1882-1957
Born in Kansas City, Missouri on the 11 Sept. 1882, Alderson began his career as a character actor (that had to have been some sort of first)--literally he started out as "the old man" character type and stayed that way throughout the span of his career. His first appearance in film came in 1918 with the character "Old Man" McBrian at the age of 36. In addition to his acting, he has one credit for assistant director. He worked literally right up to the time of the his death on the 4 of August 1957 at the age of 74. He is one of many silent era actors to be interred in the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
His Silent Era Work:
Her Man (1918) (directed by two of "The Brothers Ince")
The Good-Bad Wife (1920) (one of the first films directed by a woman Vera McCord, who was most certainly the first female director to have her own production company)
The White Rose (1923) (directed by D. W. Griffith)
The Exciters (1923) (this is probably a lost film, though not listed as such, I can find no evidence of the continued existence unfortunately, but the fact that the lone review on IMDb is by the infamous F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre certainly raises the odds that it no longer exists.)
America (1924) (another Griffith epic on this country, curiously yesterday's featured "Born On" entry Bessie Love was also in this film, and as this is Sept. 11, were are marking the day the frights of history today over at my Scare Me On Fridays blogspot. Alas, we are travailing the entirety of the HBO John Adams (2008) mini-series. I do not, however, think we will be dipping into Griffith's take on things today though....but to those we lost 14 years ago, and through true defense of the country since before founding--we remember you!)
Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) (another Griffith film, "Commissioner Gordon" Neil Hamilton was also in this film.)
Sally Of The Sawdust (1925) (yet another Griffith film, that also starred W. C. Fields. This is the film for which Alderson was an assistant director. [Note: if you have an Amazon Prime account it can currently be watched rental free.])
The Fortune (1927) (Syd Chaplin also starred, it was one of the first silents films with a mono musical score)
The Heart Of Maryland (1927) (also stars of Myrna Loy, amongst a whole host of others, a partial print survives in the Library of Congress; but yet another film that the late "MacIntyre" claimed to have seen in it's entirety.)
A Girl From Chicago (1927) (also starred Myrna Loy)
Fazil (1928) (a very early Howard Hawks directed film, soundtrack and sound effects by MovieTone)
Speakeasy (1929) (early talkie, sound by Western Electric, lost film)
Aquitted (1929) (early talkie)
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