1874-1961
American actor George Henry Irving Jr. was born on this day in New York City. Without a doubt his most famous role was as the lawyer Alexander Peabody in Bringing Up Baby with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, but he got his start on the stage much earlier, and by the 1910's he frequently starred opposite star of the stage Maude Adams, famous for her early portrayal of Peter Pan on the stage and who never made a film, having quit acting after barely surviving the flu pandemic of 1918. Irving went to Hollywood early--in 1914--and had every intention of becoming a director; he didn't stay long, and wound up directing films back in New York by 1916. While he did manage to find work as a director in 1914, it was not before he made his debut on film as an actor first. That debut came in the drama Paid in Full (1914), directed by Augustus Thomas, starring Tully Marshall and produced for the All Star Feature Film Corp. His very next job at the company did mark his debut as a director, when he co-directed (and made a small appearance in) The Jungle (1914). A fairly important film for it's time (which is now lost to us, unless we believe one reviewer on IMDb who says the Sinclair family has a copy), it was an adaptation of Margaret Mayo's play, which was itself an adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel. He remained a co-director on the next couple of films that he worked on (one of which was co-directed with Marie Hubert Frohman of the Frohman theatrical family, in her only film work); but it was on The Builder of Bridges in 1915 that he first directed a film solo. All the while he continued acting during this period, though the more directing jobs that he had, the fewer the acting roles he took. It got to a point that between the years 1916 and 1919, he did not act in a film at all. And, once again, since it is "spooktober" any chance to feature early horror/supernatural films is a plus. During his time devoted exclusively to the job of directing, he helmed The Witching Hour in 1916, a feature length film (1 hour and 10 minutes in time) based on a popular play of the time that featured a gambling clairvoyant with Svengali like hypnotic powers played by C. Aubry Smith. With the exception of one lone performance in a film in 1919, he did not pick back up with film acting again until 1924, when he decided to give up directing and concentrate exclusively on film roles instead. He directed his last film in 1924: Floodgates for Lowell Film Production. When he returned to full time acting, he pretty quickly became a go-to character actor; and right away he went to work with a major director of the time George Achainbaud in For Sale (June 1924). Between the years 1924 and 1926 he worked with directors George B. Seitz, James Cruze, Irvin Willat and a film by Alan Hale Sr., that I kid you not, was titled Risky Business (1926) in which he played a Schubal Peabody. By 1930 he had added more than 50 films appearances to his list of credits. Among these are a large number of westerns based on Zane Grey stories--something that he was not known for later in his career. Films of note in the later part of the silent era that he appeared in include: the comedy Feel My Pulse (1928) with Bebe Daniels and William Powell, Partners in Crime (1928) with Wallace Beery and William Powell and, probably the best known (despite it's lost status) Two Flaming Youths--because of appearances by W.C. Fields and Chester Conklin (he also appeared in a little all color short entitled The Lady of Victories in 1928). The fist all sound film that he appeared in with a credit was the Mary Pickford early talkie Coquette in 1929 (though he did have a tiny role in William Wellman's Wings, which was reworked for some sound later on). He next appeared in Josef von Sternberg's Thunderbolt (1929), sometimes listed as an early or proto-film noir, which had both a silent and full mono alternative version. His first horror appearance in the new age of sound came in The Last Performance in 1929, a film in which Conrad Viedt menaces a young Mary Philbin. His last performance of the decade came in the goofy comedy with music Dance Hall (1929). He followed that up with an appearance in another comedy, King Vidor's Not So Dumb, which was released in February of 1930. Although a number of his film appearances in the 1930's and 1940's came in small or even uncredited roles, they numbered in the dozens--it's actually quite a dizzying list. Again since it is October, I will mention a few of the scary ones: Island of Lost Souls (1932), Rasputin and the Empress (1932), Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935), Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936), Son of Dracula (1943), and Bluebeard (1944). Irving also made two television appearances, his only acting roles in the 1950's. The first of these was an episode-RSVP-of the variety series NBC Television Opera Theater, which aired on 1 November 1951. He also appeared in multiple episodic segments of the the series Omnibus between the years 1953 and 1955, the last of which--The Mighty Casey which aired on the 6th of March, 1955--was his last acting role. He retired after this and passed away in Hollywood 6 and 1/2 years later on the 11th of September, 1961 at the age of 86. His ashes are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Irving had two daughters, one of which--Katherine--also went into acting for a time, herself entering films in the late 1920's. He is also the great-grandfather of actor David Austin.
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