Born Today May 20: Fred Truesdell

1870-1929

Actor Fred Truesdell was born on this day in Coldwater, Michigan.  He would live his entire life within what we now call "The Silent Era," never living past the 1920's.  In fact, his entire film career was en capsuled in the 1910's.  Truesdell graduated from Yale; and in addition to being an silent screen actor (one of the earliest character actors), he was also a writer--specializing in poetry and the writing of plays.  The first film he is known to appear in is The Honor Of The Firm (1912), a 10 minute drama produced by the Eclair American Company.  Probably the first full length film that he appear in came in the 1915 The Deep Purple, but the film is profoundly lost and I can find zero information as to it's original running time.  His next film, Alias Jimmy Valentine (1915), was definitely a full length film, with a running time of 50 minutes (the film was remade in 1928).  His last full length film appearance came in 1919 in Shadows (Goldwyn had a hand in the production).  The last film he appeared in was also in 1919 in the comedic short She's Everywhere and was produced for the Stage Woman's War Relief Fund for World War I.  After this, he seems to have retired back to Michigan.  Truesdell died in Quincy, Michigan on May 9 1929, just a couple of weeks shy of his 59th birthday.  There is no information as to where he is buried.

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