Portraits of 1800 era westerners.

American actor-director-writer-producer Gilbert M. Anderson, father of the movie cowboy and the first Western star, was born Maxwell Henry Aronson in Little Rock, Arkansas. His parents, Esther (Ash) and Henry Aronson, were from New York. His father was from a German Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of Russian Jewish parents. He had worked as a photographer's model and newspaper vendor before drifting into acting. He performed in vaudeville before joining forces with Edwin S. Porter as an actor and occasional script collaborator. In Porter's startling early film The Great Train Robbery (1903), Anderson played several roles (among them, the train passenger shot by bandits as he tries to escape). The success of that film prompted Anderson to begin writing, directing and starring in his own series of Westerns. In 1907 he and George K. Spoor founded Essanay Film Manufacturing Co., destined to be one of the predominant early film studios. Anderson gained enormous popularity in hundreds of Western shorts, playing the first real cowboy hero, "Broncho Billy." Writing and directing most of the films, Anderson also found time to direct a series of "Alkali Ike" comedy Westerns starring Augustus Carney. In 1916 Anderson sold his ownership in Essanay and retired from acting. He returned to New York and bought the Longacre Theatre and produced plays there, though not achieving the same kind of success he enjoyed in films. He made a brief comeback as a producer with a series of shorts starring Stan Laurel for Metro Pictures. However, a series of conflicts with the studio led him retire again after 1920. He continued to produce films as owner of Progressive Pictures into the 1950s. In his 70s, he came out of retirement for a cameo role in The Bounty Killer (1965). He had been presented with an honorary Oscar in 1957 as a "motion picture pioneer, for his contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment." Anderson died in 1971 at the age of 90.

Hobart Bosworth--pioneering movie director, writer, producer and actor--was born Hobart Van Zandt Bosworth on August 11, 1867, in Marietta, OH. He was a direct descendant of Miles Standish and John and Priscilla Alden on his father's side and of New York's Van Zandt family, the first Dutch settlers to land in the New World, on his mother's side. Bosworth was always proud of his lineage.

After his mother died his father remarried and the young Hobart took a dislike to his stepmother. Convinced that he was "ill used and cruelly treated," as he told an interviewer in 1914, he ran away from home for to New York City. He signed on as a cabin boy on the clipper ship "Sovereign of the Seas" and was soon out at sea.

After his first voyage, a five-month affair that took him from New York to San Francisco, he spent his wages on candy. Sleeping it off on a bench in the park in back of Trinity Church, the young boy did not know that the organ music he was listening to as he dozed was being played by his very own uncle. A Captain Roberts, who found stevedore work for the lad, told him of his uncle's presence in San Francisco. He continued as a sailor, as the sea was in his family's blood, eventually spending three years at sea. "All my people were of the sea and my father was a naval officer," he told an interviewer. He spent 11 months on an old-fashioned whaler plying the Arctic region, then was employed doing odd jobs in San Francisco. After turns as a semi-professional boxer and wrestler, Bosworth tried ranching in Southern California and Mexico, where he learned to become an expert horseman. Finally, his interest in art led him to the stage.

Thinking he'd like to become a landscape painter, a friend suggested that Bosworth work as a stage manager to raise the money to study art. Acting on his friend's advice, Bosworth obtained a job with McKee Rankin as a stage manager at the California Theatre in San Francisco. With the money he made, he undertook the study of painting. Eventually he was pressed into duty as an actor with a small part with three lines. Though he botched the lines, he was given other small roles. Bosworth was 18 years old and on the cusp of a life in the theater.

He signed on with Louis Morrison to be part of a road company for a season as both an actor and as Morrison's dresser, playing William Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" and "Measure for Measure" (during his time with the company, Hobarth and another writer wrote a version of "Faust" that Morrison used for 20 years in repertory). By 1887 he was acting at the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco, and became proficient enough on stage to give Shakespearean recitals in costume the following year. He had acted almost all of the famous characters in the Shakespearean canon by the time he was 21 years old, though he admitted that he was the worst Macbeth ever.

Bosworth eventually wound up in Park City, UT, where he was forced to work in a mine, pushing an ore wagon in order to raise money. He escaped the pits to tour with magician Hermann the Great as the conjurer's assistant for a tour through Mexico. For the first time in eleven years, the 21-year-old Bosworth met his father. Hobarth recalled, "[H]e looked at me and said 'Hum! I couldn't lick you now, son.'" They never met again.

Bosworth arrived back in New York in December 1888, and was hired by Augustin Daly to play Charles the Wrestler in "As You Like It." He did so well in the role that Daly kept him on. Bosworth remained with Daly's company for 10 years, in which he played mostly minor parts. Seven times while he was with the company it made foreign tours, playing in Berlin, Cologne, London, Paris and other European cities.

Eventually, being kept in small parts eroded his confidence, and Bosworth left Daly to sign on with Julia Marlowe, who cast him in leads in Shakespearean plays. Just as Bosworth began to taste stage stardom in New York, he was struck down with tuberculosis, a very serious ailment in the 19th century. Bosworth was forced to give up the stage, as he was not allowed to toil indoors. Though he made a rapid recovery, he returned to the stage too quickly and suffered a relapse. For the rest of his working life he had to balance his acting with periods of rest so as to keep his T.B. under control.

Bosworth re-established himself as a lead actor on the New York stage, appearing opposite the famous actress Minnie Maddern Fiske (Mary Augusta Davey) in the 1903 Boradway revival of Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler." He also appeared that year on the Great White Way as the lead in "Marta of the Lowlands," which was produced by Harrison Grey Fiske, Mrs. Fiske's husband. The role propelled him to Broadway stardom. However, he was forced again to give up the stage when he lost 70 pounds in ten weeks.

Moving to Tempe, AZ, to partake of the salubrious climate improved his chances of battling T.B., and eventually he got the disease under control. While he was not actually an invalid, he was forced to live like one and remain in a warm climate lest he suffer a relapse. The T.B. robbed him of his voice, but since he was no longer on stage, it didn't matter. There was a new medium for actors: motion pictures. Bosworth moved to San Diego, which had a reputation of having the most perfect climate in the continental United States, and in 1908 was contracted to make a film by the Selig Polyscope Co. Shooting was to be down in the outdoors, and he did not have to use his voice, which was in a poor condition. The arrangement was perfect for him. "I believe, after all, that it is the motion pictures that have saved my life," he recounted less than a decade later. "How could I have lived on and on, without being able to carry out any of my cherished ambitions? What would my life have meant? Here, in pictures, I am realizing my biggest hopes." Signing with Selig, Bosworth eventually spearheaded the movie company's move to Los Angeles. He is widely credited with being the star of the first movie made on the West Coast. Due to his role in pioneering California for the film industry, Bosworth often was referred to as the "Dean of Hollywood." He wrote the scenarios for the second and third pictures he acted in, and directed the third. According to his own count, he eventually wrote 112 scenarios and produced 84 pictures for Selig. Bosworth was attracted to Jack London's work due to his out-of-doors filming experience and the requirements of his health, which obviated acting in studios. "In all my reading I have never come across better material for motion picture plays than Jack London's stories, and I hope to go right through the whole lot."

In 1913 he formed his own company, Hobart Bosworth Productions Co., to produce a series of Jack London melodramas. He produced, directed and starred in the company's first picture, playing Wolf Larsen in The Sea Wolf (1913), with London himself appearing as a sailor. The movie was released in the U.S. by W.W. Hodkinson Corp. D.W. Griffith also released a Jack London picture earlier that year, Two Men of the Desert (1913), but Bosworth followed up "The Sea Wolf" with The Chechako (1914), with Jack Conway playing the lead as Smoke Bellew, the title character of the eponymous London novel the movie is based on. "The Chechako" and some of the subsequent Boswoth-London pictures were distributed through Paramount, the releasing arm of Famous Players-Lasky.

Conway also starred in the Bosworth-directed follow-up The Valley of the Moon (1914), in which Bosworth had a supporting role. He also appeared as an actor in John Barleycorn (1914), which he co-directed with J. Charles Haydon. He produced, directed, wrote and acted in Martin Eden (1914) and An Odyssey of the North (1914), playing the lead in the latter, which was released by Paramount. He finished up the series by producing, directing and playing the lead in the two-part "Burning Daylight" series: Burning Daylight: The Adventures of 'Burning Daylight' in Alaska (1914) and Burning Daylight: The Adventures of 'Burning Daylight' in Civilization (1914), both of which were released by Paramount.

Bosworth hooked up with the Oliver Morosco Photoplay Co., making its Los Angeles facility on North Occidental Boulevard his headquarters. Subsequently Bosworth Inc. and Oliver Morosco Photoplay were absorbed by Paramount in 1916. Between 1913 and 1921 Hobart Bosworth Productions produced a total of 31 pictures, most of which starred Bosworth. The company ceased operations after producing The Sea Lion (1921).

The merger with Paramount ended the period in Bosworth's creative life where he was a major force in the motion picture industry, which was undergoing changes as the industry matured and solidified. He directed his last picture even before the merger, The White Scar (1915), which he also wrote and starred in for Universal Film Manufacturing Co. After his own production company wound up, Hobart Bosworth began playing supporting roles as an actor. He divorced his first wife, Adele Farrington, in 1919, the year after their son George was born.

He survived the transition to sound. Aside from appearing in Warner Bros.' showcase film Show of Shows (1929), his talking picture debut proper was in the short subject A Man of Peace (1928) for Vitaphone, while his first sound feature was Vitaphone's Ruritania drama General Crack (1929), starring John Barrymore.

Though he appeared in small roles in A-list films, including some classics, Bosworth primarily made his living as a prominently billed character actor in "B" westerns and serials churned out by Poverty Row studios. In his roles in A and B pictures, he typically was typecast as a fatherly type, such as dads, clergymen, judges, governors and the like, though occasionally he got to play a heavy. His most memorable roles included playing John Gilbert's father in both King Vidor's classic The Big Parade (1925) and Clarence Brown's A Woman of Affairs (1928), and Conrad Nagel's father in Du Barry, Woman of Passion (1930). He also appeared in the Al Jolson vehicle Mammy (1930), directed by Michael Curtiz, and in the Little Rascals' only feature film, General Spanky (1936) (a flop).

In addition to Vidor, Brown and Curtiz, Bosworth worked with other great directors, including Ernst Lubitsch (in support of John Barrymore in Eternal Love (1929)), D.W. Griffith (playing Gen. Robert E. Lee in Abraham Lincoln (1930)), 'Frank Capra' (in Dirigible (1931)) and Lady for a Day (1933)) and John Ford (headlining Hearts of Oak (1924), starring in Hangman's House (1928) and playing the Chaplain in support of Will Rogers in Steamboat Round the Bend (1935)).

Bosworth had a featured role in the early science-fiction movie Just Imagine (1930) and played Chingachgook in support of star Harry Carey's Hawkeye in Mascot Pictures' serial The Last of the Mohicans (1932). As the sound era wore on, he was reduced to bit parts, frequently uncredited, in such A-pictures as the W.C. Fields comedy Million Dollar Legs (1932) and the Errol Flynn western They Died with Their Boots On (1941). He kept working until the year before his death, appearing in six films in 1942, including an uncredited bit role as a clergyman in support of Barbara Stanwyck in The Gay Sisters (1942), his penultimate picture. His last film was Universal Pictures' western Sin Town (1942), starring Constance Bennett and Broderick Crawford, which was advertised with the intriguing tagline "The Glory Hole of the Booming Oil Towns!"

Altogether, Hobart Bosworth acted in over 250 movies from 1908 to 1942, directed 44 known pictures from 1911 to 1915, and wrote 27 & produced 11 known pictures from 1911 to 1921. His actual count might be hundreds more.

Hobart Bosworth, the "Dean of Hollywood," died on December 30, 1943 of pneumonia in Glendale, CA. He was 76 years old. He was survived by his second wife, Cecile, and his son George.

Hugh Sothern was born on 20 July 1881 in Anderson County, Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Buccaneer (1938), Captain America (1944) and Old Hickory (1939). He died on 13 April 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Sam Hardy was born on 21 March 1883 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for King Kong (1933), The Miracle Woman (1931) and Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934). He was married to Betty Scott. He died on 16 October 1935 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Lee Willard was born on 13 June 1873 in Peoria, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Flame Fighter (1925), Sophie's Fatal Wedding (1914) and The Calling of Jim Barton (1914). He died on 9 December 1940 in San Francisco, California, USA.

Edmund Breese was born on 18 June 1871 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Duck Soup (1933), Platinum Blonde (1931) and The Hurricane Express (1932). He was married to Genevieve Landry and Harriet A. Beach. He died on 6 April 1936 in New York City, New York, USA.

Ray portrayed simple unaffected country bumpkins in silent rural melodramas. Unfortunately, Ray let Hollywood turn him into a headstrong egotist. Alienating most producers, he put up his own money to finance a major feature called The Courtship of Myles Standish (1923). The film was a miserable failure that wiped out Ray's fortune. Comeback attempts were hampered by the advent of the sound picture.

By the time that he was 20, Lewis Stone had turned prematurely grey. He enlisted to fight in the Spanish American War and when he returned, he returned to be a writer. This turned to acting and he began to appear in films during the middle teens. His career was again interrupted by war as he served in the cavalry during World War I. After the war, he returned to films and quickly graduated to lead roles. With his distinguished look and grey hair, he was able to play the roles of well mannered romantic men. In 1921, Lewis starred in Don't Neglect Your Wife (1921). In the next year, he starred with Alice Terry, who played the heroine, and Ramon Novarro in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and Scaramouche (1923). In 1924, Metro merged into the new MGM where Lewis remained for the rest of his career. He was busy over the next few years and garnered an Academy Award nomination for The Patriot (1928). In 1928, he appeared in the first of a series of pictures with Greta Garbo. In A Woman of Affairs (1928) he played the older doctor, a friend of the family. But two years later in Romance (1930), he played her lover.

Lewis made the transition from silent to sound with The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929), which starred Norma Shearer. Sound did not cause Lewis any problems and he continued to be busy with his roles as the distinguished lead. The Big House (1930) was highly successful for MGM and he appeared in other popular movies such as The Phantom of Paris (1931) with John Gilbert and Red-Headed Woman (1932) with Jean Harlow. He appeared with Garbo in Inspiration (1931), Mata Hari (1931), Grand Hotel (1932) and Queen Christina (1933). In the late 30s he took on a role for which he was long remembered - the role of Judge James Hardy who had a son named Andy. Judge Hardy was the father audiences wanted in the late 30s early 40s. He was kind, intellectual, fair and as patient as he had to be with Andy, played by Mickey Rooney. This series occupied most of his screen time until it ended and he did slow down during the late 40s. In the 50s he continued to appear in a number of pictures including remakes of the two he had made 30 years before with Alice Terry. He suffered a heart attack and died in 1953 after appearing in over 200 films.

Alphonse Ethier was born on 10 December 1874 in Virginia City, Nevada, USA. He was an actor, known for Baby Face (1933), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932) and The Alaskan (1924). He died on 4 January 1943 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Sessue Hayakawa was born in Chiba, Japan. His father was the provincial governor and his mother a member of an aristocratic family of the "samurai" class. The young Hayakawa wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a career officer in the Japanese navy, but he was turned down due to problems with his hearing. The disappointed Hayakawa decided to make his career on the stage. He joined a Japanese theatrical company that eventually toured the United States in 1913. Pioneering film producer Thomas H. Ince spotted him and offered him a movie contract. Roles in The Wrath of the Gods (1914) and The Typhoon (1914) turned Hayakawa into an overnight success. The first Asian-American star of the American screen was born.

He married actress Tsuru Aoki on May 1, 1914. The next year his appearance in Cecil B. DeMille's sexploitation picture The Cheat (1915) made Hayakawa a silent-screen superstar. He played an ivory merchant who has an affair with the Caucasian Fannie Ward, and audiences were "scandalized" when he branded her as a symbol of her submission to their passion. The movie was a blockbuster for Famous Players-Lasky (later Paramount), turning Hayakawa into a romantic idol for millions of American women, regardless of their race. However, there were objections and outrage from racists of all stripes, especially those who were opposed to miscegenation (sexual contact between those of different races). Also outraged was the Japanese-American community, which was dismayed by DeMille's unsympathetic portrayal of a member of their race. The Japanese-American community protested the film and attempted to have it banned when it was re-released in 1918.

The popularity of Hayakawa rivaled that of Caucasian male movie stars in the decade of the 1910s, and he became one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood. He made his career in melodramas, playing romantic heroes and charismatic heavies. He co-starred with the biggest female stars in Hollywood, all of whom were, of course, Caucasian. His pictures often co-starred Jack Holt as his Caucasian rival for the love of the white heroine (Holt would later become a top action star in the 1920s),

Hayakawa left Famous Players-Lasky to go independent, setting up his own production company, Haworth Pictures Corp. Through the end of the decade Haworth produced Asian-themed films starring Hayakawa and wife Tsuru Aoki that proved very popular. These movies elucidated the immigrant's desire to "cross over" or assimilate into society at large and pursue the "American Dream" in a society free of racial intolerance. Sadly, most of these films are now lost.

With the dawn of a new decade came a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, particularly over the issue of immigration due to the post-World War I economic slump. Hayakawa's films began to perform poorly at the box office, bringing his first American movie career to an end in 1922. He moved to Japan but was unable to get a career going. Relocating to France, he starred in La bataille (1923), a popular melodrama spiced with martial arts. He made Sen Yan's Devotion (1924) and The Great Prince Shan (1924) in the UK.

In 1931 Hayakawa returned to Hollywood to make his talking-picture debut in support of Anna May Wong in Daughter of the Dragon (1931). Sound revealed that he had a heavy accent, and his acting got poor reviews. He returned to Japan before once again going to France, where he made the geisha melodrama Yoshiwara (1937) for director Max Ophüls. He also appeared in a remake of "The Cheat" called Forfaiture (1937), playing the same role that over 20 year earlier had made him one of the biggest stars in the world.

After the Second World War he took a third stab at Hollywood. In 1949 he relaunched g himself as a character actor with Tokyo Joe (1949) in support of Humphrey Bogart, and Three Came Home (1950) with Claudette Colbert. Hayakawa reached the apex of this, his third career, with his role as the martinet POW camp commandant in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), which brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Suporting Actor. His performance as Col. Saito was essential to the success of David Lean's film, built as it was around the battle of wills between Hayakawa's commandant and Alec Guinness' Col. Nicholson, head of the Allied POWs. The film won the Best Picture Academy Award, while Lean and Guiness also were rewarded with Oscars.

Hayakawa continued to act in movies regularly until his retirement in 1966. He returned to Japan, becoming a Zen Buddhist priest while remaining involved in his craft by giving private acting lessons.

Ninety years after achieving stardom, he remains one of the few Asians to assume superstar status in American motion pictures.

Robert Ellis was born on 27 June 1892 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Tiger's Trail (1919), Speed to Burn (1938) and The Ventures of Marguerite (1915). He was married to Vera Reynolds, May Allison, Irene Boyle and Helen Logan. He died on 29 December 1974 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

Arthur V. Johnson was born on 2 February 1876 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Beloved Adventurer (1914), Annie Rowley's Fortune (1913) and The Adventures of Dollie (1908). He was married to Maude Webb. He died on 17 January 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Ben Bard entered theatrical life in his teens, touring under the name "B.D. Bard" with the Jolly Della Pringle theatre company. He played the Schubert Circuit in Vaudeville as the straight man to comic Jack "Baron Munchausen" Pearl. He was brought to Hollywood in the silent movie era to test as a leading man at Fox Pictures but was type cast as a "Suave Heavy" (dresses well, talks smooth but is evil underneath). In the 1930s, he established Ben Bard Drama, one of the largest and most respected acting schools in Hollywood. It had an attached theatre company that produced stage classics and West Coast premieres of contemporary American plays. Distinguished graduates of the school included Alan Ladd, Jack Carson, Shirley Temple, Gower Champion, Angie Dickinson, Cliff Robertson and Gig Young. In the 1950s, he was the head of the New Talent Department at Twentieth Century Fox.

Ford Sterling was born on 3 November 1883 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928), Good and Naughty (1926) and The Show-Off (1926). He was married to Teddy Sampson. He died on 13 October 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Carlyle Blackwell was a popular American matinee idol and occasional director of the silent cinema. Debonair and darkly handsome, he made his debut with Vitagraph in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910) and was seldom out of work as a romantic lead, progressing from one- and two-reelers to feature films by 1914. He was Kalem's number one star until 1915, when Jesse L. Lasky poached him for Famous Players. In 1921, Blackwell embarked on a European tour and opted to remain in England for the remainder of the decade, which turned out to be a good career move. He became the first actor to portray Bulldog Drummond (1922) in a British/Dutch co-production, following this box-office success with another, as Lord Robert Dudley in the period drama The Virgin Queen (1923). He retained his popularity until the arrival of sound, which abruptly ended his career. Blackwell had the final distinction of being the last silent actor to play Sherlock Holmes at the head of an international cast in the German production The Hound of the Baskervilles (1929).

Arthur Allardt was born on 7 April 1883 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for A Man's Man (1917), Louisiana (1919) and The Hidden Children (1917). He died in 1940.

J. Frank Burke was born on 22 April 1867 in Hartland, Vermont, USA. He was an actor, known for The Iced Bullet (1917), Madcap Madge (1917) and The Italian (1915). He died on 23 January 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Orral Humphrey was born on 3 April 1880 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Huckleberry Finn (1920), Broadway Madness (1927) and The Pork Plotters (1916). He was married to Lois Frances Born, Josephine Edith Taylor and Florence Chapman. He died on 12 August 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Frank Mills was born on 24 January 1868 in Kendall, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), The Unchastened Woman (1918) and The House of Mirrors (1916). He was married to Helen McBeth. He died on 11 June 1921 in Galesburg, Michigan, USA.

John Vosper was born on 3 July 1894 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Red-Haired Alibi (1932), Undercover Man (1942) and Tales of Robin Hood (1951). He died on 6 April 1954 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Buck Connors was born on 22 November 1880 in Streator, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Duke of Chimney Butte (1921), The Radio Detective (1926) and Straight Shootin' (1927). He was married to Hazel Powell. He died on 4 February 1947 in Yuma, Arizona, USA.

Frank Dae was born on 15 May 1882 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Radar Patrol vs. Spy King (1949), In Old Chicago (1938) and She Wrote the Book (1946). He died on 29 August 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Robert Elliott was born on 9 October 1879 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Romance of the Underworld (1928), The Maltese Falcon (1931) and Lights of New York (1928). He was married to Ruth Thorp. He died on 15 November 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Burr McIntosh born William Burr McIntosh in Ohio in 1862. Son of the President of public utility and Cleveland Gas Coal Company William Ambrose. Burr was educated at Lafayette College in Princeton where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity in 1884. became a star on Broadway stage, perhaps his best-known stage role was in 'Trilby' in 1905. Hefty, bald, intelligent man who starred and supported in many drama and comedy films, his first was the starring role Jo Vernon in Lawrence B. McGill's In Mizzoura (1914) for the All Star Feature Film Co in 1914. While perhaps best remembered as Squire Bartlett in D.W. Griffith's Way Down East (1920) starring Lillian Gish in 1920, he also appeared in many early talkies, including his last The Richest Girl in the World (1934) starring Miriam Hopkins for the RKO Film Co in 1934. During the 1930s he devoted himself to charitable causes, particularly collecting toys for poor families. He his also known for publishing a well-known magazine (Burr McIntosh Monthly) and a lecturer characterizing himself as 'The Cheerful Philosopher' also a film production owner, author, reporter and pioneering radio actor. He died from a heart attack in Hollywood in 1942 age 80

Joseph J. Dowling was born on 4 September 1850 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Yankee Way (1917), Sink or Swim (1920) and The Christian (1923). He was married to Sarah J. Hassen and Myra Davis. He died on 8 July 1928 in Hollywood, California, USA.