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- Actress
Felipa Gómez was born on 10 September 1870 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was an actress. She died on 15 April 1967 in Pacheco, Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A man so disagreeable on celluloid, Claude Gillingwater's characters seemed to subsist on a steady diet of persimmons. Fondly recalled as the cranky old skinflint whose seemingly cold heart could only be warmed by the actions of a cute little tyke, the tall and rangy Gillingwater invariably played much older than he was. He, with the omnipresent bushy brows, crop of silver hair and perpetually sour puss, had a much more versatile career than perhaps realized -- on both stage and in film. Most assuredly, this caustic screen image he perfected belied a softer, gentler off-screen demeanor for he was a kind and sympathetic gent and devoted husband to wife Carlyn Stiletz (or Stellith). Their only child, Claude Gillingwater Jr., briefly became an actor himself. Sadly, Gillingwater Sr.'s thriving character career ended on a grim and tragic note in 1939.
Born Claude Benton Gillingwater on August 2, 1879, in the small Mississippi River town of Louisiana, Missouri, he was the son of James E. and Lucy (Hunter) Gillingwater and attended St. Louis High School. For a time he was an apprentice to a lawyer uncle, but he eventually left home and joined a traveling stock company. Gradually building up his nascent career on the stage, he was discovered by theater impresario David Belasco. Gillingwater proceeded strongly on the Broadway stage beginning with a melodramatic role in "A Young Wife" (1899). This led to a well-received series of parts for the next full decade in New York ranging from high drama ("Madame Butterfly", "Du Barry") to operettas ("Mlle. Modiste," "The Old Town," "The Girl in the Train") to original works ("The Only Son," "The New Secretary").
1918 was a banner year for Gillingwater for he not only appeared in the hit Broadway show "Three Wise Fools," but also made his silent film debut in support of Gladys Leslie and Richard Barthelmess in Wild Primrose (1918). This disagreeable typecast began to assert itself with his second movie three years later as the grumbling, icy-souled Earl of Dorincourt whose grandson helps reveal his tenderer side in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), which starred America's sweetheart Mary Pickford in a dual role.
A rash of leading/co-starring roles came with the immediate impact of this single success, including Crinoline and Romance (1923) with Viola Dana, Alice Adams (1923) with Florence Vidor, Dulcy (1923) with Constance Talmadge, and Three Wise Fools (1923) with Eleanor Boardman. The last film mentioned gave him the opportunity to repeat his 1918 Broadway triumph. More than not, however, he was supporting the Hollywood elite such as kid star Jackie Coogan in My Boy (1921), Richard Dix in Fools First (1922) and The Christian (1923), 'Leonore Ulric' in Tiger Rose (1923), Alla Nazimova in Madonna of the Streets (1924), Ronald Colman in A Thief in Paradise (1925), Anna Q. Nilsson in Winds of Chance (1925), and Colleen Moore in Oh Kay! (1928). Sometimes his character's names reflected his curt, stern image -- names such as John P. Grout, Lord Storm and Simon Peck.
A founding member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (1927), he advanced into the talking era of films with equal verve, although his roles were, more often than not, token grouches. Some of his more distinctive parts came with the films A Tale of Two Cities (1935) (as Jarvis Lorry), Mississippi (1935) and The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936). He proved to be an excellent crabapple foil for 20th Century-Fox moppet star Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (1936) and subsequently appeared in two more of her pictures - Just Around the Corner (1938) and Little Miss Broadway (1938).
Gillingwater played a few more curmudgeons in his last years but this period of time was to be marked by acute sadness and physical/mental hardship. A serious accident on the movie set of the picture Florida Special (1936) (he fell from a platform and injured his back) damaged his health and threatened his career, and the death of his long-time wife Carlyn left him irrevocably depressed. Fearing the possibility of becoming an invalid and wishing not to become a serious burden to anyone, the 69-year-old actor committed suicide at his Beverly Hills home with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head on November 1, 1939. Gillingwater left a fine Hollywood legacy and the fun of some of his old films is watching his vinegar turn to sugar.- Albert Fish was born on 19 May 1870 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He died on 16 January 1936 in Ossining, New York, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jessie Ralph was a sailor's daughter, who first came to the stage at the age of 16, performing with a stock company in either Boston, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island (accounts differ). The year was 1880, and it took Jessie another 26 years to make her debut on the Great White Way in "The Kreutzer Sonata". Already a seasoned actress, she enjoying third billing. Her screen career started with one and two reelers as early as 1915, but her proper entry into Hollywood did not come about until 1933.
For more than 20 years, plump, down-to-earth Jessie made her reputation as a character actress on Broadway playing an assortment of nurses, maids and aunts. She was used in musicals by George M. Cohan and acted in Shakespearean roles, from "Twelfth Night" to "Romeo and Juliet". She was nurse to Jane Cowl's Juliet in the 1923 play which ran for an unprecedented 174 performances and co-starred Eva Le Gallienne and Katharine Cornell (amazing, when considering that the star was already 39 years old!). Like other successful actresses of the stage, Jessie was brought to Hollywood to reprise a Broadway hit role, in this case her Aunt Minnie in Child of Manhattan (1933).
After half a lifetime in the theatre, Jessie's sojourn in Hollywood was relatively brief but marked by a series of memorable performances. She was the definitive incarnation of the endearing nurse Peggotty in David Copperfield (1935) and played Greta Garbo's loyal maid Nanine in Camille (1936). She was the matriarch of the Whiteoaks of Jalna (1935), an adaptable society matron in San Francisco (1936) and harridan of a mother-in-law to W.C. Fields, Hermisillo Brunch, in The Bank Dick (1940). Whether in comedy or drama, as a Chinese aunt in both stage and screen versions of The Good Earth (1937), or a kindly sorceress in The Blue Bird (1940), Jessie gave consistently good value for money. The New York Times review of October 12, 1935, wrote of her performance in I Live My Life (1935): "Jessie Ralph as the tyrannical head of the family, proves again that she is the best of the screen grandmothers".
Jessie retired from acting in 1941 after having a leg amputated and died three years later.- Stocky, bespectacled English character actor, whose career began in the music halls. Educated at Dover College, Oliver Burchett Clarence acted in repertory theatre from 1890. He then worked as a member of actor-manager Frank Benson's troupe for a number of years. During the First World War, he served as a special constable. After the war, Clarence undertook extensive classical training in Britain and America and subsequently accumulated a long list of credits on London's Shakespearean stage. A regular in British films from 1930, he was generally well-cast in period drama or comedy, often as cloth-capped working class types, priests or likable old dodderers. O.B. Clarence retired from acting at the age of eighty.
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
In the late 1890s Porter worked as both a projectionist and mechanic, eventually becoming director and cameraman for the Edison Manufacturing Company. Influenced by both the "Brighton school" and the story films of Georges Méliès, Porter went on to make important shorts such as Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). In them, he helped to develop the modern concept of continuity editing, paving the way for D.W. Griffith who would expand on Porter's discovery that the unit of film structure was the shot rather than the scene. Porter, in an attempt to resist the new industrial system born out of the popularity of nickelodeons, left Edison in 1909 to form his own production company which he eventually sold in 1912.- Actor
- Writer
Character actor in films, often portraying strident types, he is best remembered cast as "The Thin Man" (actually, "Wynant") of the hit 1934 MGM film. He Ellis was active on Broadway as an actor, producer and playwright from 1905-32 (see "Other Works"). He died in Beverly Hills, CA at age 81 in 1952.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Richard Bennett was born on 21 May 1870 in Deer Creek, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Damaged Goods (1914) and The Eternal City (1923). He was married to Aimee Raisch Hastings, Adrienne Morrison and Grena Heller. He died on 22 October 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
As a young boy in England, Lawrence Grant became a great admirer of the Native American peoples. He devoured every book or article he could get his hands on relating to their culture and history. Years later Grant got the opportunity to spend some months living with several Native American tribes in Wyoming and Montana. He filmed his experiences using an early motion picture color film process called Kinemacolor. Later, after editing the thousands of feet of film he shot, Grant embarked on a lecture tour that he named "Travels with Kinemacolor".
Grant first came to America in 1908 with a repertoire company that also starred Pauline Frederick. Within a few years he was able to launch a successful 25 year career as a Hollywood character actor.
Lawrence Grant died on 19 February 1952, in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 81. His health began to fail him the previous year after four performances he gave at the Santa Barbara Lobero Theater during a major heat wave. Though married four times, the only immediate family he had at the time of his death was four nieces living in England.- Additional Crew
- Writer
- Actor
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870 - 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party socialist state governed by the Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, his developments to the ideology are called Leninism.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Nelson McDowell was born on 14 August 1870 in Greenville, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for The Last of the Mohicans (1920), The Girl of the Golden West (1923) and The Ridin' Kid from Powder River (1924). He was married to Sophie Lottie Green. He died on 3 November 1947 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Franklin Dyall was born on 3 February 1870 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Easy Virtue (1927) and The Gaunt Stranger (1931). He was married to Mary Merrall and Mary Phyllis Logan. He died on 8 May 1950 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Edward LeSaint was born on 13 December 1870 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Modern Times (1936), Merely Mary Ann (1920) and Only a Shop Girl (1922). He was married to Stella Razeto. He died on 10 September 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Knute Erickson was a vaudeville comedian and actor active in Hollywood between 1915 and 1936. His most famous creation was that of the character Daffy Dan, with which he had some success as a touring vaudeville performer, in a show presented by Hollywood mogul Jesse Lasky. Daffy Dan made his film debut in 1915 in a couple of two-reel comedies, and was featured in two Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle films that were never released in the US.
Daffy Dan was a "Swedish" character, very much like that of Philadephia-born comedian El Brendel's character "Ole", which he developed around the same time. To add authenticity to the character, Erickson would insist that he himself was born in Norrköping, Sweden. In fact, he was born in Ogden, Utah as Carl Erickson. However, unlike El Brendel, Erickson did have Swedish ancestry: his parents were Swedish immigrants.
Outside of his vaudeville acts, Erickson continued to act in films up until 1936, when he did his last role, in the serial The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand. Daffy Dan, however, only had one more film outing, as Lon Chaney's daffy henchman in the silent horror comedy The Monster (1925). Erickson primarily played bit-parts, often uncredited. - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Charles Inslee was born on 6 June 1870 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Adventures of Tarzan (1921), The Red Man and the Child (1908) and After Many Years (1908). He was married to Belle M. S. McElroy. He died in September 1922.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Trixie Friganza was born on 29 November 1870 in Grenola, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Free and Easy (1930), If I Had My Way (1940) and Silks and Saddles (1936). She was married to Charles A. Goettler and William J.M. Barry. She died on 27 February 1955 in Flintridge, California, USA.- D'Arcy Corrigan was born on 2 January 1870 in County Cork, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. He was an actor, known for The Last Warning (1928), A Christmas Carol (1938) and Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927). He died on 25 December 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charles Sellon was born on 24 August 1870 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Make Me a Star (1932), The Monster (1925) and Bright Eyes (1934). He was married to Florence E. Willis. He died on 26 June 1937 in La Crescenta, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Dadasaaheb Phalke was born in 1870 in Trymbakeshwar in Nasik. He was born to a Sanskrit scholar, he studied at J.J. college of Art in Bombay and at Kala Bhavan, Baroda. He then studied architecture and became landscape painter of academic nature studies. He worked in a photographic studio and at Ratlam learned three-colour block making and ceramics. He then worked as a portrait photographer, stage make-up man, assistant to a German illusionist and as a magician! He was offered backing to start an Art Printing Press and his backers to acquaint him with the latest printing process arranged for him to go to Germany provided that he remain with the company. But by the time Phalke returned he knew that a printing career would not satisfy him. He raised loan from his friend and pledging his life insurance, Phalke went to England in 1912 to purchase the necessary equipment and acquaint himself with the technical aspects of filmmaking. When he returned from London he launched Raja Harishchandra about an honest king who for the sake of his principles sacrifices his kingdom and family before the gods impressed with his honesty restore him to his former glory and this movie was released in 1913. Later he produced Mohini Bhasmasur (1913),Satyavan Savitri (1914), Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janam (1918) and Kaliya Madan (1919). Due to changing tastes of movies and extreme commercialised atmosphere in film world, Phalke retired. Later in 1937 he produced Gangavataram (1937), but he had lost his magic. He died in Nasik, a forgotten man. But today he is considered as a pioneer of Indian cinema and a prestigious Indian film industry award is named after him.- Actor
- Writer
Norman McKinnel was born on 10 February 1870 in Maxwelltown, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Hindle Wakes (1931), Hindle Wakes (1918) and Fanny Hawthorne (1927). He was married to Gertrude Scott. He died on 29 March 1932 in Bloomsbury, London, England, UK.- His film resume belies the fact that he was the most important man in motion pictures at the time of his death. Born as Max Loew in New York City to a poverty-stricken Viennese waiter, his life could've easily gone the the way of many boys of the east side slums, except that he was hyper-enterprising. He was also extremely superstitious: he never walked under ladders, distrusted nearly every doctor he met and refused to sign anything on a Friday (a habit that was often mistaken for something semitic; he was Jewish but decidedly non-practicing). Loew left school at nine and never looked back. Loew sold newspapers and lemons on the street, worked like a dog in an industrial printing plant, and began and failed at several business ventures - a print shop, furniture store and a fur factory - going bankrupt before he was 20. It's a testimonial to his personality and self-assurance that he picked himself up from these early failures and persevered. A second stab at the fur business brought him in contact with Adolph Zukor who became a friend and partner. Loew bought into a Zukor's penny arcade business and set about expanding it around the country. While opening up a new arcade in Cincinnati he was told of a competitor who was scoring bigger money with motion pictures than his mechanical machines. Loew struck up a deal with the Vitagraph Company for the necessary equipment and films, borrowed chairs and based on nickel admissions, grossed almost $250 the first day. Back in New York, Loew bought a Brooklyn burlesque house and converted it into the Royal, a first class house mixing the vaudeville bill with movies. The success of the Royal convinced him to convert his penny arcades into movie houses. Loew struck up a fateful business deal with brothers Joseph M. Schenck and Nicholas Schenck in 1906 when the group formed the Fort George Amusement Company and began a Paradise Park concession stand. Over the next decade Loew worked a slow (being a relative term in the business), methodical plan for theatrical dominance. By Armistice Day he owned 112 theaters that continued to offer a mix of vaudeville and movies. Joe Schenck ventured away from the company to become a movie producer.
By 1920 Loew was the dominant movie theater owner in New York and had recently expanded into Canada. With this expansion he faced increasing problems obtaining a reliable supply of quality films, especially problematic since audiences were pushing vaudeville acts off his stages. On January 3, 1920 he paid $3.1 million for Metro Pictures, a Hollywood studio with a lot of potential but suffering from poor management and a middling track record of success. Marcus Loew understood the value of his theatrical empire but felt that movie production was too huge a gamble to personally manage. At heart he was a New Yorker and felt comfortable handling the finances, not the mechanics of grinding out pictures in far-away Hollywood. It was at this juncture that Louis B. Mayer enters the story - Louis B. Mayer Productions was a far smaller shaker in town, but had three key assets: a successful track record of producing profitable melodramas that played well in the sticks, wunderkind producer Irving Thalberg - recently hired away from Universal and who rapidly proved his worth as a producer all consumed with movie production, and L.B. himself - admittedly a great macro manager, who shared Loew's rise from nothing life story. Oddly, Loew was only impressed with two of these factors; he didn't want Thalberg! He caved after Mayer insisted that any merger include his key producer (one of the wisest manoeuvrings L.B. would ever make). Loew's Metro company was then courting a third studio, troubled Goldwyn Productions (see Samuel Goldwyn). Loew was attracted to its state-of-the art studio and 40-acre lot, an asset that he understood. Unfortunately, the Goldwyn company was hemorrhaging red ink due to an out-of-control production in Italy, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), and was, closer to home, immersed in Erich von Stroheim's costly exercise in artistic overindulgence, Greed (1924), which only further demonstrated the need for competent management. Louis B. Mayer Productions was, despite its relatively insignificant size, the key to the merger. The parties worked out a percentage agreement and Loew merging a third troubled company into the fold, Goldwyn Pictures, which he had purchased for $4.3 million. The conglomerate bought Louis B. Mayer Productions for a mere $76,500 which tells something of the state of L.B.'s hard assets at the time of the merger. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures was formed on May 16, 1924 and dominated by Mayer's management team with Thalberg quickly rallying the best writers, directors, actors and technicians amongst the 3 former concerns. Mayer himself was named vice president and general manager of the new company at $1,500 a week, but that was dwarfed by a profit participation deal that included Thalberg (adding to his $650 a week salary) and key secretary Robert Rubin. These three men would split 20% of the company's profits, an incredibly rich benefits package as it turned out). Marcus Loew had chosen his personnel well, leaving him exactly in the position he wanted to be, writing checks from his 46 acre Long Island mansion and long weekly constructive arguments with Mayer on the phone. Under Mayer and Thalberg, the combination of these 3 shaky production companies and a huge injection of cash from Loew's Inc. created the premier studio in Hollywood. It's first official Metro-Goldwyn release, He Who Gets Slapped (1924), starring Lon Chaney was a hit. The company's name soon reflected Mayer's presence (the MGM moniker first seen in Buster Keaton's Go West (1925)) and for the next three decades MGM stood apart from every other operation in Hollywood, or the world for that matter. Unfortunately the early balanced managerial dynamic of Loew, Mayer and Thalberg ended forever when Marcus Loew died on September 5, 1927 at only age 57, leaving a $30 million estate (including 400,000 shares of Loew's Inc. stock) to his wife Caroline and sons. The title as the most powerful man in the film industry was assumed by Nicholas Schenck and MGM, for better or worse, would never be the same. - Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Harry Lauder was born on 4 August 1870 in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Huntingtower (1927), Ali G Indahouse (2002) and Auld Lang Syne (1929). He was married to Annie Vallance. He died on 26 February 1950 in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Henry Roussel was born on 8 September 1870 in Paris, France. He was an actor and director, known for Violettes impériales (1924), Visages voilés... âmes closes (1921) and La faute d'Odette Maréchal (1920). He died on 7 February 1946 in Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.- Lon Poff was born on 8 February 1870 in Bedford, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for The Three Musketeers (1921), Main Street (1923) and The Iron Mask (1929). He died on 8 August 1952 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Charles Hill Mailes was born on 25 May 1870 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Hungarian Nabob (1915) and Money Madness (1917). He was married to Claire McDowell. He died on 17 February 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Coming to the U.S. in 1884, Vassar performed as a musical/comic star during the 1890s. She played in "The Lady of the Slipper; Or, A Modern Cinderella" which opened at the Globe Theatre in New York in 1912 and ran for 232 performances.
- Anne Schaefer was born on 10 July 1870 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for A Little Princess (1917), The Price of a Good Time (1917) and Main Street (1923). She was married to F. Medek. She died on 3 May 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Marc B. Robbins was born on 3 January 1870 in Solon, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Tong Man (1919), A Tale of Two Cities (1917) and Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920). He died on 5 April 1931 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Writer
- Production Manager
British-born playwright J. Hartley Manners, of Irish extraction, spent many years in the United States. In his twenties, in Australia, he began a relatively successful acting career and made his debut in London's West End in 1898. Joining the company of famed actor-manager Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, he toured the provinces as an actor. For famed actress Lily Langtry, with whom he was acting, he wrote the play "The Crossways" in 1902, which he produced and co-starred in. At the end of that year Manners, Langtry and the play traveled to America, where it had a brief Broadway run. Manners acted for only another two years, but devoted himself from 1902 to playwrighting, managing to write or collaborate on more than 30 plays in the next twenty-six years. In 1909 his play "The Great John Ganton" introduced one of the century's great theatrical stars, Laurette Taylor, to Broadway. Manners married Taylor and wrote and produced ten plays for her over the next decade. One of these, "Peg o' My Heart," was a huge success, spawning eight road companies during its Broadway run, playing more than 11,000 collective performances in its first nine years. It was filmed several times. An unproduced play was the posthumous source of the musical "The Gay Divorce," a Broadway hit for Fred Astaire and Cole Porter (later filmed as The Gay Divorcee (1934)). Manners had surgery to treat esophageal cancer in November, 1928, and died three weeks later.- Louÿs' refined evocations, not to say re-inventions, of the society of Hellenistic Greece proved extremely popular in both France and the English speaking world, especially due to the somewhat risque nature of such works as Aphrodite (1896) and Les Chansons de Bilitis (1894). He lived his entire life in Paris, travelling occasionally around the Mediterranean coast where so many of his works of art were set. He had close friends among the writers of his day but otherwise kept among himself rather apart from literary cliques except for that of Mallarme.
- Marie Ault was born on 2 September 1870 in Wigan, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), Fanny Hawthorne (1927) and Major Barbara (1941). She was married to James Alexander Paterson. She died on 9 May 1951 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
John Steppling was born on 8 August 1870 in Essen, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for The Reckless Age (1924), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913) and Lombardi, Ltd. (1919). He died on 5 April 1932 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Bill Pickett was born on 5 December 1870 in Jenks-Branch, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Bull-Dogger (1921) and The Crimson Skull (1922). He was married to Maggie Turner. He died on 2 April 1932 in Ponca City, Oklahoma, USA.
- Anders Randolf was born Anders Randrup in Denmark 1870.
His parents were Matthius Randrup and Kristine Jensen. He had a number of siblings - two of which were sisters Kirstine Randrup born in 1884 and Jensine Marie Randrup born 1880. He grew up on Old Rybjergaard farm, living with an Aunt rather than his parents. Her name was Marie (Randrup) and she was married to Anders Kristian Jensen.
Anders moved to the USA around 1890-1893. When Anders first got to the USA he went to live with an Aunt in Denver. When she died a short time later he moved to Chicago and entered the army. He became an officer and taught fencing. In 1912 he moved to New York and started working for movie studio Vitagraph.
He got married in the United States. His wife was Dorthea Amdersine Jorgensen (b. 1890) and she was from Denmark. They had one daughter Karen Kristine Randolf (1917-1989). After his death in 1930 there was a grand funeral in Hollywood. A short time later his wife and daughter moved back to Denmark.
In 1942 his daughter had one son who was named Peter Michael Mogens Randolf. (Father unclear but her son was given the Randolf surname)) His Grandson Peter married (Kirsten) and they had a son named Anders Peter Randolf II, born July 26,1973. His grandson died in 1991. - Samuel Adams was born on 16 December 1870 in Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Pick a Star (1937), Amateur Crook (1937) and The Luckiest Girl in the World (1936). He died on 24 March 1958 in Sun Valley, California, USA.
- Producer
- Actor
Jules Brulatour was born on 7 April 1870 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Saved from the Titanic (1912), Marionettes (1925) and Kodachrome Two-Color Test Shots No. III (1922). He was married to Hope Hampton, Dorothy Gibson and Clara Isabelle Blouin. He died on 26 October 1946 in New York City, New York, USA.- Marion Ballou was born on 17 October 1870 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for The Big Pond (1930), Little Women (1933) and The Melody Lingers On (1935). She was married to George Pauncefort. She died on 25 March 1939 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Art Director
- Costume Designer
- Writer
Alexandr Nikolaevich Benois was born May 4, 1870 in St. Petersburg, Russia into the family of Italian, Russian and French ancestry. His father, named Nikolai Leontievich Benois was the famous architect of the Imperial Mariinsky Opera House in St. Petersburg and also built many other historic landmarks. His two brothers were professional artists, and young Alexandr Benois was brought up in a highly cultural environment, conducive to the development of his own many talents. The family lived in their private 4-story mansion next to the Imperial Mariinsky Opera House in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Alexandr Benois studied art at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, then he studied law and graduated from the Law Department of the St. Petersburg University. There he developed a life-long friendship with his fellow law student Sergei Diaghilev. They formed a circle of artists and art connoisseurs known as 'Mir Iskusstva' (World of Art). Benois lived in Paris and Versailles for 3 years from 1896-99, where he made substantial research on Louis the XIV, the "Sun King", and his epoch. Benois made important contribution to the history of France by his discovery of the memoirs of the Count Louis de Saint-Simon, and carried unprecedented research of that period. Back in St. Petersburg he published his acclaimed illustrations to 'The Queen of Spades' and 'Bronze Horseman' by Alexander Pushkin. "No Versailles could compare with Peterhof and Pavlovsk" mentioned Benois after his return to St. Petersburg.
In 1899-1907 Benois collaborated with Sergei Diaghilev on a number of art shows. They produced the first international art show of artists from Scandinavian countries and Russia in St. Petersburg in 1900. The largest portrait show ever was organized in 1904 in Tavrichesky Palace in St. Petersburg. That show also included the research of over 7 thousand portraits in various traditional and contemporary styles and involved art historians, restorers, and artists from many Russian cities. Benois also collaborated with Diaghilev on publication of art catalogs, books and the 'Mir Iskusstva' art magazine, which promoted artistic innovations and challenged the existing order. Their book 'History of Russian Painting' (1904) became the first comprehensive work on the subject.
Benois was the scenic director of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre from 1901-1905. He was also the co-founder of the "Seasons Russes" with Sergei Diaghilev in 1909. He made exquisite design for the ballets "Giselle" by Adolphe Adam, "Petruchka" by Igor Stravinsky and "Les Sylphides" on the music of Frédéric Chopin with choreography by Mikhail Fokin. Back in Russia Benois collaborated with Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko on productions at the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).
Benois witnessed degradation of the Russian society through the communist revolutions and the Civil War in the 1st quarter of the 20th century. He escaped from the brutal reality of the Russian Revolutions by devoting himself to the art of historic periods of Peter the Great, Elisabeth and Catherine the Great, of which he became the leading expert. In 1918-26 he was the Curator of Paintings at the Hermitage Museum, partly because the famous 'Madonna Benois' by Leonardo DaVinci, which used to be his family's property, was now at the Hermitage. But witnessing of the barbaric treatment of art and illegal sales of the famous masterpieces from Hermitage by secret orders from Moscow was unbearable for Benois. In 1926, he left Hermitage and Russia for good. His friendship and work with Sergei Diaghilev continued in Paris.
Benois was involved in publications of more than 100 art books and editions. He worked on productions of about 200 ballets and operas all over the world. His international background and inter-disciplinary education enabled him to create the unparalleled grand-scale cross-cultural and cross-genre project of the "Seasons Russes" together with Sergei Diaghilev. Benois' contribution as an artist, designer, director, producer, and an art historian made significant impact on theatre, opera, ballet, art, and art publishing of the 20th century. His comprehensive 'Memoirs' were published in 1955. He died on February 9, 1960 in Paris, and was laid to rest in Cimetiere des Batignolles, 8 Rue Saint-Just, Paris, France.
Alexandre Benois was a member of a remarkable family of talented men and women. His brother, Albert Benois, was a prominent Russian water-colorist, whose grandson was composer Alexander Tcherepnin. Alexandre Benois' son, Nicola Benois, was a painter and designer for the La Scala Opera in Milan, Italy. His niece Nadia Benois was a film and theatre artist in London. His other niece, Zinaida Serebryakova, and his nephew, Eugene Lanceray, were notable artists and designers in Paris. Benois's grand nephew Igor Ustinov was a sculptor, and Sir Peter Ustinov was an Academy Award-winning British actor.- Writer
- Director
Alejandro Pérez Lugín was born on 22 February 1870 in Madrid, Spain. He was a writer and director, known for La casa de la Troya (1925), Currito de la Cruz (1926) and In Gay Madrid (1930). He died on 5 September 1926 in Madrid, Spain.- Enrique Acosta was born on 26 February 1870 in Mexico City, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Don Q Son of Zorro (1925), The Texan (1930) and A Message to Garcia (1936). He died on 22 May 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Jack Richardson was born on 18 November 1870 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Midnight Express (1924), The Old Maid's Baby (1919) and The Toll Gate (1920). He was married to Louise Lester and Florence Stone. He died on 12 June 1960 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- John Miltern was born on 13 July 1870 in New Britain, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ne'er-Do-Well (1923), The Love of Sunya (1927) and Everybody's Old Man (1936). He died on 15 January 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Emma Tansey was born on 12 September 1870 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for When You and I Were Young (1917), Joan of the Woods (1918) and Are Children to Blame? (1920). She died on 23 March 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Julietta Brandt was born on 25 July 1870 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Pest in Florenz (1919), Nur einmal blüht im Jahr der Mai (1916) and Die Verworfenen (1917). She died on 1 January 1954 in Denmark.
- Producer
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Burton Holmes was born on 8 January 1870 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a producer and director, known for How California Harvests Wheat (1917), Today in Samoa (1918) and Fiji Does Its Bit (1918). He was married to Margaret Oliver. He died on 22 July 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
George Ovey was born on 13 December 1870 in Trenton, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Pirate of Panama (1929), Hit the Deck (1929) and Strings of Steel (1926). He was married to Louise Horner. He died on 23 September 1951 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Ivan Bunin was the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1933).
He was born Ivan Alekseevich Bunin on October 22, 1870 on his ancestral estate near Voronezh, Russia. His father, Aleksei Bunin, and his mother, were descendants of several lines of old nobility that included Russian landed gentry and Luthuanian knights. The Bunins were landlords and serf-owners; but Bunin's father lost his estate in a unfortunate card-game spree, leaving his family in a financial ruin. Young Ivan Bunin spent his childhood around the peasant surfs on his estate. He went to a grammar school in the town of Yelets, but after only five years of school he had to return back home. Bunin continued homeschooling under the tutelage of his elder brother, who was a university student. Brother encouraged Bunin to write and read Russian classics such as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Lev Tolstoy, and others.
Bunin published his first poem at the age of 17, in a literary magazine in St. Petersburg. His first short story 'Derevenski eskiz' (aka.. Country Sketch) was published in 1891, it was soon followed by publications of more poems and short stories. At that time he had a job as an assistant editor of a local newspaper in the city of Orel, Russia. His stories were published in several newspapers and magazines across Russia. At that time Bunin started a correspondence with Anton Chekhov, and with a passage of time the two writers became close friends. In 1894 Bunin met Lev Tolstoy. He admired the works of Tolstoy, but their social and moral views were quite different. Bunin's communication with Maxim Gorky led to their meeting in 1899 and both writers developed good friendship. During the 1900s Bunin and Gorky spent several winters together on the isle of Capri. At that time Bunin had several publications through the "Znanie" (Knowledge) group, which was founded and managed by Maxim Gorky.
By 1900 Ivan Bunin had published over 100 poems. His 1899 translation of 'The Song of Hiawatha' by Longfellow was awarded the Pushkin Prize and Gold Medal from the Russian Academy of Science. His other translations included Lord Byron's 'Manfred', Tennyson's 'Lady Godiva', and poems by Alfred de Musset. In 1909 Bunin was elected one of the 12 full members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1910 he published his first full-scale novel 'Derevnya' (The Village), and in 1912, 'Sukhodol' (Dry Valley), a nostalgic portrayal of decaying Russian nobility based on the true story of his own family. Bunin traveled extensively in Russia and abroad, in Palestine, Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, all-over Europe and Asia. His first marriage to the daughter of a Greek revolutionary ended in divorce. His second marriage in 1907 lasted his all life.
Bunin witnessed the terror and destruction caused by communists during the Russian Revolution of 1917. He fled from the Bolshevok communists by moving from Moscow to Odessa. There Bunin lived for 2 years hoping that the White Russians might restore order and beat the communist revolutionaries, but soon revolutionary chaos spread all over Russia. In February 1920 Bunin had to leave all his property behind under the threat of approaching communist armies. He swiftly emigrated aboard the last French ship leaving Odessa with other anti-communist Russians, and eventually settled in Grasse, near Cannes, in the south of France. There he published his eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution in the form of a diary entitled 'Okayannye dni' (The Accursed Days 1925-26). In it Bunin described the Soviet government by writing of them: "What a disgusting gallery of convicts!"
He was the eldest of Russian émigré writes, and was regarded by all intellectual émigrés as the last one writing in the high tradition of Lev Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov. Bunin was the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1933. At that time Bunin received congratulations from intellectuals from all-over the world, but not a word from the Soviet Russia, where his name and his books were banned. On his way to accept the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Sweden, Bunin had to pass through Germany. There he was arrested by the Nazis on a false accusations of smuggling jewels, and was forced to drink a bottle of Castor oil. Bunin had a staunch anti-Nazi position, he was known for sheltering a Jew in his home during the Nazi occupation of France.
Bunin's best known books 'Solnechny Udar' (A Sunstroke 1927), 'Zhizn Arsenyeva' (The Life of Arsenyev 1933), 'Lika' (1939), and 'Tyomnye Allei' (Dark Alleys, or in some translations, Shadowed Paths, 1943) are among the highest achievements in Russian literature of the 20th century. Bunin's poetry was highly regarded by Vladimir Nabokov. However, most of Bunin's books were banned in Russia under the Soviet censorship, because of his truthful and frightening description of chaos and destruction caused by the communists after the Russian revolution of 1917. Later, every year in the morning of the 8th of November, Bunin suffered from painful traumatic memories about the collapse of Russia caused by the communist takeover that happened on that date in 1917. He died of a heart attack in the morning of November 8, 1953, in his apartment in Paris, and was laid to rest in the Russian Cemetery at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois in Paris.
Selected works by Bunin were published posthumously in Russia, in 1956- 1961, during the "Thaw" that was initiated by Nikita Khrushchev. However,
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Ivane Perestiani was born on 13 April 1870 in Taganrog, Don Voisko Oblast, Russian Empire [now Rostov Oblast, Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for Sami sitsotskhle (1924), Savur-Mogila (1926) and Suramis tsikhe (1922). He died on 14 May 1959 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Not only did Joseph compose music for movies, he was the first person to compose a score specifically for a motion picture - "Queen Elizabeth" in 1912. In addition to film music, Joseph composed for various operas - `Love Laughs at Locksmiths' 1910, `Prof. Tattle' 1913 and, `The Seventh Chord' 1913. Breil died from heart disease.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Florence Arliss was born on 29 July 1870 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Disraeli (1929), Disraeli (1921) and The King's Vacation (1933). She was married to George Arliss. She died on 12 March 1950 in Paddington, London, England, UK.