Showing posts with label
The Man Who Made Good (1917/I).
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Showing posts with label
The Man Who Made Good (1917/I).
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1889-1968
British writer, actor and director George Wilkinson Dewhurst was born on this day in Preston, England (located in Lancashire). He most likely made his film debut as an actor in the 1917 war drama The Man Who Made Good (on which he received a production credit). It did not take him long to become a film maker himself. The Live Wire ( a film now sadly lost to us) was written, directed, shot and produced by Dewhurst; the film also served as the film acting debut of Ronald Coleman. Despite that he was keen to direct his own projects, he did continue to act in films directed by others; though he generally had a hand in either writing and/or producing them. He appeared several films by directors who have become legendary in film history, with Cecil M. Hepworth with out a doubt being the most important among them with whom he worked on several films, the first of which was Helen of Four Gates in 1920 (but he also worked with Lupino Lane, Henry Edwards and George Bellamy) In the end Dewhurst had almost as many credits as an actor as he did as a director, but it is as a writer that he had the most credits. In fact, he had a for a time a writing partnership with Hepworth, with the vast majority of his scripts being adaptations from novels and plays. As a director, the two most well known actors with whom he worked with were Irene Rich (see What the Butler Saw 1924) and Alice Joyce (see The Rising Generation 1928). His last silent film with a writing credit was a short made for British Gaumont: Bright Young Things in 1927. In 1928, he directed The Rising Generation with prolific British silent director Harley Knoles . He did work into the 1930's, with an all sound version of A Sister to Assist 'Er in 1930 (based on a play that he adapted for the screen, and first filmed in 1927 as a silent for Gaumont) representing his first film of the new decade. But Dewhurst went bankrupt in 1932 and he never fully recovered. From then on, only directed two more projects (both of them versions of A Sister to Assist 'Er) and only wrote six additional screenplays. His last film (and only film in the 1940's) was his 1948 version of A Sister to Assist 'Er. He was then out of the film business, reportedly finding himself homeless at some point during the 1950's. Dewhurst died in South London on the 8th of the November in 1968 at the age of 79. I can find no information as to his burial.
1869-1949
Silent actor Barney Gilmore was born Bernard Frances Gilmore on this date in Philadelphia (note: some sources cite his birth year as being 1965). He was first and foremost an actor of the theater. His active years in the films spanned 1912 through 1940, with the bulk of his work coming in the 1910's and 1920's. His first credited role came in the Solax produced short comedy Dublin Dan (1912). In the next film in which he appeared, he had a hand in writing, along with Alice Guy and her husband Herbert (and 2 other people): Kelly From The Emerald Isle was also a comedy short and was released in June of 1913. This would (as far as anyone knows as of this writing) mark his only foray into scenario writing. His film acting, even in his most active years, was sparse--he kept to the stage for the most part. By 1915, he was with Sterling Camera and Film Company; and by 1917 he made a feature length film for Fine Arts Film Company (The Man Who Made Good). He took 2 1/2 years off from film acting between 1918 and 1921, returning with an appearance in the Romaine Fielding film The Rich Slave. He made just one other appearance in a film that year, in yet another Fielding film, before taking another hiatus from film acting that lasted 5 years. He returned in 1926 in the independent short western feature The Galloping Cowboy. He appeared in 5 more films in the 1920's, with Smiling Irish Eyes being an all sound film produced by First National with sound by Vitaphone. He made just two more film appearance in his lifetime--one, a short from 1931 and the last in a 1940 uncredited role in the John Ford classic The Grapes Of Wrath. Gilmore lived a further 9 years, dying in Los Angeles at the age of 80 (or 84 depending on his actual birth year) on the 19th of April. He is interred in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood. He was the father of actress Lillian Gilmore, who was herself a silent film player.
GEORGE LEYTON
1864-1948
Expat American songwriter and actor George Leyton was born today in New Orleans, LA. Not a lot is known about his life, except that he left the U.S. for Great Britain when he was quite a young man. He served for a time in the British army; and reportedly started a fund for veterans of the Crimea and the India Mutiny. He financed this to the tune of £3,600 (quite a sum in the day!) with the sale of one of his songs. He was a well known stage performer of various music halls in London, frequenting the vaudeville scene there. Beginning in 1916, he appeared a small number of films, the first of which was Boys Of The Old Brigade. In 1917 he appeared as "The Man" in The Man Who Made Good, for which he wrote the story that the film was based on. Also in 1917, he appeared in It's Never Too Late To Mend. Finally, in 1921 he produced and starred in Land Of My Fathers. Leyton died in his adopted home town of London, England on 5 June at the age of 84. There is no information on the disposal of his remains.
