Born Today March 1: Frédéric Chopin

1810-1849

Frédéric François Chopin (birth name Fryderyk Franzcisek) was born on this day in Zelazowa Wola, Poland--then part of the Russian Empire.  The region that he was born in, had been established by Napoleon and his father was from the Lorraine region of France.  His mother was a Polish Countess.  His baptismal record (under the Latinized name of Fridericus Franciscus) states that his birthday was actually the 22nd of February, but his family always strictly maintained that he was, in fact, born on March 1st.  He was the second of 4 children and the only son of the couple.  Six months after his birth, the family relocated to Warsaw.  Both of his parents were musically inclined, with his father proficient on both the flute and violin, and his mother on piano.  In fact, she gave lessons on that instrument.  So, he was exposed to music from the time of his birth.  In 1816, he began formal training on the piano with musician Wojciech Zywny.  Young Frédéric, along with his older sister studied with him, until 1821.  He and his sister would frequently play duets together.  His talent on the instrument, however, far out-shown hers, and he was quickly declared a child prodigy, though he was always predisposed to illnesses, even as a very young boy, he showed great energy in the field of music.  By 1817, he had already begun to give public performances and had composed his first piece of music.  The earliest surviving musical composition of his dates from 1821.  In 1823, he began attending the Warsaw Lyceum, where studied under musician Wilhelm Würfel on the organ.  Leaving in 1826, he then began a three year stint at the Warsaw Conservatory under Silesian composer Józef Elsner.  During this time, he came to the attention of Tsar Alexander I, who invited him to play before him on a trip to Warsaw--this earned Chopin his first real success.  Between 1824 and 1828, family retreats to various locals in Poland exposed him to Polish folk music.  During this time, his parents ran a boarding house; through this, he was exposed to a whole set of young Polish men from various walks of life, some of which would go on to be life-long friends of his.  In 1828, he made his first trip to Berlin, delighting in the music scene there and regularly attending opera.  When back in Warsaw, he was able to attend of performance of composer Paganini, who performed his own music on the violin.  By the spring of 1830, he had become a well known composer in his own right.  In the fall of 1830, he and a friend became stranded in Austria, while traveling to Italy, when an uprising broke out; as a result of this, Chopin headed for France. It would be here that his compositions would become internationally known and would make him world famous.  He also won the admiration of several of his well known fellow composers.  By 1842, his health was in serious decline; and though, his official cause of death at the young age of 39 was Pulmonary Tuberculosis, he is thought to have suffered a lifelong problem with temporal lobe epilepsy, among other illnesses; his actual cause of death is still hotly debated.  He did during this time, however, manage a tour of England and Scotland in 1848; giving his last public performance in London's Guildhall.  He returned to Paris, where he succumbed to illness on the 17th of October 1849.  His funeral was held on the 30 of October with an over-flow crowd of more than 3,000 (many from foreign countries) in Paris.  Upon his request, Mozart's Requiem was performed. He is buried in Pére Lachaise.  In regards to film, his compositions have be used in literally hundreds of soundtracks; but the first film to feature his work actually was a late silent film featuring a  pressed vinyl disc or record showing his name printed on it; the disc spins on a record player.  The film Disque 957, was a short (6 minutes) and was directed by French film artist and feminist Germain Dulac.  The first film to actually feature his music in sound, came in 1929 with another short (10 minutes) Trixie Friganza in My Bag o' Trix, featuring vaudevillian Trixie Friganza, utilizing Vitaphone sound on a Western Electric Apparatus.  The first full length film to feature his music also came in 1929 with Side Street, featuring the The Moore Brothers.  The first film in the 1930's to feature his compositions was a Basil Rathbone film entitled The Bishop Murder Case (1930).  The latest feature of  his work will come in the Canadian pilot for the horror television series The Fantasmagori this year. 

For More:

Wikipedia

Biography

Britannica

NPR

IMDB

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Born Today January 29: W. C. Fields

1880-1946

Born William Claude Dukenfield (hence the "W. C.") in Darby, Pennsylvania; for most of his early life, he was known simply as "Claude."  By at least age 14 or 15, he discovered that he had an unusual talent for juggling after seeing an accomplished juggler in a traveling show at his local theater.  By the age of 17 he was performing juggling acts at his church and theater shows.  The juggler that he was most inspired by was chap who went by the name of James Edward Harrigan, who was billed as "the original Tramp Juggler."  Fields liked his looks and adopted his scruffy beard and shabby tuxedo, and entered traveling vaudeville acts as a gentlemanly "tramp juggler" in 1898.  Oddly, for the time, his family supported his decision to take to the stage, despite that he had a stutter.  To compensate for this, he did not speak while on stage--something juggler's could easily get away with.  In 1900, in order to distinguish himself from other jugglers on the circuit, he changed his look to his original design, and began billing himself as "The Eccentric Juggler."  He began adding stunts to his act that he came up with himself; many of which were simple "magic tricks," such as: manipulating cigar boxes, hats and other objects, much to the delight of the audiences.  He became so successful that, by 1900, he was widely called the "world's greatest juggler."  By this time, his act had gone international, and he toured England, the country that his father had immigrated from.  In fact, he was so successful in this line of work that he was able, in 1904, to purchase a summer home for his father in his native England; this saw Fields encouraging his family members to learn to read and write, so that they could correspond with the father via letters.  In 1905, he made his Broadway debut in a musical comedy entitled The Ham Tree.  At this point he wanted to make the full transition to comedian and found himself stuck in the role that had gained him so much fame and relative wealth--that of the comedy juggler.  However, by 1913, had conquered his speech difficulties and made the transition to speaking comedic roles so successfully that he found himself on stage with Sarah Bernhardt (though the juggling act remained part of the show); first in New York, and then in England, where they performed before the King and Queen.  In 1915, he returned to Broadway in Ziegfeld Follies (bringing one small step away from film acting); and he would remain in these shows through the year 1923 (long after his film debut).  At this point he adopted his characteristic look of the top hat, cut-away coat and collar and the cane.  Much speculation has gone on in regards to the inspiration for this look.  The best guess, is that he lifted it from the cartoon character Ally Sloper.   His first appearance in film came in 1915, with Pool Sharks, a comedic short.  The film was shot in Flushing Meadows, New York, and featured Fields as "The Pool Shark," a role he was almost born to play, as he had been a real-life pool hustler as a child.  Although uncredited, he is said to have come up with the scenario himself.  He would appear in one other film in 1915, His Lordship's Dilemma, now, sadly, a lost film (don't let the "MacIntyre" review of it on IMDb fool you!)--also shot in Flushing Meadows.  He didn't appear in another film until 1924, when his stage commitments had been fulfilled the following year.  Janice Meredith, shot in several locations in the northeast, was his first feature length film (starring Hollywood first Harrison Ford!).  Top billing came for Fields the following year, in D. W. Griffith's Sally of the Sawdust; it was filmed on Long Island (which as of this writing, it currently on Amazon Prime).  He would go on to make 8 more silent films, one of which, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1928), would go on to be one of the most talked about lost silents in history, despite it being a remake (same advice applies here, in regards to "MacIntyre" "review").  In fact, all three silent films that Fields would make with Chester Conklin are now lost (as someone on IMDb is used to saying "please check your attic!").  From then on, Fields would become one of the Hollywood greats of the early taking era--a genuine superstar, a movie star, and king of comedy.  However, he started to have serious health related problems in the mid 1930's due to very, very heavy drinking.  By 1938, he was unable to work in film at all, due in part to delirium tremens.  He managed, instead, to get into some radio work.  By 1939, he was able to return to film work, garnering him a brand new shiny contract with Universal Studios.  This is when he made what is probably his most famous film, The Bank Dick, in 1940.  After this, his health began to decline again; he was mostly relegated to guest appearances in film.  He made his last film appearance a musical Sensations of 1945.  He died on the 25th of December (Christmas Day, a holiday the he reportedly despised) in 1946 of a gastric hemorrhage brought on by heavy drinking in Pasadena, CA. He was 66 years of age. His funeral took place on 2 January 1947, after which it was directed in his will, that his remains be cremated.  However, two of his relatives objected on religious grounds, and took the matter to court.  After lengthy litigation, his remains were finally cremated on the 2nd of June 1949, and his ashes interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.  Many people have a fanciful idea about what is on his grave marker.  For some reason, it popularly supposed to read "I'd rather be in Philadelphia."  In truth, it is simply inscribed with his stage name, and the year of his birth and the year of his death.  

Wikipedia

IMDb

Born Today January 25: W. Somerset Maugham

1874-1965

British writer William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris, France--inside the British Embassy there.  He was a writer of novels, plays and short stories--even some non-fiction.  His father was a lawyer, who handled legal affairs at the Embassy, arranged for his birth to take place inside the Embassy, therefore on British soil, because French law stated that all children born on French ground could later be conscripted into the French military.  He was born into a family of very distinguished lawyers, later in his parents life (his mother had TB when she gave birth to him); it was assumed that any boys would follow that path in life.  However, all Somerset's siblings were so much older than him (already in boarding school when he was born), he was basically an only child being raised in Paris.  He lost both of his parents at a young age:  his mother when he was 8, who succumbed to tuberculosis; his father when he was 10 to cancer.  The death of his mother traumatized him and he reportedly kept a photo of her at his bedside for the rest of his life.  After his father's death, he was sent back to the UK, to be taken in by his uncle, the Vicar of Whitstable.  This further traumatized the young man, because of his uncle's emotional neglect.  He was then sent off to boarding school, The King's School, Canterbury, were his emotional troubles deepened, as his was teased by the other boys, especially for his English pronunciation--as French had been his first language.  His sexual orientation didn't help.  This day and age, we would say that he was bisexual; but in his day, he would have been considered fully homosexual (something that he later became self loathing over).  This caused him to develop a stammer that would stay with him for life; though it would only come out in times of stress.  All this pushed him to inadvertly develop quite a talent of making clever wounding remarks to those who displeased or bothered him.  Unbeknownst to him, this was the beginning of his writing career; as many of his characters possessed this ability.  He began writing by the age 15.  At 16, he convinced his uncle to let him leave boarding school and study at Heidelberg University in Germany.  While there, he wrote his first book; a biography of Giacomo Meyerbeer, an opera composer.  When he returned to Britain, he considered a number of different career paths, none of which he or his uncle fely satisfied with.  He finally settled on studying medicine; and he did qualify as a physician; but he had been writing all during this time, and he published his first novel Liza of Lamberth in 1897 before he could go into practice.  It sold out so rapidly, that he quit medicine to devout his life to writing full time.  By the 1930's he was widely believed to be the highest paid author in the world.  His medical training did come in handy,however, in the first World War, however, where he served in the Red Cross' ambulance corps.; before actually being recruited as a war time spy.  As an ambulance physician, he was part of the "Literary Ambulance Drivers," a group of 24 well known writers that included some Americans; including the likes of E. E. Cummings and Ernest Hemingway.  As far as film is concerned, he did not actually work on screenplays in Hollywood until well after the silent era; but starting 1915, films based on his work were being produced.  The first of these was The Explorer (1915), based on one of his novels.  The first film based on his work that was a full sound early talkie came in 1929 with The Letter, starring Reginald Owen.  In all 17 films based on his work were made during the silent era, the last three of which were in mono.  He even has one acting credit in a silent short, Camille (1926), based on the Dumas play.  In the era of early television, there was even a Somerset Maugham TV Theater, of which he was the host; it ran for 3 seasons during 1950-1951.  The latest film based on his work came in 2014 in an independent short entitled W. Somerset Maugham's The Bum.  He died in Nice, France on 15 December 1965 at the age of 91 from pneumonia.  He was cremated and his ashes were scattered near the Maugham Library (obviously named for him) at The King's School, Canterbury (the school he hated so early on in life...).  One of his greatest admirers was director Alfred Hitchcock.  

Wikipedia

IMDb

Born Today January 20 (Not So Silent Edition): George Burns

1896-1996

Born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City to immigrate Jewish parents who came from Romania; he was one of 12 children born to them.  He claims to have been "discovered" while working in a chocolate syrup factory at the age of seven, along with several other kids who worked in the basement with him. He claimed that they were discovered by the company's letter carrier who came down to deliver, well, a letter.  The carrier was a fan of harmony singing, and the kids were in the habit singing harmonies to cut the boredom of making syrup.  He heard singing and complimented them; and stayed for a song or two.  By the end of this little "recital," several other company employees had joined the carrier, who threw some pennies down at them.  Burns related in his own words, "So I said to the kids I was working with, no more chocolate syrup for me.  It's show business from now on."  They formed a group and called themselves the "Pee-Wee Quartet."  They began to perform anywhere that they could, from street corners & ferryboats, to saloons and even brothels.  At this time he still going by "Nate."  He was drafted into the Army during World War I, but his extreme near-sightedness caused him to fail the physical.  Intent of staying in show business permanently, he adopted the stage name "George Burns" in order to hide his Jewish ancestry.  He claimed to have gotten the name from two major league baseball players, George H. Burns and George J. Burns (no relation to each other), who were well known at the time.  Other sources cite that he got the name "George" from his brother Izzy, who hated his first name and changed it to George; and the Burns, from the Burns Brothers Coal Company, whose trucks he used to steal coal from.  He then started partnering with girls for song and dance numbers, with some comedic banter thrown in between the songs.  One of these was with Hannah Siegel (who performed under the name Hermosa Jose); the two wished to take their act on the road, but their parents would not allow it unless they were married--so they married and did the tour.  The marriage was never consummated and they divorced after the tour was over.  In 1923 he met Grace "Gracie" Allen.  The two formed a performance duo as "Burns and Allen," and the act became of huge success.  As they toured the vaudeville circuit, Burns found himself falling in love with his already engaged stage partner, and tried several times to win her over.  Finally succeeding, the two were married on the 7th January 1926 in Cleveland--against the norms of the time given his Jewish ethnicity and her being a an Irish Catholic.  Together they starred in one short comedy in 1929 and that was an early talkie to boot.  That film was Lambchops.  It ran only 8 minutes.  The rest, as they say, is history!  While Allen passed away at age 69, after a long illness with heart problems; Burns is famous for living to 100 years of age, despite his lifelong love of cigars.  He passed away from natural causes in his Beverly Hills home on 9 March 1986, 49 days into 101st year of life.  He is entombed next to his wife, in the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.  

Wikipedia

IMDb

Born Today January 15: Torin Thatcher (Not So Silent Edition)

1905-1981

Born Torin Herbert Erskine Thatcher in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai) to English parents.  He was educated in Britain and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts; and would go on to become a school teacher and school master.  He made his stage debut in 1927.  Most biographies have him starting in the British film industry in 1934, well into the talking era; but he did however appear in a film short based on Shakespeare in 1927.  The Merchant Of Venice,  a very, very early talkie.  He next appeared in the film in 1933, not 1934, but continued to do stage work during the 1930's; even appearing with Lawrence Olivier  and Vivian Leigh at the Old Vic, in a production of Hamlet.  During World War II, he served with the Royal Artillery, ending with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  He would later go on to be one of the most recognizable character actors in the both the UK and the US; where he did a lot of television work.  He also had a prolific career on Broadway.  In 1947 he co-founded the Society for Theater Research and served as it's Vice-Chairman for the Committee.  He passed away on 4 March 1981 of cancer at the age of 76 in Thousand Oaks, California.  He was cremated and his ashes were then urned.

IMDb

Wikipedia

Born Today September 23: Mickey Rooney

1920-2014

Born Joseph Yule Jr. in New York City to vaudevillian parents, he was literally born into "the business."  At the time of his birth, to a Scottish immigrant father, and an American mother of English ancestry, his parents were literally appearing in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl.  So basically he was a child actor, even an infant actor, as his first stage appearance came at the age of 17 months of age (one account puts him at 15 months).  During his acting career, he acted and on and in vaudeville, the Stage--including Broadway, radio, films and television.  He appeared in over 300 films.  He is listed in the Guinness Book Of World Records as having the longest movie career at 86 years of any other actor (male or female); if one were inclined to add his earliest work on, he might have the longest acting career in history.  As to how he came to the name "Mickey Rooney" from Joe Yule Jr. actually applies to the subject of this blog--the silents.  Obviously, being born in 1920 means that he was a seriously young child actor in that decade.  After his parents separated, his mother moved him to Hollywood (after moving from New York to Kansas City where she had relocated during a vaudeville slump, with husband traveling for work).  She took him to an audition call from Fox Fontaine for a dark haired child actor (according to legend she couldn't afford to have his hair dyed, so she rubbed his hair down with burnt cork), he got the part and his first role came in 1926 as Mickey McBan, a barely disguised version of the character he came to play formed from a strip cartoon (in that he is credited with same name as the character McBan).  This led to a contract for a series of short films based on the actual character named "Mickey McGuire," the cartoon character that Fox was, well, ripping off to begin with the McBan credit.  Because of this, Fox convinced his mother to have his name legally changed to the character's name, in a disgustingly slimy move on their part to get around paying royalties to the cartoon strip writers--his mother changed her last name to McGuire as well.  There was a very nasty law suit filed against the studio that they lost, which, I guess meant he was legally returned to his birth name (not at all sure about this, it's vague and the ligation was messy).  Well, there comes the "Mickey" part--and these are the movies that will be featured below in this post.  As to the "Rooney" part, that came when there was a series interruption of Mickey McGuire shorts which came in 1932 and his mother wanted to take him out on a touring vaudevillian Show, she wanted to bill him as "McGuire," and Fox was compelled to sue her to keep her from doing that because it was part of the legal settlement that he not be allowed to use the name in any way whatsoever.  So she suggested Looney, since he was known as a comedic actor, but the kid had enough sense to suggest "Rooney" instead, reminding his mother about lawsuits--it would have been a copyright infringement on Warner's Looney Tunes. Hence Mickey Rooney was born when he was 12 years of age.  Fatherless, a number early Hollywood big shots took on fatherly like roles as he appeared in films with them, people like Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore, but it was Louie B. Mayer that became the most important man in his younger life.  From there on, he had one hell of a reputation, if one is inclined to delve, you don't have to go too deep to find some truly dark stuff!  He was well known to have a terrible gambling problem and was married 8 times--none of them successful (he was separated from his last wife at the time of his death), but that's about as far I will go here, especially given that it's his child work in the 20's that this blog is concerned with.  On the other hand, it has to be pointed out that he worked right up to his death, not something often seen with actors in very advanced years.  Clearly he truly loved the entertainment business--he came in the world an actor and he left it the same way.  He died on the 6th of April 2014 at the staggering age of 93.  Vanity Fare called him "the original Hollywood train wreck."  Like so many other famous people in Hollywood, he is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

The 1920's Mickey McGuire Shorts:

Not To Be Trusted (1926) (credited to Mickey McBan)

Orchids and Ermine (1927)

Mickey's Circus (1927)

Mickey's Circus (1927)

Mickey's Pals (1927)

Mickey's Eleven (1927)

Mickey's Battle (1927)

Mickey's Parade (1928)

Mickey In School (1928)

Mickey's Nine (1928)

Mickey's Little Eva (1928)

Mickey's Wild West (1928)

Mickey In Love (1928)

Mickey's Triumph (1928)

Mickey's Babies (1928)

Mickey's Movies (1928)

Mickey's Rivals (1928)

Mickey The Detective (1928)

Mickey's Athletes (1928)

Mickey's Big Game Hunt (1928)

Mickey's Great Idea (1929)

Mickey's Menagerie (1929)

Mickey's Last Chance (1929)

Mickey's Brown Derby (1929) (partial silent)

Mickey's Northwest Mounted (1929)

Mickey's Initiation (1929)

Mickey's Midnite Follies (1929)

Mickey's Surprise (1929) (full mono)

Mickey's Mix-Up (1929) (full mono)

Mickey's Big Moment (1929) (full mono)

Mickey's Strategy (1929) (full mono)

Born Today September 16: Isabel Jeans

1891-1985

A giant of the London stage, Jeans was an early Hitchcock muse.  She was born in London and passed away there almost 94 years later on the 4 of September 1985 at 93.  She had planned to become a singer, but instead wound up on the stage at the age of 15 in 1908, by 1915 she had made it to Broadway States side; but soon returned to London.  Her first film appearance came in 1917, and she went on to make several films in the 1920's; at least one The Rat (1925) based on the play that she had a part in the preceding year at The Prince of Wales Theater in London.  In all she appeared in three Alfred Hitchcock films, two of the them silent, the other being the 1941 Suspicion starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine.  Her first marriage was to Claude Rains in 1913 which only lasted two years.  She remarried to a well known British Barrister, whom she remained married to until his death in the 1960's.  As couple they were famous for several couples activities, including being extremely good at poker.

In Hitchcock's Easy Virtue

Her Early Film Work:

The Profligate (1917)

Tilly Of Bloomsbury (1921) (based on a play)

Romance and Reality (1921) (short)

The Rat (1925) (screenplay based on the stage production she starred the year before)

Windsor Castle (1926) (short, part of a haunted castles of England series, this was the third one)

The Triumph Of The Rat (1926) (sequel to The Rat)

Downhill (1927) AKA When Boys Leave Home (Hitchcock directed, available for free streaming over at Internet Archive)

Further Adventures Of A Flag Officer (1927)

Easy Virtue (1928) (Hitchcock directed, based on a Noel Coward play, her highest profile film appearance to date.)

The Return Of The Rat (1929) (second sequel of The Rat, had a synchronized music score, sound by British Acoustic.)

Power Over Men (1929)

Born Today September 15: Fay Wray

1907-2004

No introductions needed here!  Every horror fan knows her as the original "scream queen"--mostly for her turn in King Kong 1933, but she was plenty "screamy" in other films she made around this time as well.  My personal favorite of these is The Mystery Of The Wax Museum starring Lionel Atwill, directed by the great Michael Curtiz, also made in 1933, and up until the late 1960's was considered to be a lost film.  So much is made of her appearances and noise in early talking horror films, that not much attention is paid to her silent career.  Born Vina Fay Wray in Cardston, Alberta, Canada; the family soon relocated to Los Angeles here in the US.  She began as an extra when she was barely into her teens, and was one of the few child actors that seemed to weather the transition to adult actor better than most.  Far from being a silent horror star, she was in a number of short slapsticks early on.  If she can be said to have specialized in any genre in the 1920 it was westerns ironically.  She passed away at the age of 96 on the 8 of August 2004, in New York City.  She is another very famous celebrity interred in the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Her Early Film Work:

Gasoline Love (1923) (short)

Sweet Daddy (1924) (short)

Just A Good Guy (1924) (short)

The Coast Patrol (1925) (the first feature length film she was in.)

Sure-Mike! (1925) (short slapstick)

What Price Goofy? (1925) (short)

Isn't Life Terrible? (1925) (short with Charley Chase & Oliver Hardy)

Thundering Landlords (1925) (short, first featured credit in title cards)

Chasing The Chaser (1925) (short)

Madame Sans Jane (1925) (short written by Hal Roach)

No Father To Guide Him (1925) (short)

Unfriendly Enemies (1925) (short)

Your Own Back Yard (1925) (an Our Gang short)

A Lover's Oath (1925) (partially lost film)

Moonlight And Noses (1925) (partial lost short)

Ben-Hur (1925) (her slave girl appearance in this is still unconfirmed)

WAMPAS Baby Stars Of 1926 (the fist time she is credited with "self")

Our Wild Time (1926) (short)

Don Key (Son Of Burro) 1(926) (short)

The Man In The Saddle (1926)

Don't Shoot (1926)

The Wild Horse Stampede (1926)

The Saddle Tramp (1926)

The Snow Cowpuncher (1926) (short, part of the Mustang Western series)

Lazy Lightning (1926)

Loco Luck (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)

A One Man Game (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)

Spurs And Saddles (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)

A Trip Through The Paramount Studio (1927) (as Herself)

The Legion Of The Condemned (1928) (lost film)

Street Of Sin (1928) (lost film)

The Fist Kiss (1928)

The Wedding March (1928) (an Erich von Stroheim directed film)

The Honeymoon (1928) (another Stroheim film)

The Four Feathers (1929) (early talkie, William Powell and Noah Berry were in this, dialog by Western Electric, soundtrack and sound effects by MovieTone)

Thunderbolt (1929) (two versions circulated, one silent the other in mono, with sound by Western Electric)

Pointed Heels (1929) (early musical, sound by MovieTone, early two strip technicolor, with some parts in black and white)

Born Today September 8: Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers:  1925-1980

This may be a bit of a head-scratcher, because, though Sellers was born in 1925, he was not a child actor, so it begs the question what is he doing here on a silent blog.  We love the the strangeness around here, and this one is a bit "Wierd" for sure.  Sellers for role in a film was in 1950, in a uncredited voice part in the film The Black Rose, however...in 1951, he provided the sound narration for the (inversely numbered) 1915 Charlie Chaplin short film Burlesque On Carmen, and is credited as such in the historical record under the film original release year.  Cheat a bit, but only because it's interesting.  He cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in Golders Green, Greater London, England, and his ashes were buried under a rose bush in the gardens there--there is a marker.

A Burlesque On Carmen (1915)

A quite young Peter Sellers

Born Today September 7: Roscoe Karns

Roscoe Karns:  1891-1970

Although he is best known for his rapid fire delivery of lines in comedies and crime films of the 1930's and 1940's, with probably his best known role coming in the Frank Capra directed remarriage comedy The Happened One Night (1934) starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, he was a serious silent era actor with his first film role coming in 1915.  There are a whole host of silent era actors who became serious stars that did not come from the theater that had no chance of making the transition to talkies (Theda Bara comes to mind), Karns was something like the exact opposite!  His first stage appearance came at the age of 15.  As for other notable speaking roles that he very, very entertaining in is in the 1940 produced His Girl Friday, another much more straight forward remarriage comedy, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy.  His rapid fire "reporters banter" as "MuCue" with Hildy (Russell) in the press room of the prison serves as a great balance to the antics of her ex-husband Walter Burns (Grant).  He is also one of the only silent era actors of significant note to make it into the world of television; including one show that he was the star of Rocky King:  Detective 1951-1954.  With his wife Mary, he had two children, one of which, Todd Karns (born 1921) went one to have a serious acting career of his own.  He even appeared with his father in Rocky King.  Roscoe is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Roscoe & Todd Karns

Silent Era Work

Mr. Carlson Of Arizona (1915) (short)

From Champion To Tramp (1915) (short)

A Species Of Mexican Man (1915) (lost short film)

A Western Governor's Humanity (1915) (lost short film)

Know Thy Wife! (1918) (short)

Brides For Two (1919) (short)

Sally's Blighted Career (1919) (short)

Oh, Susie, Be Careful (1919) (short)

Poor Relations (1919)

The Family Honor (1920)

Life Of The Party (1920)

The Man Tamer (1921)

Too Much Married (1921)

Her Own Money (1922)

The Trouper (1922)

Afraid To Fight (1922)

Conquering The Woman (1922)

Other Men's Daughters (1923)

Down To The Ship To See (1923) (A Pal The Dog short)

The Ten Commandments (1923) (famously remade again by DeMille in 1956)

Bluff (1924)

The Midnight Express (1924)

A Foolish Virgin (1924)

The Overland Limited (1925)

Dollar Down (1925) (directed by Tod Browning)

You'd Be Surprised (1926)

Ritzy (1927)

Wings (1927) (silent with original score and sound effects by Western Electric Sound System, this one two of the earliest Oscars.)

Ten Modern Commandments (1927) (directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of the earliest female directors.)

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Beau Sabreur (1928)

The Trail Of '98 (1928) (early talkie silent hybrid, Mono by MovieTone, soundtrack and sound effects by Western.)

Something Always Happens (1928) (haunted house comedy caper)

The Desert Bride (1928)

The Vanishing Pioneer (1928) (lost film)

Warming Up! (1928) (another mono/silent hybrid, but unfortunately also a lost film)

Jazz Mad (1928)

Win That Girl (1928)

Beggars Of Life (1928) (talkie/silent hybrid, talking scenes and score by MovieTone)

Moran Of The Marines (1928)

Object: Alimony (1928)

The Shopworn Angel (1928) (talkie/silent hybrid, talking sequences by Western Electric)

The Flying Fleet (1929) (scored silent, soundtrack and sound effects by MovieTone)

Copy (1929) (early talking short, Mono by MovieTone)

This Thing Called Love (1929) (early talkie sound by RCA, hybrid black and white and color film, with color by both Multicolor and Technicolor, but again it is unfortunately a lost film)

New York Nights (1929) (early talkie, sound by Western Electric)