Born Today March 22: Matt Snyder

Seen here with actress Beatriz Michelena in Salomy Jane (1914).

1835-1917

Early film actor Matt B. Snyder was born on this date.  At this time, his place of birth is not known, but it is likely to have been somewhere in the northeastern United States, as he served in the US Navy during the Civil War.  How he got his start in acting is also not known, but by at least the 1890's he was acting on the stage.  He performed mostly with his wife, both on Broadway and on tours.  His first appearance in the film came quite late in his life in 1913.  He played a police inspector in The Cub Reporter's Temptation.  He enjoyed a major role in Herbert Brenon's 1913 rendition of Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  The last film that he is listed as acting in was The Garden Of Allah (1916); but apparently a civil war drama shot before this film--The Crisis--was released after Synder's death (a copy of this film reportedly survives in the Library of Congress).  Matt Snyder died on the 17th of January in 1917; at the time of his death, at 81, he was listed as the oldest person in the movie industry.  Though he died in San Francisco, California, no details as to his burial seemed to have survived.  

Poster for the 1913 film of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Snyder played the father in this adaptation.

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