Born Today January 30: Wilfred Lucas

1871-1940

Canadian born character actor of stage and screen Wilfred (Van Norman) Lucas celebrates a memorial birthday today. Lucas was born on this day in Norfolk, Ontario, probably in the township of Townsend. His father was a minister and he had two older brothers; if he wasn't actually born in Montreal (which is a possibility), he certainly grew up there. His first performances were as a featured singer in his father's church in Montreal; and he was possessed of a fine baritone voice.  This led to performances at small local venues featuring singers; which would in turn eventually hand him his acting career. He turned professional at some point early in his adult life and made a name for himself as a light operatic vocalist.  After attending university, he left his birth country for the U.S. sometime in the 1880's.  His career as an opera singer eventually led to performances in high opera and tours abroad to Europe.  His Broadway debut date is recorded as the 4th of April 1904 in a very small role; by 1906 he had graduated to much larger parts.  His motion picture debut came two years later in one of D.W. Griffith's Biograph shorts The Greaser's Gauntlet.  After he began acting in films, he stayed in the business for the rest of his life (literally, with two titles he appeared in being released after his death). Upon his entrance into the field, he stayed with Biograph, and was actually a player in basically every single film directed by Griffith there between the years 1908 and 1912; after which he moved on from Biograph, landing--after making a few pictures "on the float" at Rex Motion Pictures--at Bison in 1913.  It was at Bison that he directed the vast majority of films in his career (though he had made his directorial debut in 1912 at Biograph, co-directing with Griffith An Outcast Among Outcasts).  The first film listed at Bison that he directed is the western short The Honor of the Regiment in 1913--recorded as starring The Ford Brothers, along with himself, as actors (though unconfirmed). By 1914, he was back to acting under other directors; though he did continue to direct a few titles here and there over the next two years before having a hiatus of two years in the field. Lucas continued to work steadily as an actor during that time, and appeared several lesser known Griffith films after Griffith's departure from Biograph. In 1916, Lucas was one of a cast of hundreds on Griffith's epic Intolerance, though only as an extra (bit biting that, given his close relationship to the famous director only a few years prior). He was also hired as a director at Keystone for a time. Lucas also wrote a few screenplays during the 1910's, his writing debut came at Biograph with Sunshine Sue (1910), a short melodrama and directed by...you guessed it...D.W. Griffith. Of special note is his return to directing in 1917, he co-directed the drama Jim Bludso with a young Tod Browning (he also co-directed Hands Up!--a film that he also penned the adapted screenplay for with Browning).  Lucas took the entire year of 1918 off completely from acting to devote his time solely to directing--returning to acting the following year. During the 1918 acting hiatus, he directed some five films--most feature length. He had a hand in writing parts of some of them, but that task was mostly handed over to his then wife Bess Meredyth (who is better known as the wife of Michael Curtiz).  Lucas is credited with directing nine more films during his lifetime--seven of them in the silent era.  He also continued to write for the pictures up through 1924. As mentioned before, he was throughout his life a hard working character actor who had over 400 credits at the end of his life. As he aged into older characters in the 1920's, he was never at a loss for roles.  He played every type of older male character imaginable: from noble earls and lords to gritty detectives and authoritative judges.  He had a significant hiatus in acting however between 1927 and 1930--which corresponds with the break down and divorce of his second marriage, and his subsequent remarriage in 1929. The last silent film that he appeared was the mystery Burnt Fingers released in 1927, in which he played Lord Cumberly. His next film was the Walter Lang drama Hello Sister in 1930.  It was one of dozens of films that he made in the talking era (though toward the end of his career, many of his roles were small and some portion of them went uncredited until years later).  Without a doubt, the most famous film that he had a part in after the dawn of sound, was Charlie Chaplin's 1936 Modern Times.  Being the horror fan that I am, I would be remiss if I didn't mention his appearance in the 1931 "old dark house" horror thriller The Phantom (it is currently on Amazon Prime for those interested).  His last film credit comes in The Sea Wolf (the second of two films released after his death in which he appeared in bit parts).  Lucas died on the 13th of December 1940 in Los Angeles at the age of 69.  He was cremated and interred at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory. 

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