1891-1944
Actor Robert Frazer made over 200 films in his relatively short lifetime, but one credit stands out amongst all the others: he was the first thespian to portray Robin Hood in this 1912 film made by Eclair. Frazer was born Robert William Browne on this day in Worcester, MA. He started as a stage actor, but his theatrical career was short lived before he moved on the film acting. His film debut in the 1912 Étienne Arnaud directed biblical drama The Holy City made for Eclair American. Frazer, was in fact under contract to the company and stayed with them through 1914. Later in his career he was known as a western specialist--as has been pointed out in several short biographical accounts of his career--but what never seems to make it into these accounts, is that he also had specialized in westerns in the 1910's before he became a leading man of the silent cinema. Between 1912 and 1915 he appeared in several short westerns--usually in the lead (see for example, When Death Road the Engine, The Aztec Treasure, Till the Sands of the Desert Grow Cold, The Line Rider & The Ghost of the Mine). His first appearance in what we regard as a feature length film today came in the 1915 Edmund Mitchell written and directed The Lone Star Rush, a kind of Australian western and Michell's only directorial effort, which clocked in at 50 minutes. It was not long before his was a leading man in romantic and adventurous melodramas: The Dawn of Love (1916), Her Code of Honor (1919), Bolshevism on Trial (1919) and The Bramble Bush are all good examples. He does not show up in another film until 1921, when he took the lead opposite Anna Q. Nilsson in the Metro picture Without A Limit. He only made one other film in 1921--Love, Hate and a Woman. I can't find any information as to why there was such a lull in his career between 1919 and 1922 (a return to the stage perhaps??), but in 1922 his film career picked back and did not again abate. Interestingly, his first film appearance in 1922 was a western, Partners of the Sunset, in which he took the lead opposite Allene Ray. He spent the next two years in films produced by a number of different companies, even appearing in a Lois Weber film (A Chapter in Her Life) and a late J. Searle Dawley film (As a Man Lives). From 1924 through 1927, he appeared in films with a variety of actresses including: Pola Negri, Bebe Daniels, Elaine Hammerstein, Norma Shearer & Clara Bow. In 1928, he found himself in one of Warner's early sound efforts, the partial silent The Little Snob. The first full sound film that he acted in was The Drake Case in 1929, the film was released widely as a fully silent film, and only the silent version has come down to us today. His last film appearance in the 1920's came in the Allan Dwan film Frozen Justice, the now lost (one reel is supposedly stored in the Library of Congress) full sound singing adventure which had him playing opposite popular Broadway actress Lenore Ulric. His first film of the new decade was, fittingly, a western: Beyond The Law (1930). As mentioned above, he would become a player in b-westerns during the decade; as time wore one, he was increasingly a poverty row actor. Also in the 1930's he appeared in two now classic horror films, one with Bela Lugosi: White Zombie, and one with Fay Wray: The Vampire Bat. Like so many leading actors from the silent era, as his career waned on, he was increasingly relegated to bit or even uncredited roles. He continued, however, to work right up until his untimely death on the 17th of August from leukemia--he was only 53 years old. The last film released during his lifetime was the William Boyd film Forty Thieves, released in June of 1944; though he made an appearance in the independent Jack Irwin film Gun Cargo, which wasn't released until 1949. He cremated remains are interred at the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. Frazer was married to silent film actress Mildred Bright.
With Bebe Daniels in Miss Bluebeard (1925)
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