Born Today June 10: George Loane Tucker

1880-1921

All round early silent "do it all" George Loane Tucker was born on this day in Chicago; his mother was a well known stage actress there, so the "business" was pretty much in his blood.  Despite this, he attended and graduated from the University of Chicago and went to work for the railroad, working as a clerk.  He was eventually promoted to Contracting Freight Agent--he was in his early 20's at the time, making him the youngest person to be promoted to that position.  He quit the job though after his first wife died in childbirth.  Due to the influence of his mother's career and the fact that motion pictures were beginning to be viewed as a form of mass entertainment, he decided to try his hand at acting.  The first film he acted in was The Awakening Of Bess in 1909.  He then got into scenario writing, his first script was produced in Their First Misunderstandings (1911), a film that he also shadow directed, and starred Mary Pickford.  The film became a hit--one the first so-called "blockbusters."  The first film that he directed on his own also came in 1911 with Dangerous Lines.  By far and away his most important film was Traffic In Souls (1913), a film dealing with the subject of white slavery (sex slavery); which was also his first feature length film.  The film became a runaway hit, earning well over a million dollars in profit.  This firmly established his prowess as a film maker and crafter.  He was hired by the London Film Company to be their director general, so he relocated to England.  While there, he met his second wife, British actress Elisabeth Risdon.  For that house, he directed the very first film adaptation of the novel The Manxman (1916), filmed on location on the Isle Of Man (the film would later be remade in 1929 by Alfred Hitchcock--one his last silent films).  It was one of the first British film to have distribution in the United States, and once again, Tucker found himself with another hit on his hands.  He returned to the U.S. in 1916 and became the director general for Goldwyn Pictures.  His 1917 The Cinderella Man, which became that studios most profitable film of that year.  Continuing on with success after success, his most well remembered film (and his most profitable) was made in 1919; The Miracle Man starred Lon Chaney Sr. He had by this time relocated to Hollywood. The last film that he made was Ladies Must Live (1921) (Tucker also had a credit each as editor and producer to his name from the late 1910's).  Tucker died at the very young age of 41 on June, 20 1921, after some sort of long undisclosed illness.  He is buried at the Hollywood Forever cemetery.  In all, he had directed nearly 70 films.  

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Born Today June 9: Marion Leonard

1881-1956

American stage and very early film actress Marion Leonard was born on this day in Cincinnati, Ohio.  And it was in Cincinnati that she began her stage career.  She eventually wound up working in the New York area and was signed to a contract with the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1908 at the age of 27.  She made her film debut that same year in At The Crossroads Of Life, a film written by soon to be directing sensation D. W. Griffith.  One of the films that she appeared in that is most remembered today in D. W. Griffith's 1909 The Sealed Room, basically Griffith's only horror film.  With her contract up in 1910, she went to work with Reliance Films; most probably the first film that she made for them was The Gray Of The Dawn (1910).  She did return to work at Biograph for a time, because she had begun a relationship with one of their most important behind-the-scenes writers and over-all mover and shaker Stanner E. V. Taylor.  By 1914, the now married couple had started their own production house in the Marion Leonard Film Company; The Rose Of Yesteryear (1914) appears to be their first film.  The last film that she appeared in before retiring from regular acting was directed by her husband; The Dragon's Claw was released in 1915.  As far as Internet Movie Database in concerned, this is where her film appearances ended, but she was persuaded--in her mid-40's--to return to make at least one (possibly more) appearance in a 1926 Mack Sennett film.  She died on the 9th of January 1956 at the Motion Picture and Television Country House & Hospital  in Woodland Hills, California.  Sadly there is no information as to her burial or cremation. 

In Griffith's The Sealed Room

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Born Today June 8: Charles Reade

1814-1884

English novelist and playwright Charles Reade was born on this date in Ipsden, England (located in Oxfordshire).  When at university age, he studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, earning a B.A. in 1835.  Immediately following this, he became a fellow of his college.  He subsequently became dean of arts and vice-president of the college, all the while studying the law at the same time.  In 1847 he took a degree of D.C.L. (a legal degree) and was then called to the bar in 1843.  Though he kept his fellowship at Magdalen College for the remainder of his life, he did not live in Oxford; his practice at the bar necessitated that he live in the environs of London.  When Reade began to write, he started writing for the stage, though he did also get into writing novels, he always preferred to write for the live action of the theater.  Reade's works were wildly popular in his lifetime, and he was one of the highest paid writers of his time, but was considered to be a writer of "indecent pulp" by critics and libraries.  He also had obvious character flaws in his private life as well.  He disowned his adopted daughter when she ran away with an actor--someone she likely would never had met if not for her father--when she was 16 years of age.  The relationship quickly dissolved, but he refused to ever acknowledge her again.  She herself became a stage actress, acting in stage adaptation of one her father's novels hundreds of times, but eventually wound up destitute and living in a workhouse, which is how her life ended.  By the early twentieth century his work was falling seriously out of fashion;  and almost all of the films made from his work were made during the silent era, with only three made in the 1930's and none after 1937. The first film was the short Peg Woffington (1910), an Edison film, directed by Edwin S. Porter.  In all, 21 films were made from his work between 1910 and 1922, with the last of these being a kind of "mash-up"--Tense Moments From Great Plays was a film from the United Kingdom.  The first sound film using his writing as source material came in 1931 with The Lyons Mail.  The last film made from his work (so far...) is one of my personal favorite Tod Slaughter films; It's Never Too Late To Mend (1937), which is based on his novel of the same name (though it had long been adapted for the stage); it remains one Reade's only real work of social commentary.  Reade died in London on the 11th of April 1884 almost one month to the day from his 70th birthday.  He is buried in St. Mary Churchyard in Willesden, which is in the great London area.  On his burial monument he had all of his life accomplishments listed, making sure that "dramatist" was listed first.

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Born Today June 7: R. D. Blackmore

1825-1900

British writer R. D. Blackmore (Richard Doddridge) was born on this day in Longworth, Berkshire, England.  His father John Blackmore was Curate-in-charge of the Parish there.  In 1837 he entered Blundell's School located in Tiverton to study the classics; he then won a scholarship to attend Exeter College, Oxford; he took a degree from there in 1847.  During a break from university, he made his first attempt to write a novel (a book that he would finish many years later).  His first job as a teacher was in the capacity of a private tutor.  He then decided to take up the study of the law; eventually being called to the bar in 1852.  By two years later, his ill health lead him to abandon a full time law career, so he instead took up the post of classics master at a grammar school.  In 1857, after inheriting some money from an uncle, he and his wife were able to move to the country and purchase a sizable track with a lot of arable land.  Blackmore then built a home there, eventually going into the fruit cultivation business--occasionally supplying Covent Garden with fresh fruit.  His first published writings came in the form of a volume of poetry, he then turned to novel writing and it is his third novel that he is most remembered for today.  Lorna Doone was published in 1869.  Every single film made using his work as source material has been based on this work.  The first film came in 1911 this version of Lorna Doone was a short made by the Thanhouser Film Corp. here in the US.  Four films of this work were made in the silent era; the last coming in 1922.  The first sound film made Lorna Doone came in a British production dating from 1934.  The work made it's television debut in 1963 when the BBC made a mini-series of it.  The most recent use of the novel for adaptation came in 2000 with a made for television film in the United Kingdom.  Blackmore died at home after some type of long and painful illness that may have been some sort of infection, since he suffered from fever and chills in the end; the date was 20 January 1900.  He was 74 years old.  He was buried in a family plot in Teddington Cemetery next to his wife.

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Born Today June 6: Alexander Pushkin

1799-1837

Russian writer Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born on this day in Moscow, in what was then the Russian Empire.  On his father's side of the family he was descended from a noble Russian line that could be traced back to the 12th century and his mother was the descendant of German and Scandinavian nobility.  It is known that by the age of 15 Pushkin had written his first poem.  By the time he had finished his extensive education given to nobility, he was already gaining serious fame in Russian literary circles.  By 1820 he had published his first long poem--the poem caused a minor sensation, not just for content, but also for style.  After a rather wild and rowdy youth, Pushkin emerged as a social reformer and became a spokesman for some literary radical writers.  This, of course, did not sit well with the Emperor.  He basically put himself into exile, traveling to the Caucasus, through to Crimea and other Ukrainian parts, it was at this time that he became a Freemason.  He then joined a secret organization that's sole purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece.  In 1823 he relocated to Odessa, where all of these ideals that he had been collecting caused him to clash again with the government.  This time, he was sent into actual exile on his mother's rural estate.  He spent his time there writing very lengthy poems, and began to write plays.  In 1825 he was allowed to petition the Tsar for his release, which he was granted; however several of his earlier political poems were still being used by revolutionary writers and helped inspire the Decembrist Revolt, through no direct action on Pushkin's part.  This caused him to be placed under strict restriction by the government in regards to censorship and freedom of movement.  He was not allowed to publish at will and he could not travel without permissions.  Also in 1825, he penned what is probably his most famous work, the play Boris Godunov.  And it is this work that was first used as source material for film.  Two films of the work were produced in 1907, the first of which was a Russian short directed by on I. Shuvalov; the second--also a Russian short--is a lost film.  After 1825, Pushkin's career and renown began to rise rapidly.  He eventually married and had children, all the while continuing to write and publish.  By 1836, his troubles with debt began; he was also having to deal with a persistent scandalous rumor that his wife had an affair.  He went so far as to demand a duel over the rumor--challenging one Georges d'Anthés--a man pursuing Pushkin's sister and spreading gossip.  Eventually the duel was cancelled but d'Anthés kept up his public pursuit of the sister, with the scandal grew out of control.  Eventually Pushkin sent a very insulting letter to d'Anthés' step-father, knowing full well that it would provoke a renewed duel challenge--which it did.  The duel itself did not kill Pushkin out right, but a musket ball wound through his abdomen did, two days later.  Pushkin died on the 10th of February (Roman calendar) in St. Petersburg in 1837 from an acute case of peritonitis at the age of 37.  He was eventually buried on the grounds of a monastery in Svyatagorsk Pskov province translated into English: Holy Assumption Monastery.  In regards to film in the silent era, quite a wide range of his work was used for films from 1907 through 1928; the vast majority of them being Russian productions.  The first sound film made from his work came in 1934 with the French produced Volga In Flames.  The most recent film utilizing his writing came last year with the Russian produced Queen Of Spades.  

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Born Today June 5: Charles Ogle

1865-1940

Giant of the early silver screen Charles Stanton Ogle was born on this day in Steubenville, Ohio, the son of a minister.  Ogle, of course, was a stage actor before acting in film and he made his successful Broadway debut in 1905. Ogle made his film debut in 1908, when he went to work for the Edison Manufacturing Company under contract--one of the first actors to sign such a contract with a studio (the first studio, no less).  The Boston Tea Party, a short historical drama, was released in July of that year and directed by Edwin S. Porter.  Under this contract he would assay a number of well know roles from works of literature.  Probably the most famous is that of Frankenstein's Monster in the very first film of that book.  Frankenstein dates from 1910 and was directed by J.Serle Dawley.  The film featured some truly impressive special effects for the day; Ogle created the makeup for the role himself--and he did a great job (!)--a tradition that was still going strong in the 1920's (see, for example, the many photos of Lon Chaney Sr. [an actor Ogle would later work with] and his portable make-up kit).

Ogle as The Monster

That same year, Ogle would go on to play the meek, hardworking, rather pathetic Bob Cratchit from Charles Dickens immortal Christmas classic A Christmas Carol  ; he played opposite Marc McDermott's Scrooge (McDermott was actually a much younger actor than Ogle).  He had no shortage of work at Edison!  By 1912, he found himself the star of What Happened To Mary, the first serial ever produced.  With the serial turning out to be a great marketing plan to the public (Edison quickly noticed that they were quite addictive), a larger serial thriller was planned and executed in 1914 with The Man Who Disappeared, both Ogle and McDermott [who was the star] appeared in it.  The last film that he made for Edison was also in 1914, he played Ragnarr in The Viking Queen.  After this, he and his frequent co-star Mary Fuller--who he had been working with since the beginning of his film career--absconded to Victor Film. The company had a distribution deal with Universal, and indeed, the first film that they made for the studio--The Witch Girl (1914)--was distributed by Universal.  By 1917, he was with Jesse L Lasky's company.  The first confirmed feature length film that he is known to have acted in was A Romance Of The Redwood (1917), a Mary Pickford film directed by Cecil B. DeMille; the film is 1 hour 10 minutes long.  In 1920, he appeared as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, a film which also featured Chaney Sr.  Throughout the 1920's he fell easily into character acting; with the last film that he appeared in coming in 1926 with The Flaming Forest.  With his retirement in 1926, in all he had appeared in more than 300 films.  Ogle lived a further 14 years in Long Beach, California, where he died from arteriosclerosis on the 11th of October in 1940.  He is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

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Born Today June 4: Harley Knoles

1880-1936

British silent film director Harley Knoles (sometimes spelled Knowles) was born on this day in Rotherham, which is located in Yorkshire, England.  Though he was English by birth, he got his start in film States-side with the first "Hollywood":  Fort Lee, NJ.  The first film that he is credited with directing, is also one that he primarily wrote the adapted screenplay himself.  The Master Hand came out in 1915 and was produced for the short lived Premo Feature Film Co. (they only produced two films).  During his time in Fort Lee, he worked for the likes of World Film, Peerless, and various incarnations Premo, amongst other more independent studios.  The first film that he made that was shot in Hollywood came in 1919--Bolshevism On Trial.  His next film, The Great Shadow (1920) was shot in Ontario, Canada and starred Tyrone Power Sr.  The first film that he made for a studio that is recognizable to us today was Guilty Of Love (1920), which was made at Paramount.  This first film that he made in his native England came in 1921 with Carnival.  He is best remembered for his next picture A Bohemian Girl (1922), for which he got his first producer credit.  After these two British made films, he returned to the United States to make two films, and then returned to his home country, where he continued to direct through most of the rest of the 1920's.  The last film that he directed (rather co-directed) was The Rising Generation in 1928.  After this, he has only two producer credits to his name in 1931 and 1934 respectively.  The 1934 film Norah O'Neale would mark the end of his career in motion picture.  Knoles died just two years later In London, England on the 6th of January 1936 at the age of 55.

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Born Today June 3: Robert Edeson

1868-1931

Silent film and stage actor Robert Edeson was born on this date in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Given that he was born so long before the actual invention of the narrative film, it is hardly surprising that he was much more of a stage legend than a film star.  He was a major actor during his time on Broadway.  He got into film acting relatively late in life.  His first film dates from the year 1912 with the short western His Message, a Thomas Ince film.  The first film that he acted in that has historical merit comes in the Cecil B. DeMille co-directed The Call Of The North (1914).  He worked pretty steadily throughout the rest of the 1910's, all the while still managing stage appearances.  The first film of the 1920's that he acted in came with Extravagance (1921), a Phil Rosen film.  In 1922, he had a small role in Erich von Storheim's Foolish Wives; doubling for the star of the film Rudolph Christians after the star died of pneumonia during filming.  In 1923, he landed a medium sized role in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments.  Throughout the 1920's his acting in film picked up notably--as he was by this time thoroughly a Hollywood performer and under contract to DeMille's company DeMille Pictures Corp. By 1928, his contract up, he appears to have become a type of free agent.  He had a part, for example, in Frank Capra's The Power Of The Press (1928), which was made for Columbia and starred Douglas Fairbanks Jr..  His next film was an all mono film with sound by Vitaphone; The Home Towners (1928) was made for Warner Bros (the early sound comedy is a lost film).  The first film that he made in the 1930's was produced by Fox, Cameo Kirby (1930) appears to have yet another victim of the Fox vault fire of 1937.  The last film that he appeared in was Aloha (1931).  Edeson died of a heart disease of some sort on the 24th of March 1931 in Hollywood, having worked right up to the day he passed.  His remains were cremated and scattered at an unknown location in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  He was 62 years old. 

His star on east side of the 1600 block on Vine St.

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Born Today June 2: Pope Pius X

1835-1914

Pope Pius X was born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, in Reise, Treviso in the then Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia--part of the Austrian Holy Roman Empire [now Riese Pio X, Veneto, Italy, named after the pontiff].  He was the second of ten children born into a rather poor family whose father was the village postman.  The nearest school to his place of residence was nearly 4 miles away, however he walked the distance to and fro every day.  He also studied Latin with the village priest--he had taken this up at a young age.  He was finally sent away to the gymnasium located in Castelfranco Veneto to further his studies.  In 1850 he was given a tonsure (a sacred hair cut) by the Bishop of Treviso and was given a scholarship to study at the Seminary in Padua.  He finished his wide ranging studies with distinction.  He was ordained as a priest on the 18th of September in 1858.  He became the chaplain at Tombolo following his ordination.  In 1867 he was named archpriest of Salzano.  He was popular there; he had managed to expand the hospital and retore the broken down and aged church through his own funding.  He did not shrink from the sick during a cholera outbreak in northern Italy in the early 1870's.  He was then named canon of the cathedral and chancellor of Treviso, while at the same time holding the position of rector of the Treviso seminary--which he turned into a public education possibility. In 1879, following the death of the Bishop of Treviso in 1878, he was elected to fill the temporary duties left vacant in the office until a new Bishop could be named.  He then returned to his teaching at the seminary.  On the 10th of November, he was appointed bishop of Mantua; and was consecrated 6 days later in Rome by Lucido Cardinal Parocchi.  In 1891 he was appointed to the position of assistant at the pontifical throne--an honorary position.  He required a papal dispensation from then Pope Leo XIII, as he lacked a doctorate.  On the 12th of June 1893, Leo XIII made him a cardinal, becoming Cardinal-Priest of San Bernardo alle Terme.  This was done in an open public ceremony and a fair amount of pomp and circumstance.  Three days later, however, the Pope also privately named him Patriarch of Venice.  This was publicized two days later.  This caused a bit of stir, as the nation of Italy was by then in flux away from the Holy Roman Empire, of which the Roman Curia sided with at the time--so political uncertainty entered into the act.  However, after many such seats became so numerously vacant, Sarto was allowed to assume the position.  In the position he found it expedient and wise to avoid politics, preferring to work on strengthening parochial banks and concentrate on social good works.  When Leo died in 1903, the conclaves that followed was anything but smooth--but eventually Sarto was voted in and he eventually accepted becoming Pope Pius X.  In doing so, he become the last pontiff not to have gained a doctorate.  In many ways, his papacy was the opposite of his predecessor--he has been considered and called "anti-modern" and undid many of the teaching put in place by Leo.  As usual, for any historical figures is great note, follow links for more information, especially in this case in regard to his papal rule.  As I noted in my post on him, Pope Leo became the very first Pope ever to appear on film.  Obviously Pius X was the second.  He appeared in three newsreel films (that we know of), the first of which was Pio X in Vaticano in 1907.  The second came 5 years later with Sua Santitá Pio X e le grandi feste cattoliche a Roma (1913).  The last came after his death, and was the only film to be produced of him outside of Italy:  His Holiness, the Late Pope Pius X, and the Vatican was released in the US in 1914.  In 1913, he suffered a heart attack that he never fully recovered from.  In 1914 he fell ill during the Feast of the Assumption Of Mary on the 15 August 1914--the nature of the illness was not disclosed.  He died 5 days later of another heart attack (20 August 1914).  He was 79.  He was buried in a tomb under St. Peter's Basilica in what was originally a simple and completely unadorned sarcophagus--he was subsequently moved to a more elaborate tomb.  

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Born Today June 1: Dante Alighieri

1265-1312

Famed late Medieval Italian poet Dante degli Alighieri was probably, or even possibly, born on this date in the Republic of Florence's seat of power Florence proper (now the capital of the Tuscany region of Italy). Another common date for his birth is given as May 22.  A lot of calculations about his age come from deductions found in his Divine Comedy (one can follow links below for more on the subject).  Alighieri was born into minor aristocracy, and he himself, claimed direct decent from ancient Rome.  His family was aligned with a political coalition that backed the Pope, and were opposed to the group that backed the Holy Roman Emperor.  This would have profound influence both in the events of Dante's life, but also on how he ultimately came to view the world.  He was known to have fought with the Guelph cavalry in the Battle of Campaldino which took place on the 11th of June in 1289, the Guelphs won.  This occasioned a change in the Florentine constitution and that included a stipulation that if one wanted to participate in public life, you had to register with a guild.  Dante enrolled in the Physicians and Apothecaries Guild.  What is known about Alighieri's education for certain is that he studied Tuscan poetry and possibly, in a broader sense rhetoric and grammar as was the tradition of the day.  He openly admired various other Italian poets of the age.  He coined as new phrase and style of both expression and writing called the dulce stil novo (sweet new style) and would later explore the concept with other writers when he was in his 20's.  By 1290 he was studying ancient Roman philosophy and later religious studies along Dominican lines--this was one of the lines that led to public political statements on his part that would later result in his exile.  The Guelph line that he was born into split into  two faction after the Battle of Campaldino--White and Black, with Dante siding with the White faction, largely along family lines.  Their differences lie in how much of a role the Papal state would have upon Florentine affairs.  The Black fation favored direct Papal rule, while the White faction favored more independence in Florence.  The White faction was first to seize power in Florence and promptly expelled the Black faction, this led directly to a planned papal military occupation of the state by Pope Boniface VIII.  Various events played to the point a Florentine delegation had to be sent to Rome to ascertain the intentions of the Pope.  Dante was among them.  A harsh trick was then played on the writer, with the Pope dismissing all of the White Guelph delegates except Dante, thus essentially holding him at The Vatican.  While it was presented as a "request" by the Pope, he knew he dare not say no it.  Back in Florence, the Pope then sent in Charles of Valois, brother of the King of France, along with a large number of Black Guelph's to basically sack the place.  They installed a Black Guelph leader, and Florence basically became a puppet state.  Instead of exiling the White faction--as the that faction had done with the Black, the Black Guelphs simply killed a large number of them.  On what was clearly a trumped up charge, the new leader accused Dante of public corruption while serving for a time as Florence's city prior for a mere two months in 1300 (the office was the highest public position in the land at the time).  Because Dante remained in Rome, he was considered to have "absconded."  He was fined, if he wanted to return, he must pay.  He basically could not do this because: 1. his assets had been seized, and 2. he considered himself wholly innocent of the charge.  Under the circumstances if he had returned, he could have been burned at the stake (as a side note: it took until 2008 for the city council in Florence to officially rescind his sentence!).  After dealing with the treachery of the Black faction and growing sick biting infighting amongst the White faction, Dante wanted to be left to his own devices.  Not a whole lot is known for sure about the following period of his life, but he appears to have become a wanderer of sorts, with the real possibility that he spent some time in Paris during the period.  Some even claim that he visited Oxford, but these sources appear to highly questionable.  In fact, there is not one single shred of real evidence that he ever left the Italian peninsula.  Out of politics and left to contemplate on his own, his thinking became honed and his writing became fluid and frequent.  It was during this time of his life and exile that he had the idea of the Comedy in a 3 book form (as in The Holy Trinity).  This poetic tome is the only reason that he is known outside of his corner of Italy today.  What makes the work so remarkable for it's time is the language that it is written in.  Almost all poetry of the time, except the lowest forms of verse, was written in Latin, considered the proper language of poetry.  Dante, however, wrote the Divine Comedy in Italian instead.  The work follows Dante's travels first through Hell--Inferno, then through Purgatory--Puratorio, and finally to Heaven or Paradise--Paradiso.  Along the way he encounters a great many people well known to the world at large; from Virgil to very personal people in Dante's life with a special place in Hell set aside for Popes who committed the sin of gaining financially from their office.  Although Dante did write other important works, almost none of them are popular outside of the realm of studies of Italian poetry of the late Middle Ages.  Certainly when it comes to films, The Divine Comedy is the only work that matters.  The very first film to use the work in a film came in the Italian short Il purgatorio in 1911--oddly (by today's standards anyway) not The Inferno, the middle Purgatory poem, was chosen.  However, two other films of from The Divine Comedy were also made in 1911, and they were both based on the inferno.  The first was short Dante's Inferno (1911-I).  The next is one the most important surviving versions of his work from the silent era, the first is that for is length--well over an hour--it was the first feature length film to be shown entirely in one sitting, it is equally as important a work as being one of the earliest surviving horror films as well.  Dante's Inferno (1911-II) was a first on many other levels as well; it was the very first feature lenth film to be in a wide release (spanning at least two continents); and it was absolutely the first film to show full frontal male nudity!  It would not be until 1925 that another important silent film of his work was released; Maciste In Hell remains the other incredibly important silent film of his work to this day (both films have also had modern bands compose their own scores for the films:  Tangerine Dream for Dante's Inferno (1911-II) and Gojira for Maciste).  In all, 7 films were made of Alighieri's work in the silent era (with Maciste being the last).  The first sound film made from the work came from Fox Studios in 1935 with, you guessed it, Dante's Inferno.  His work was first produced exclusively for television in 1974 with the Hungarian made-for-TV film Pokol--Inferno.  The latest released film of his work dates from 2013 with the animated short Dante's Hell Animated.  Technically, there are 4 films in the works, but one of them is a closely cut trilogy in Inferno By Dante is set for release this year, with Purgatory By Dante and Paradise By Dante slated for release next year.  As for Dante himself, he had barely finished Paradiso, when he accepted an invitation to stay in Ravenna, which was then part of the Papal State proper, in 1318.  While there, he accepted an invitation to travel as a diplomat to Venice in 1321, he died on his way back to Ravenna from there.  It is thought the mostly cause of death was Malaria that he contracted in Venice.  He was buried in Ravenna at the Church of San Pier Maggiore.  The most common date of death is given as the 14th of September.  He was 56 years old. 

Exterior of the tomb built in 1870

Interior

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