- Swarthy, pock-marked, cadaverous-looking character actor, born in Lebanon to Russian immigrants. In Hollywood from 1915 after a stint in Canada, he acquired his niche playing sinister Indians and cold-blooded killers in westerns and serials. During the silent period, he worked variously at Universal, Paramount, Vitagraph and First National. From the 1930's, he was often seen in films for Columbia, Universal, Fox, Tiffany-Stahl and RKO.
- Shifty-eyed, high-cheekboned character player who, stealthy and scowling, portrayed exotic villains in US films for five decades from 1916.
- He was born in Syria as Mohammad Hassan Lackteen. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1939 and at that time legally changed his name to Frank Samuel Lackteen.
- He immigrated with his father and older brothers from Lebanon to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he worked as a child laborer in textile mills.
- Despite a 1915 law that declared Syrian-Arabs as legal and thus eligible for US naturalization, Lackteen and his siblings' applications for citizenship were rejected multiple times between 1916 and 1939.
- He told a reporter he was a trained Oriental-rug maker who'd been groomed to follow in his family's footsteps before working in movies. Truthfully, the Lackteen (or Yachteen) family were humble farmers in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
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