] Ethel in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines; Barrymore appeared with his sister in the 1901 play. Barrymore had always professed a dislike of the acting profession, but in 1900 he was persuaded by his father to join him on stage for a few performances of a short play, "A Man of the World". He appeared in the same piece again the following year, but he still thought of the experience as merely a way to supplement his income, rather than as a possible future career.[30] In October 1901, Ethel was appearing in Philadelphia in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines when one of the younger actors became temporarily unavailable. She persuaded the director to allow Barrymore to accept the part of the minor character, and Barrymore traveled from New York, learning his lines on the train. In the first act, he stopped in the middle of his dialogue, unable to remember the text, and asked the audience and his fellow actors, "I've blown up. Where do we go from here?", which led the cast to improvise the remainder of the scene.[31] An incident in 1901 had a major impact on Barrymore. In March, his father had a mental breakdown as a result of tertiary syphilis, and Barrymore took him to Bellevue hospital.[32][33] He was later transferred to a private institution in Amityville, Long Island, where he suffered a "rapid descent into madness".[34][e] The Encyclopedia of World Biography states that Barrymore was constantly "haunted by the bright and dark spell of his father",[36] and his close friend Gene Fowler reported that "the bleak overtone of this breaking of his parent's reason never quite died away in Barrymore's mind, and he was haunted by fears he would suffer the same fate".[37] The same year, Barrymore began an affair with a beautiful artists' model, "Florodora girl" and aspiring actress named Evelyn Nesbit, who was a mistress of architect Stanford White.[38] Barrymore later described Nesbit as "the most maddening woman. ... She was the first woman I ever loved", and he proposed marriage to her. Nesbit's mother did not think that, as a struggling artist, Barrymore was a good match for her daughter. To break off their relationship her mother sent Nesbit away to school in New Jersey.[39] In 1906, White was shot in public by Nesbit's then-husband, Pittsburgh millionaire Harry K. Thaw. Barrymore expected to testify at Thaw's murder trial on the issue of Nesbit's morality; he worried that he might be asked whether he had arranged for Nesbit to have an abortion, disguised as an appendectomy, even though Nesbit had undergone two previous "appendectomies". Barrymore was never called as a witness because Thaw pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.[40] In May 1902, Barrymore was fired from his newspaper position after producing a poor illustration for the paper while hung over. He spent time as a poster designer but realized it was not lucrative enough for his lifestyle, which was being partly financed by Ethel, who was also paying for their father's care.[41] While discussing his future with his brother, Barrymore said "it looks as though I'll have to succumb to the family curse, acting",[42] and he later admitted that "there isn't any romance about how I went on stage. ... I needed the money."[43] Early stage career: 1903–1913[edit] (l to r) Barrymore with his sister Ethel and brother Lionel in 1904.[f] Barrymore began to contact his family's theatrical connections to find work and approached Charles Frohman, who had been the producer of Captain Jinks and had also been an employer of Barrymore's mother Georgie a decade earlier. Frohman thought that Barrymore had comedic potential but needed more experience before making a Broadway debut.[42] Barrymore joined the company of McKee Rankin, Sidney Drew's father-in-law, on the Chicago leg of their tour, at the W. S. Cleveland Theatre in October 1903. He first played the minor role of Lt. Max von Wendlowski in Magda,[45] and in November when the troupe produced Leah the Forsaken, he took the small part of Max, a village idiot with one spoken line.[46] A year later Barrymore appeared in his first Broadway production, in a small role in the comedy Glad of It, which only had a short run. Afterwards he played the role of Charles Hyne in the farce The Dictator at the Criterion Theatre, which starred William Collier.[47] During the play's run and subsequent tour across the US, Collier became a mentor to the young actor, although his patience was continually tested by Barrymore's drinking, which led to occasional missed performances, drunken stage appearances, and general misbehavior.[48] Collier taught Barrymore much about acting, including coaching him in comic timing, but "at times regretted his sponsorship" of his apprentice.[49] In March 1905, while The Dictator was playing in Buffalo, Barrymore's father died in Amityville and was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Philadelphia.[50] At the close of the US tour, The Dictator visited Britain from April 1905, where it played at the Comedy Theatre. The critic for The Observer wrote that Barrymore "admirably seconded" Collier.[51][52] When he returned to America, Barrymore appeared at the Criterion Theatre in a double bill of works by J. M. Barrie; he played a clown in Pantaloon opposite his brother, and Stephen Rollo in Alice Sit-by-the-Fire opposite his sister. Both plays ran for 81 performances from December 1905, and then went on tour.[53][54] Barrymore continued drinking and lacked discipline, which affected his performances. Ethel was angry with her brother and had the producers fire him from the show, but re-hire him the following day, to teach him a lesson.[54] After a tour of the US and Australia with Collier in On the Quiet and The Dictator, Barrymore joined his sister in the 1907 comedy His Excellency the Governor at the Empire Theatre.[g] He received mixed reviews for his performances, and The Wichita Daily Eagle commented that "Barrymore seems to imitate John Drew too much ever to be a good actor. Why doesn't young Barrymore imitate a real actor if he must copy someone."[56] Barrymore with his first wife, actress Katherine Corri Harris, in 1911 Barrymore gained his first leading role in early 1907, in the comedy The Boys of Company B at the Lyceum Theatre. Although he was well received by the critics – The Washington Post noted that "his work has been pronounced astonishingly clever by the critics wherever he played"[57] – at times he continued his unprofessional stage behavior, which led to a rebuke from John Drew, who attended a performance.[58] After a short run in Toddles at the Garrick Theatre, Barrymore was given the lead role of Mac in A Stubborn Cinderella, both on tour and at the Broadway Theatre in Boston. He had previously been earning $50 a week during his sporadic employment but now enjoyed a wage increase to $175.[h] He briefly appeared in The Candy Shop in mid-1909, before he played the lead role in Winchell Smith's play The Fortune Hunter at the Gaiety Theatre in September the same year. It was his longest-held role, running for 345 performances until May 1911, initially at the Gaiety Theatre in New York, and then on tour.[60][61] The critic for The New York Times thought the play was, "acted with fine comedy spirit by John Barrymore ... [who] gave indisputable signs last night of grown and growing powers."[62] In mid-1910 Barrymore met socialite Katherine Corri Harris, and the couple married in September that year. Harris' father objected to the relationship and refused to attend the wedding.[63] Shortly after the ceremony, The Dictator went on tour, and Harris was given a small role in the play. According to Peters, Barrymore "began to think of his marriage as a 'bus accident'".[64] Film critic Hollis Alpert wrote that, within a week of the wedding, Katherine was complaining that she saw her new husband too infrequently.[65] Barrymore's increasing dependence on alcohol was also a cause of marital problems, and he explained that "unhappiness increased the drink, and drink increased the unhappiness".[66] Barrymore's drawing of himself and Ethel in A Slice of Life, 1912 Barrymore's next two plays – Uncle Sam and Princess Zim-Zim, both from 1911 – were critically and commercially weak, but the second work introduced him to playwright Edward Sheldon, who would "reshape ... [Barrymore's] entire career".[67] In January 1912, Barrymore appeared together with his sister in A Slice of Life at the Empire Theatre on Broadway, which ran for 48 performances. Charles Darnton, a critic for The Evening World, observed that "Barrymore takes delight in 'kidding' his part not only to the limit, but perhaps beyond".[68] A review in The Washington Times stated that "Barrymore inimitably imitates his uncle John Drew".[69] Barrymore may have appeared in his first films in 1912. In four short films, a cast member is listed as "Jack Barrymore"; this is probably John Barrymore, although Norden notes that "we may never know for certain if [these] are in fact Barrymore movies."[70] The four films were Dream of a Motion Picture Director, The Widow Casey's Return, A Prize Package (all 1912) and One on Romance (1913). The films were produced by the Philadelphia-based Lubin Manufacturing Company and were lost in an explosion and fire at the Lubin vaults in 1914.[71] In July 1912, Barrymore went to Los Angeles, where he appeared in three short-running plays at the Belasco Theatre.[i] He returned to New York in October, where he took the lead role in 72 performances of the comedy The Affairs of Anatol at the Little Theatre. Although the critical response was lukewarm,[72] Barrymore's salary for the play was $600 a week.[73][j] He began the following year by appearing in a short run of A Thief for a Night in McVicker's Theatre, Chicago, before returning to New York, and the Thirty-Ninth St. Theatre, for a two-month run in Believe Me Xantippe.[74] Entry into motion pictures, and theatrical triumphs: 1913–1924[edit] Barrymore in the 1914 romantic comedy An American Citizen, his first feature film In late 1913, Barrymore made his first confirmed feature film, the romantic comedy An American Citizen, with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company. When the film was released in January 1914, Barrymore "delighted movie audiences with an inimitable light touch that made a conventional romance 'joyous'," writes Peters.[71] A reviewer for The Oregon Daily Journal thought that Barrymore gave a "portrayal of unusual quality".[75] The success of the picture led to further film work, including The Man from Mexico (1914), Are You a Mason?, The Dictator and The Incorrigible Dukane (all 1915). Except for The Incorrigible Dukane, all of these early films are presumed lost.[76] Despite the film work and the higher fees he earned from it, Barrymore continued to seek stage work, and in January 1914 he played the lead in The Yellow Ticket at New York's Eltinge Theatre. The role marked a departure from the light comedy of his previous performances, a result of Sheldon urging him to turn towards more dramatic parts. The Yellow Ticket was not the breakthrough that Barrymore wanted. A few months before the outbreak of World War One, he took a vacation to Italy with Sheldon to enjoy a temporary break from his worsening marriage. He returned from Italy and accepted another serious stage role, that of an ex-convict in Kick In, at New York's Longacre Theatre.[77] The play was a success, and Barrymore received praise from the critics; The New York Times reviewer thought that in a play that had "uncommonly able and sincere playing", Barrymore acted his role with "intelligence and vigor and impart[ed] to it a deal of charm".[78] Barrymore spent the second half of 1915 making three films, including The Red Widow, which he called "the worst film I ever made" in his 1926 autobiography.[79][k] In April 1916, he starred in John Galsworthy's prison drama Justice, again at the instigation of Sheldon.[81] The play was a critical success, and The New York Times thought the audience saw "Barrymore play as he had never played before, and so, by his work as the wretched prisoner in Justice, step forward into a new position on the American stage." The critic went on to say that Barrymore gave "an extraordinary performance in every detail of appearance and manner, in every note of deep feeling ... a superb performance."[82] Blanche Oelrichs, Barrymore's second wife (and mother of Diana Barrymore), who published poetry under the pseudonym Michael Strange From early 1916, Barrymore had been living apart from Katherine, and she sued for divorce in November 1916.[83][l] By the time the divorce was finalized in December 1917, he had taken the lead role in the film Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman.[85] He had also tried to enlist in the U.S. Army following the country's entry into World War I, but Army doctors discovered that he had varicose veins, and he was not accepted for military service.[86] For over a year beginning in April 1917, he appeared together with Lionel in a stage version of George du Maurier's 1891 novel Peter Ibbetson. The play and the two Barrymores were warmly regarded by the critics.[87] Around this time, Barrymore began a relationship with a married mother of two, Blanche Oelrichs, a suffragist from an elite Rhode Island family with what Peters calls "anarchistic self-confidence".[88] Oelrichs also published poetry under the name Michael Strange. While their relationship began in secret, it became more open after Oelrichs' husband was commissioned into the army and then posted to France.[89] Both Oelrichs and Sheldon urged Barrymore to take on his next role, Fedya Vasilyevich Protasov, in Leo Tolstoy's play Redemption at the Plymouth Theatre.[90] The critic for The New York Times felt that, although Barrymore's performance was "marred by vocal monotony", overall the performance was "a distinct step forward in Mr. Barrymore's artistic development ... There is probably not another actor on our stage who has a temperament so fine and spiritual, an art so flexible and sure."[91] In 1918, Barrymore starred in the romantic comedy film On the Quiet; the Iowa City Press-Citizen considered the film superior to the original Broadway performance.[92] Barrymore as Jekyll (left) and Hyde (right) in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) In 1919, Barrymore portrayed a struggling lawyer in the film adaptation of the Broadway show Here Comes the Bride, which he followed with The Test of Honor. The latter film marked his first straight dramatic role on screen after years of performing in comedy dramas.[93] Later that year, when Barrymore again appeared on stage with Lionel in Sem Benelli's historical drama The Jest, audience members "agree[d] that the American stage had never witnessed finer acting", according to Peters.[94] Alexander Woollcott, writing in The New York Times, thought that "John and Lionel Barrymore hold spellbound each breathless audience",[95] and he commented that Barrymore "contributes to that appeal by every step, every hand, every posture of a body grown unexpectedly eloquent in recent years".[95] In November, Barrymore began filming Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, playing the dual leading role, and the film was released in theaters the following year.[96] Wid's Daily thought that "it is the star's picture from the very outset, and it is the star that makes it", going on to say that Barrymore's portrayal was "a thing of fine shadows and violent emotions".[97] The Washington Post was in agreement, and considered the performance to be "a masterpiece", and "a remarkable piece of work".[98] The film was so successful that the US Navy used stills of Barrymore in its recruiting posters.[99] After planning for over a year – largely in secret – Barrymore played his first Shakespeare part, the title role in Richard III. Conscious of the criticism of his vocal range, he underwent training with Margaret Carrington, the voice and diction trainer, to ensure he sounded right for the part, and the pair worked together daily for up to six hours a day for six weeks.[100] After the debut in March 1920, the critics were effusive in their praise. The Washington Herald observed that the audience were "held by the sheer power of Barrymore's performance", which was "remarkable for ... [the actor's] unexpected vocal richness",[101] while Woollcott, in The New York Times, thought the performance "marked a measurable advance in the gradual process of bringing [Barrymore's] technical fluency abreast with his winged imagination and his real genius for the theatre".[102] Barrymore with Violet Kemble-Cooper in the 1921 play Clair de Lune Although a commercial and critical success, the play closed after 31 performances when Barrymore collapsed, suffering a nervous breakdown.[103] Since appearing in Redemption he had worked ceaselessly, appearing on stage in the evenings, while planning or rehearsing the next production during the day, and by the time he appeared as Richard, he was spending his daytimes filming Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He spent six weeks recuperating under the ministrations of his father's friend, wrestler William Muldoon, who ran a sanitarium.[104] During the summer of 1920, Oelrichs became pregnant with Barrymore's child, and a quick divorce was arranged with her husband, which left her and Barrymore free to marry in August that year; a daughter, Diana Barrymore, followed in March 1921.[105][m] Soon after the birth, he began rehearsals for Clair de Lune, which his wife had adapted from Victor Hugo's 1869 novel The Man Who Laughs. Barrymore persuaded Ethel to play the role of the Queen – it was the first time the two had appeared on stage together in over a decade. The play was a critical flop, although the presence of the siblings ensured that it ran for over 60 performances.[107] In 1921, Barrymore portrayed a wealthy Frenchman in New York in the film The Lotus Eater, with Colleen Moore.[108] In September, Barrymore and Oelrichs went to Europe on holiday; cracks were appearing in their relationship, and she fell in love with a poet during their extended stay in Venice. In October, Oelrichs returned to New York and Barrymore traveled to London to film the exterior scenes for his latest movie, Sherlock Holmes, in which he played the title role. He then returned to New York to work on the film's interior scenes in January 1922.[109] Barrymore became involved in the pre-production work for the film and provided designs for Moriarty's lair. The film was released later that year[110] and was generally thought "a little dull and ponderous, with too many intertitles",[111] although James W. Dean of The Evening News of Harrisburg opined that "the personality of Barrymore is the film's transcendent quality".[112] Barrymore as Hamlet (1922). Said Hollis Alpert, "too bad John's Hamlet came during the silent film period else a record of it might have been preserved" Barrymore decided next to star in Hamlet on stage, with Arthur Hopkins directing. They spent six months preparing, cutting over 1,250 lines from the text as they did so, and Barrymore opted to play Hamlet as "a man's man", according to Norden. Barrymore later described his Hamlet as a "normal, healthy, lusty young fellow who simply got into a mess that was too thick for him ... he was a great fencer, an athlete, a man who led an active, healthy life. How can you make a sickly half-wit out of a man like that?"[113] Barrymore again used Carrington as a vocal coach; rehearsals started in October, and the play opened on November 16.[114] The production was a box-office success, and the critics were lavish in their praise. Woollcott, writing for the New York Herald, opined that it was "an evening that will be memorable in the history of the American theater".[115] while John Corbin, the drama critic for The New York Times, agreed, writing that "in all likelihood we have a new and a lasting Hamlet".[116] The reviewer for Brooklyn Life stated that Barrymore had "doubtless won the right to be called the greatest living American tragedian".[2] In 1963, Orson Welles said that Barrymore was the best Hamlet he had seen, describing the character as "not so much princely – he was a man of genius who happened to be a prince, and he was tender, and virile, and witty, and dangerous".[117] Barrymore and Hopkins decided to end the run at 101 performances, just breaking the record of one hundred by Edwin Booth, before the play closed in February 1923.[118][n] In November and December that year, a three-week run of the play was staged at the Manhattan Opera House, followed by a brief tour that closed at the end of January 1924.[120] Films with the major studios: 1924–1932[edit] News of Barrymore's success in Hamlet piqued the interest of Warner Bros., which signed him as the lead in the 1924 film Beau Brummel.[113] Unhappy in his marriage, Barrymore – aged 40 at the time – sought solace elsewhere and had an affair with his 17-year-old co-star Mary Astor during filming.[121] Although the film was not an unqualified success,[122] the cast, including Barrymore, was generally praised.[123][124] Around this time, Barrymore acquired the nickname "the Great Profile", as posters and photographs of him tended to favor the left-hand side. He later said: "The right side of my face looks like a fried egg. The left side has features that are to be found in almost any normal anthropological specimen, and those are the apples I try to keep on top of the barrel."[125] Barrymore, as Captain Ahab Ceeley in The Sea Beast (1926) In February 1925, Barrymore staged Hamlet in London at the Haymarket Theatre, which the Manchester Guardian later said had "the most memorable first night for years".[126] The reviews were positive, and "although none of the London critics found Barrymore superior to [Henry] Irving and [Johnston] Forbes-Robertson, many were favorable in their comparisons".[127] Among the audience members was the 20-year-old actor John Gielgud, who wrote in his program "Barrymore is romantic in appearance and naturally gifted with grace, looks and a capacity to wear period clothes, which makes his brilliantly intellectual performance classical without being unduly severe, and he has tenderness, remoteness, and neurosis all placed with great delicacy and used with immense effectiveness and admirable judgment".[128] Looking back in the 1970s, he said: "The handsome middle-aged stars of the Edwardian theatre romanticised the part. Even John Barrymore, whose Hamlet I admired very much, cut the play outrageously so that he could, for instance, play the closet scene all out for sentiment with the emphasis on the 'Oedipus complex' – sobbing on Gertrude's bosom. Yet Barrymore ... had a wonderful edge and a demonic sense of humour."[129] At the end of this run of Hamlet, Barrymore traveled to Paris, where Oelrichs had stayed during his residence in London, but the reunion was not a happy one and the couple argued frequently. When he returned to America, she remained in Paris,[130] and the couple drew up a separation agreement that provided Oelrichs with $18,000 a year and stated that neither could sue for divorce on the grounds of adultery.[131] While he had been in London, Warner Bros and Barrymore entered into a contact for three further films at a salary of $76,250 per picture.[132][o] He later claimed that his motivation for moving from stage to films was the "lack of repetition—the continual playing of a part, which is so ruinous to an actor, is entirely eliminated".[134] Dolores Costello in 1926; she was Barrymore's co-star in The Sea Beast and, later, his third wife. Barrymore's first film under the contract was The Sea Beast (1926), loosely based on the 1851 novel Moby-Dick, in which he played Captain Ahab Ceeley. This was one of the biggest money-makers of the year for Warner Bros.[135] Although Barrymore wanted Astor to play the female lead, she was unavailable, and Dolores Costello was cast in her place. He later said that "I fell in love with her instantly. This time I knew I was right", and the couple began an affair. Costello's father was angered by the relationship, but his complaints were ignored by both Costello and her mother: Costello's parents separated and were divorced as a result.[136] The film was well received by critics, and Mordaunt Hall, the film critic of The New York Times, praised the "energy, earnestness and virility" Barrymore displayed in the role of Ceeley.[137] As filming finished on The Sea Beast, work began on Don Juan, the first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and a musical soundtrack.[138] Although Barrymore wanted to play opposite Costello again, Jack L. Warner, the film's producer, signed Astor.[139] After completing his Warner Bros. contract with When a Man Loves, with Costello, Barrymore joined United Artists (UA) under a three-film deal. For the next three years, according to Morrison, he "enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and spent lavishly".[140][p] Nevertheless, he received some harsh reviews. Critic and essayist Stark Young wrote in The New Republic that Barrymore's films were "rotten, vulgar, empty, in bad taste, dishonest, noisome with a silly and unwholesome exhibitionism, and odious with a kind of stale and degenerate studio adolescence. Their appeal is cheap, cynical and specious".[142] In 1927, Barrymore planned to revive Hamlet at the Hollywood Bowl, but in August he canceled the production, without explanation, and began filming the third of the UA pictures, Eternal Love, for which he was paid $150,000.[141][q] In February 1928, Barrymore obtained a quiet divorce from Oelrichs; she eagerly agreed to the separation, as she was in a relationship with a lawyer, Harrison Tweed, whom she later married. Barrymore and Costello married in November that year; their daughter, Dolores, was born in April 1930 and a son, John Drew Barrymore, followed in June 1932.[143] Barrymore purchased and converted an estate in the Hollywood Hills into 16 different buildings with 55 rooms, gardens, skeet ranges, swimming pools, fountains and a totem pole.[144] (l to r), Marian Marsh, Bramwell Fletcher and Barrymore in Svengali (1931) By the late 1920s, sound films had become common, following the 1927 sensation, The Jazz Singer. Actors with trained voices were in demand by the studios, and Barrymore was offered a five-film deal with Warner Bros. at $150,000 per picture, and a share of the profits. Before he began this contract, he played his first speaking role on film: a one-off section in The Show of Shows (1929), playing Richard, Duke of Gloucester in Henry VI, Part 3.[145] His first two films under contract were General Crack and The Man from Blankley's, each of which were modestly successful.[146][r] As he had been frustrated at the inability of making The Sea Beast as a sound film, Barrymore returned to Moby Dick as the source for a 1930 film of the same name. Peters thinks little of the film, describing it as "a seesaw between the cosmic and the comic, a travesty of Melville as well as a silly film all on its own".[148] The following year, Barrymore played the title role of a manipulative voice coach in Svengali, opposite Marian Marsh. Martin Dickstein, the critic for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, wrote that Barrymore "registers a personal triumph in the role", calling his performance "brilliant ... one of the best of his movie career".[149] Later in 1931, he played a crippled puppeteer, who tries to fulfill his frustrated ambitions by manipulating the life of a young male ballet dancer and the dancer's lover (also Marsh) in The Mad Genius; the film was a commercial failure.[150] With disappointing box office returns from their five-film deal, Warner Bros. decided not to offer Barrymore a contract renewal. Instead, Barrymore signed a non-exclusive contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and took a $25,000 salary cut per film.[151] Years of transition: 1932–1936[edit] Barrymore's first film for MGM was the 1932 mystery Arsène Lupin, in which he co-starred with his brother Lionel. In The New York Times, Hall called Barrymore's performance "admirable" and wrote that "it is a pleasure to see [him] again in something in a lighter vein."[152] The same year, Barrymore starred as jewel thief Baron Felix von Geigern together with Greta Garbo in the 1932 film Grand Hotel, in which Lionel also appeared. Critical opinion of Barrymore's acting was divided; John Gilbert's biographer Eve Golden refers to Barrymore as seeming "more like ... [Garbo's] affectionate father than her lover",[153] while George Blaisdell of International Photographer praised the dialogue and wrote that a viewer would be "deeply impressed with the rarity in screen drama on which he is looking."[154] Grand Hotel won the Academy Award for Best Picture and was one of the highest-grossing films of the year.[155] It was later added to the National Film Registry.[156] Barrymore with Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel (1932) In 1932, Barrymore went to RKO Pictures where he played a borderline-alcoholic lawyer in State's Attorney, and an escaped lunatic in A Bill of Divorcement, opposite Katharine Hepburn in her screen debut. Film scholar Daniel Bernardi later noted the humanism demonstrated between Barrymore's character and his family, particularly the "close bond" between father and daughter.[157] In his final film of the year, he returned to MGM for Rasputin and the Empress, Barrymore, Ethel and Lionel co-starred.[158] Physically, Barrymore had deteriorated since filming Svengali, and he had gained weight because of his drinking. Peters notes the "dissipation of the once ascetic face, a dissipation only underlined by the studio's attempt to reconstruct with lights, filters and make-up a spiritual beauty that had been corrupted." The film was a critical and commercial failure, and MGM lost significant amounts of money. The New Yorker thought the three Barrymores had produced their worst work.[159] The year 1933 was a busy one for Barrymore, and his decline began to be evident. He appeared in five films during the year, including as a meek schoolteacher-turned-businessman in Topaze, opposite Myrna Loy, and Dinner at Eight, with Lionel.[160] Peters opines that Barrymore's portrayal of a washed-up alcoholic actor "could well have fixed ... in the public's and MGM's mind that John Barrymore was a drunken has-been."[161] After the run of films with MGM, the company ended its contact with Barrymore amid its financial woes caused by the Great Depression. He then signed with Universal Studios to portray a troubled Jewish lawyer in Counsellor at Law. During filming he struggled to remember his lines for even small scenes. Filming was stopped on one occasion after more than 25 takes when he struggled to recall the right lines; it was a problem with which he began to suffer regularly.[162] Despite the problems, Norden believes that this was "one of his best film performances".[163][s] Barrymore with Carole Lombard on a lobby card for Twentieth Century (1934) In December 1933, Barrymore agreed with RKO to film Hamlet. He underwent screen tests and hired Carrington to act as vocal coach again, but during one session, his memory failed him again, and the project was eventually scrapped.[165] Barrymore starred in two films released in 1934, the drama Long Lost Father and the screwball comedy Twentieth Century. In the latter film, Barrymore played madcap Broadway impresario Oscar Jaffe, a role in which he demonstrated a "rare genius as a comedian". Morrison writes that the portrayal was one "that many consider to be his finest contribution to film".[166] In 2011, the picture was added to the National Film Registry, where it was described as Barrymore's "last great film role".[167] In May 1934, Barrymore was filming Hat, Coat and Glove for RKO when, during the filming of one scene, he again forgot his lines and even the name of his character. Filming was postponed until the following day, but the result was the same. After he took a break for a few days, he returned to the set, but he still could not remember any of the script, and RKO replaced him with Ricardo Cortez.[168] Soon afterwards, he suffered a mental and physical breakdown and was hospitalized. Costello confirmed that his drinking over the previous two years had worsened, and she described him as a "hopeless alcoholic".[168] Barrymore's relationship with Costello was deeply troubled and, believing she was going to declare him mentally incompetent, he left their home in Los Angeles and traveled first to London and then to India. He returned to the US in early 1935 and settled in New York, leaving his wife in Los Angeles.[169] Shortly after his return, he was hospitalized for a month with bronchitis and influenza. A 19-year-old fan, Elaine Jacobs, visited him, and the two became good friends. On his release from the hospital, her mother invited him to recuperate at their house. She changed her name to Elaine Barrie, which she explained was to get "as near to Barrymore as I dared", and they began a relationship.[170] In May, the couple underwent the first of several professional collaborations, when they appeared on Rudy Vallée's The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour radio show.[169] The relationship was widely reported in the tabloid press, who labeled the couple Caliban and Ariel. Costello filed for divorce, but after a series of arguments with Barrie, Barrymore considered the relationship with Barrie to be at an end, and he left for Los Angeles. A newspaper editor chartered a plane and flew Barrie to Chicago, to meet Barrymore's train; she broadcast a plea for him to return, and her pursuit became national news. Morrison thinks that the headlines established a new reputation for Barrymore of "the aging satyr, the has-been alcoholic, the much-married ham". This was a blow to his self-respect, but he faced his troubles "with aplomb and a sense of humor", according to Morrison.[171] To escape from the spotlight, Barrymore took vacations on his yacht;[172][173] it cost him over $35,000 a year to run, and so he sold it in 1938 after encountering financial difficulties.[174] Decline and death: 1936–1942[edit] Barrymore, as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (1936). The three central figures are (l to r) Barrymore, Leslie Howard and Basil Rathbone. Barrymore's alcohol dependence meant most studios were unwilling to employ him, but MGM risked casting him in the role of Mercutio in their 1936 film Romeo and Juliet. To minimize disruption to the schedule, the studio put Barrymore in Kelley's Rest Home, a sanatorium for alcoholics, but he continued to drink covertly and was disruptive on set. Basil Rathbone, who was playing Tybalt, later recounted that "he was drinking and unreliable on the set ... It was sad to see him in such a state."[175] Opinions on his portrayal were divided. Some critics, such as Welford Beaton of the Hollywood Spectator, thought "Barrymore is an acting gem",[176] although Gielgud was uncomplimentary, writing to Peggy Ashcroft that "Barrymore, who is like a monstrous old male impersonator jumping through a hoop, should really have been shot."[177] Word about Barrymore's problems on and off the set spread around the industry, and he did not work on another film for over a year until he had a supporting role in the musical film Maytime. His divorce from Costello was finalized in October 1936, and he married Barrie in November the same year. The couple had a heated argument in public shortly afterward, and he again spent time in Kelley's Rest Home and hospital, which cost him an average of $800 daily, draining his finances.[144] When he came out, he collapsed on the Maytime set. On January 15, 1937, he was served with divorce papers, and a month later he filed for bankruptcy protection, with debts of $160,000.[178][t] The divorce was granted in April, but the couple reconciled before it was finalized.[179] Barrymore decided to work on more Shakespeare roles. In June 1937, he signed with NBC Radio to produce a series of six episodes under the name Streamlined Shakespeare, which also featured Barrie. The first program was Hamlet, which was well received by critics. The New York Times commented that "Shakespeare's lines uttered dramatically by the voice of John Barrymore sweep through the 'ether' with a sound of finality; it seems that they are his words and no one else could speak them with such lifelike force".[180][181] Peters disagrees however, and considers that "because he was desperate he pressed too hard and ended by caricaturing, not capturing, his great Shakespearean acting".[182][u] Barrymore in Marie Antoinette (1938): during filming he used cue cards as a memory aid. Throughout the NBC series, Barrymore had been reliable, sober and responsible, and the studios reacted positively with offers of work. This led to appearances in nine films in 1937 and 1938, including as Colonel Nielson in three Bulldog Drummond films, and roles in True Confession and Marie Antoinette.[183][v] He was offered predominantly supporting roles, but he worked conscientiously on the films and as a result was able to honor his debts. His memory was still problematic, and he used cue cards as an aid; his fellow actors and the directors of the films were sympathetic to his condition. When he filmed his last serious role, Gregory Vance in the 1939 film The Great Man Votes, the director, Garson Kanin, ensured that the cast and crew addressed him as "Mr. Barrymore" as a mark of respect.[184] (l to r), Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard and Barrymore in True Confession, (1937) Barrymore and his wife both appeared in supporting roles in the 1939 screwball comedy Midnight, her only film role. The New York Times thought the film was "one of the liveliest, gayest, wittiest and naughtiest comedies of a long hard season" and that Barrymore, "the [Lou] Gehrig of eye-brow batting, rolls his phrases with his usual richly humorous effect".[185] The film was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2013.[186] Barrymore and his wife appeared together in the stage farce My Dear Children, which opened in March 1939 at Princeton University's McCarter Theatre. He played the lead role, Allan Manville, an ageing hammy Shakespearean has-been.[187] Because of his failing memory, Barrymore ad-libbed constantly throughout the show. In some points the new additions were an improvement, but he also greeted friends in the audience, and used profanities freely.[188] Nevertheless, the show was a success. Life magazine wrote that "People flock to see [Barrymore], not for polished performance, but because he converts the theater into a rowdy histrionic madhouse. Sometimes he arrives late. Sometimes he is tight [drunk]. Usually he forgets his lines. But he always puts on a great show."[189] When the show reached Broadway, Life wrote that "Barrymore's return to Times Square was a huge professional triumph".[190] Brooks Atkinson, writing for The New York Times thought that Barrymore was "still the most gifted actor in this country. ... Although he has recklessly played the fool for a number of years, he is nobody's fool in My Dear Children but a superbly gifted actor on a tired holiday."[191] Barrymore and his wife continued to argue during the play's run, and she left the play part way through the tour. They attempted a reconciliation when the production reached New York, but the couple divorced in late 1940.[190][192] In 1940, Barrymore appeared in The Great Profile, a spoof of his life in the months prior to My Dear Children. Barrymore played Evans Garrick, closely modeled on his own experience, and Mary Beth Hughes played his wife. The critics reacted harshly to the film, and to Barrymore's association with it. The New York Times wrote that "As a play it is a feeble thing, hardly matching the spectacular public accounts of his amours ... for all of Mr. Barrymore's shenanigans and devastating wit, The Great Profile is more than a little pathetic. In the Winter of his Discontent Mr. Barrymore is selling his talent at cut-rate".[193] Worse was to come in his final film, Playmates (1941), which "amply illustrated the depths to which he had fallen; he played an alcoholic Shakespearean ham named John Barrymore".[192] In October 1940, Barrymore returned to the NBC Radio network to work on Rudy Vallée's show, now called the Sealtest Show. Barrymore recorded 74 episodes of the program, continuing in the vein of self-parody, with jokes about his drinking, declining career and marital issues. On May 19, 1942, while recording a line from Romeo and Juliet for the show, Barrymore collapsed. He was taken to the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital and died there on May 29, from cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure, complicated by pneumonia.[194] Shortly before his death, Barrymore returned to the faith of the Catholic Church.[195] Although Errol Flynn's memoirs claim that the film director Raoul Walsh "borrowed" Barrymore's body before burial to leave his corpse propped in a chair for a drunken Flynn to discover when he returned home,[196] Gene Fowler, a close friend of Barrymore, stayed with the body all night and denied the story. However, in a 2020 interview on Youtube show Hot Ones, Drew Barrymore, John Barrymore's granddaughter, confirmed that the story was true.[197] Barrymore was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles on June 2.[198] In 1980, Barrymore's son had his father's body reinterred at Philadelphia's Mount Vernon Cemetery.[199] Legacy[edit] See also: John Barrymore on stage, screen and radio Barrymore at the White House in January 1924, after meeting President Calvin Coolidge The New York Times obituary stated that during the period when Barrymore's performed in Justice, Richard III and Hamlet, the actor "was accepted by most critics as the foremost English-speaking actor of his time ... equipped both by nature and by art."[200] The Washington Post agreed, noting that during his stage triumphs and early years in film, "he was the great profile, the darling of the 'royal family' of the stage."[3] Many of the obituaries made the point that Barrymore fell short of his potential. The Manchester Guardian thought that he "might with some self-discipline have added his name to the list of truly great actors ... yet he dissipated his energies".[126] The New York Times noted that he could twist his abilities "to parody, burlesque himself and play the clown", and they considered that it was "unfortunate that the public in recent years saw him in ... [that] mood. It was a mood of careless abdication".[200] The Washington Post observed that "with the passing of the years – and as his private life became more public – he became, despite his genius in the theater, a tabloid character."[3] According to Morrison, Barrymore's stage portrayals of Richard III and Hamlet were a model for modern performances of these roles. His interpretation along psychological lines was innovative, and his "dynamic portrayals ... changed the direction of subsequent revivals."[201] Barrymore's natural acting style reversed the stage conventions of the time;[202] his " 'colloquial' verse speaking introduced to the stage the vocal manner of a postwar gentleman."[203] Barrymore, drawn by John Singer Sargent, 1923 Barrymore was honored on few occasions by the entertainment industry and its members. Although both his brother and sister won Academy Awards, the only award Barrymore ever received for his screen work was from Rudolph Valentino in 1925 for Beau Brummel. Valentino created an award in his own name and felt that his fellow actors should receive accolades for their screen work.[204] When Barrymore attended his ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1940, he left more than the customary hand and footprints in the theater's forecourt: aided by the owner, Sid Grauman, Barrymore left a cement imprint of his facial profile.[205] In February 1960, for his contribution to the motion picture industry, Barrymore was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard;[206] Barrymore, along with his two siblings, is included in the American Theater Hall of Fame.[207] The Barrymore "Royal Family" of actors continued through two of his children – his son with Costello, John Drew Barrymore and his daughter with Oelrichs, Diana – both of whom became actors, as did John Jr.'s daughter Drew.[208] Barrymore's brother Lionel died on November 15, 1954,[209] and their sister Ethel died on June 18, 1959.[210] Barrymore's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Barrymore's achievements and his colorful life have ensured that several biographical studies followed his 1926 autobiography, Confessions of an Actor. Alma Power-Waters produced a 1941 study, authorized by the subject, John Barrymore: The Legend and the Man; Fowler, wrote Good Night, Sweet Prince: The Life and Times of John Barrymore (1943); Alpert published The Barrymores (1964); and John Kobler wrote Damned in Paradise: The Life of John Barrymore (1977), although Norden noted in 2000 that many of these earlier works are less than reliable. Those he identified as being more thoroughly researched are Peters' 1990 history, The House of Barrymore, and his own study of the actor's work in John Barrymore: A Bio-Bibliography (1995).[192] Subsequent to Norden's comments on the available literature, Morrison published the positively reviewed John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor in 1997, which focuses on Barrymore's stage work.[211] There were several celebratory events in 1982, on the centenary of Barrymore's birth. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Museum of Modern Art jointly hosted a commemorative program of his work, which included numerous excerpts from his films and interviews with some who knew him, including Barrie and his one-time co-star Myrna Loy.[212] The same year, in celebration of the centenary of the Actors Fund of America, the US Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring Barrymore and his siblings.[213] In February 2010, an intersection in Fort Lee, New Jersey, was renamed John Barrymore Way on what would have been the actor's 128th birthday. The intersection marked the spot of the former Buckheister's Hotel, where Barrymore had his 1900 stage debut in "A Man of the World".[214] Portrayals and characterizations[edit] "The Great Profile", photographed in 1927 Barrymore has been used as the inspiration for characters on stage and film. He performed as himself in a number of works (including The Great Profile, My Dear Children and Playmates), and in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921 he was played by his friend W. C. Fields. In 1927 the Barrymore family was parodied in The Royal Family in which a character based on him was portrayed by Fredric March, whose performance Barrymore admired.[215] The play was staged in London in 1934 as Theatre Royal, with Laurence Olivier in the Barrymore role,[216] and adapted as a film in 1930, with March reprising his performance.[217] In 1991, Paul Rudnick's comedy I Hate Hamlet, performed at the Walter Kerr Theatre, was set in Barrymore's former apartment. He returns after a séance, dressed in his Hamlet costume. Nicol Williamson played the Barrymore role.[218] Three years later, a London production, Jack: A Night on the Town with John Barrymore, ran for 60 performances at the Criterion Theatre, and Williamson again played the lead.[219] Barrymore, a two-person play by William Luce, premiered in 1996 and depicts Barrymore shortly before his death in 1942 as he is rehearsing a revival of his Richard III. Christopher Plummer played the title role.[220] A film version was released in 2011, with Plummer again taking the main role.[221] Barrymore had been a friend and drinking companion of Fields. In the 1976 film W.C. Fields and Me, Barrymore was played by Jack Cassidy.[222] Barrymore's friend, Errol Flynn, played him in a 1958 film Too Much, Too Soon, an adaptation of the autobiography of Diana Barrymore, with Dorothy Malone playing the female lead. Howard Thompson, the film critic of The New York Times, wrote that "Flynn, as the late John Barrymore, a moody, wild-drinking ruin of a great actor, steals the picture, lock, stock and keg. It is only in the scenes of his savage disintegration, as the horrified girl hangs on, that the picture approaches real tragedy."[223]**** José Ramón Gil Samaniego (February 6, 1899 – October 30, 1968), known professionally as Ramon Novarro, was a Mexican-American film, stage and television actor who began his career in silent films in 1917 and eventually became a leading man and one of the top box office attractions of the 1920s and early 1930s. Novarro was promoted by MGM as a "Latin lover" and became known as a sex symbol after the death of Rudolph Valentino. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Silent films 2.2 Talking films 3 Personal life 4 Murder 5 In popular culture 6 Filmography 7 References 8 Bibliography 9 External links Early life[edit] Ramon Novarro by Hurrell Novarro was born José Ramón Gil Samaniego on February 6, 1899, in Durango City, Durango, north-west Mexico, to Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego, and his wife, Leonor (Pérez Gavilán). The family moved to Los Angeles to escape the Mexican Revolution in 1913.[1] Novarro's direct ancestors came from the Castilian town of Burgos, whence two brothers emigrated to the New World in the seventeenth century.[2] Allan Ellenberger, Novarro's biographer, writes: The Samaniegos were an influential and well-respected family in Mexico. Many Samaniegos had prominent positions in the affairs of state and were held in high esteem by the president. Ramon's grandfather, Mariano Samaniego, was a well-known physician in Juarez. Known as a charitable and outgoing man, he was once an interim governor for the State of Chihuahua and was the first city councilman of El Paso, Texas.... Ramon's father, Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego, was born in Juarez and attended high school in Las Cruces, New Mexico. After receiving his degree in dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to Durango, Mexico, and began a flourishing dental practice. In 1891 he married Leonor Pérez-Gavilán, the beautiful daughter of a prosperous landowner. The Pérez-Gaviláns were a mixture of Spanish and Aztec blood, and according to local legend, they were descended from Guerrero, a prince of Montezuma.[3] The family estate was called the "Garden of Eden". Thirteen children were born there: Emilio; Guadalupe; Rosa; Ramón; Leonor; Mariano; Luz; Antonio; José; a stillborn child; Carmen; Ángel and Eduardo.[3] At the time of the Mexican Revolution, the family moved from Durango to Mexico City and then returned to Durango. Three of Ramón's sisters, Guadalupe, Rosa, and Leonor, became nuns.[4] He was a second cousin of the Mexican actresses Dolores del Río[5] and Andrea Palma. Career[edit] Silent films[edit] Novarro with Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931) Novarro began his film career in 1917, playing bit parts, supplementing his income by working as a singing waiter, a taxi dancer and as a dancer in revues choreographed by Ernest Belcher (father of Marge Champion) . His friends, actor and director Rex Ingram and his wife, actress Alice Terry, began to promote him as a rival to Rudolph Valentino, and Ingram suggested he change his name to "Novarro".[6] From 1923, he began to play more prominent roles. His role in Scaramouche (1923) brought him his first major success. Novarro achieved his greatest success in 1925, in Ben-Hur. His revealing costumes caused a sensation. He was elevated into the Hollywood elite.[7] As did many stars, Novarro engaged Sylvia of Hollywood as a physical therapist (although in her tell-all book, Sylvia erroneously claimed that Novarro slept in a coffin).[8] With Valentino's death in 1926, Novarro became the screen's leading Latin actor, though ranked lower than his MGM contemporary John Gilbert as a leading man. Novarro was popular as a swashbuckler in action roles, and considered one of the great romantic lead actors of his day. He appeared with Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) and with Joan Crawford in Across to Singapore (1928). Talking films[edit] Novarro with Joan Crawford in Across to Singapore (1928) He made his first talking film, starring as a singing French soldier, in Devil-May-Care (1929). He starred with Dorothy Janis in The Pagan (1929), with Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931), with Myrna Loy in The Barbarian (1933) and opposite Lupe Vélez in Laughing Boy (1934). When his contract with MGM Studios expired in 1935 and the studio did not renew it, Novarro continued to act sporadically, appearing in films for Republic Pictures, a Mexican religious drama, and a French comedy. In the 1940s, he had several small roles in American films, including We Were Strangers (1949), directed by John Huston and starring Jennifer Jones and John Garfield. In 1958, he was considered for a role in the television series The Green Peacock, with Howard Duff and Ida Lupino, after their CBS Television sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve (1957–58). The project, however, never materialized. A Broadway tryout was aborted in the 1960s. Novarro kept busy on television, appearing in NBC's The High Chaparral as late as 1968. At the peak of his success in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Novarro was earning more than US$100,000 per film. He invested some of his income in real estate, and his Hollywood Hills residence is one of the more renowned designs (1927) by Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright.[9] When his career ended, he was still able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Personal life[edit] Novarro with Lupe Vélez in Laughing Boy (1934) Novarro was troubled all his life by his conflicted feelings toward his Roman Catholic religion and his homosexuality.[10] His life-long struggle with alcoholism is often traced to these problems.[11][12][13] In the early 1920s Novarro had a romantic relationship with composer Harry Partch, who was working as an usher at the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the time, but Novarro broke off the affair as he achieved greater success as an actor.[14][15] He was romantically involved with Hollywood journalist Herbert Howe, who was also his publicist in the late 1920s,[16] and with a wealthy man from San Francisco, Noël Sullivan.[17] Along with Dolores del Río, Lupe Vélez and James Cagney, Novarro was accused of promoting communism in California after they attended a special screening of the film ¡Que viva México! by Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein.[citation needed] Murder[edit] Novarro was murdered on October 30, 1968, by brothers Paul and Tom Ferguson, aged 22 and 17, who called him and offered their sexual services. He had in the past hired prostitutes from an agency to come to his Laurel Canyon home for sex, and the Fergusons obtained Novarro's telephone number from a previous guest.[18][19][20] According to the prosecution in the murder case, the two young men believed that a large sum of money was hidden in Novarro's house. The prosecution accused the brothers of torturing Novarro for several hours to force him to reveal where the (non-existent) money was hidden. They left the house with $20 they took from his bathrobe pocket. Novarro died as a result of asphyxiation, having choked to death on his own blood after being beaten.[21] The two perpetrators were caught and sentenced to long prison terms, but released on parole in the mid-1970s. Both were later re-arrested for unrelated crimes for which they served longer prison terms than for the murder of Novarro.[22] In a 1998 interview, Paul Ferguson finally assumed the blame for Novarro's death.[23] Tom Ferguson committed suicide on March 6, 2005. When Paul Ferguson died in 2018, he was serving a 60-year sentence for rape in Missouri.[24][25] Novarro is buried in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles, California.[26] Novarro's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6350 Hollywood Boulevard. In popular culture[edit] Image of Ramón Novarro. Novarro's murder served as the basis for the short story by Charles Bukowski titled "The Murder of Ramon Vasquez", as well as for the song "Tango," by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, recorded by Peggy Lee on her Mirrors album. Novarro's murder is among the many epochal events recalled in Joan Didion's meditative 'California zeitgeist' essay The White Album. Greek playwright Pavlos Matesis wrote a play in two parts titled The Ghost of Mr. Ramon Novarro, which was first staged at the National Theatre of Greece in 1973.[27] Novarro's murder is briefly referenced in the sixth season The Sopranos episode "Cold Stones", following the violent murder of a closeted homosexual character. In late 2005, the Wings Theatre in New York City staged the world premiere of Through a Naked Lens by George Barthel. The play combined fact and fiction to depict Novarro's rise to fame and his relationship with Hollywood journalist Herbert Howe. Novarro's relationship with Howe is discussed in two biographies: Allan R. Ellenberger's Ramón Novarro and André Soares's Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramón Novarro. In 2015, the murder of Ramon Novarro was covered in the television series Aquarius in the episode "Cease to Resist". Filmography[edit] Ramon Novarro. Ramon Novarro in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922). Picture of Ramon Novarro 1929 (Óleo sobre lienzo) by Ángel Zárraga. Novarro with Anna May Wong in Across to Singapore (1928). Film Year Title Role Notes 1916 Joan the Woman Starving Peasant Uncredited 1917 The Jaguar's Claws Bandit Uncredited 1917 The Little American Wounded Soldier Uncredited 1917 The Hostage Uncredited 1917 The Woman God Forgot Aztec man Uncredited 1918 The Goat Uncredited 1921 A Small Town Idol Dancer as Ramón Samaniego 1921 The Concert Dancing shepherd Uncredited, lost film 1921 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Guest at Ball (extra) Uncredited 1921 Man-Woman-Marriage Dancer Uncredited 1922 Mr. Barnes of New York Antonio as Ramon Samaniego 1922 The Prisoner of Zenda Rupert of Hentzau as Ramon Samaniegos 1922 Trifling Women Henri / Ivan de Maupin Lost film 1923 Where the Pavement Ends Motauri Lost film 1923 Scaramouche André-Louis Moreau, Quintin's Godson 1924 Thy Name Is Woman Juan Ricardo 1924 The Arab Jamil Abdullah Azam 1924 The Red Lily Jean Leonnec 1925 A Lover's Oath Ben Ali *lost; but A.M.P.A.S. has 25 feet of this film 1925 The Midshipman Dick Randall 1925 Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Judah Ben-Hur 1927 Lovers José Lost film 1927 The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg Crown Prince Karl Heinrich 1927 The Road to Romance José Armando Lost film 1928 Across to Singapore Joel Shore 1928 A Certain Young Man Lord Gerald Brinsley Lost film 1928 Forbidden Hours His Majesty, Michael IV 1929 The Flying Fleet Ens. / Ltjg Tommy Winslow 1929 The Pagan Henry Shoesmith, Jr. 1929 Devil-May-Care Armand de Treville 1930 In Gay Madrid Ricardo 1930 The March of Time Himself Unfinished film 1930 Call of the Flesh Juan de Dios 1930 Sevilla de mis amores Juan de Dios Carbajal Spanish version of Call of the Flesh 1931 Le chanteur de Séville Juan French version of Call of the Flesh 1931 Daybreak Willi Kasder 1931 Son of India Karim 1931 Mata Hari Lt. Alexis Rosanoff 1931 Wir schalten um auf Hollywood Himself 1932 Huddle Antonio "Tony" Amatto 1932 The Son-Daughter Tom Lee / Prince Chun 1933 The Barbarian Jamil El Shehab 1934 The Cat and the Fiddle Victor Florescu 1934 Laughing Boy Laughing Boy 1935 The Night Is Young Archduke Paul "Gustl" Gustave 1936 Against the Current – Director, writer 1937 The Sheik Steps Out Ahmed Ben Nesib 1938 A Desperate Adventure André Friezan Alternative title: It Happened in Paris 1940 La Comédie du bonheur Félix 1940 Ecco la felicità Felice Ciatti Italian version of La comédie du bonheur 1942 The Saint Who Forged a Country Juan Diego 1949 We Were Strangers Chief 1949 The Big Steal Inspector General Ortega 1950 The Outriders Don Antonio Chaves 1950 Crisis Colonel Adragon 1960 Heller in Pink Tights De Leon Television Year Title Role Notes 1958 Disney's Wonderful World Don Esteban Miranda 2 episodes 1962 Thriller Maestro Giuliano Episode: "La Strega" 1964 Dr. Kildare Gaspero Paolini 3 episodes 1964–1965 Combat! Charles Gireaux Count De Roy 2 episodes "Silver Service" & "Finest Hour" 1965 Bonanza Jose Ortega Episode: "The Brass Box" 1967 The Wild Wild West Don Tomas Episode: "The Night of the Assassin" 1968 The High Chaparral Padre Guillermo Episode: "A Joyful Noise", (final appearance)  
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