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- Prince Randian was born in the Demarara district, British Guyana in 1871, the child of British Indian slaves. Born with tetra-amelia syndrome (the lacking of all four limbs), little is known about his early life or how he was discovered, but it seems his incredible adaptability did not go unnoticed. Reputedly, he was brought to the United States by P.T. Barnum in 1889 at the age of 18, performing as an "oddity" or "freak" at dime shows, museums and primarily at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York
For his act, Randian was billed as "the human caterpillar who crawls on his belly like a reptile." He wore a one-piece wool garment that fit tightly over his body, giving him the appearance of a caterpillar, snake or potato. He was efficient at moving from place to place by wriggling his hips and shoulders in a snake-like motion. He would demonstrate his astonishing ability to fend for himself regardless of his handicap. He would shave himself by securing a razor in a wooden block, paint with a brush or write with a pen by using his lips, and most famously, roll and light his own cigarette in his only film appearance, Freaks (1932) (1932). Randian was also said to have been a skilled carpenter, using his mouth and shoulders to manipulate his tools, and he kept all of the props and materials used in his act in a wooden box that he reportedly constructed, painted and installed a lock by himself using a saw, knife and hammer. "Someday," he used to say, "I'll build myself a house."
Randian could speak English, German and French in addition to Hindi, his native language. He married early in life to a Hindu woman known only as Princess Sarah, who remained devoted to him throughout his long 45-year career in the sideshow. The couple had four daughters, plus a son who later became his manager. They settled at 174 Water Street in Paterson, New Jersey.
Prince Randian died of a heart attack at 7:00 PM on December 19, 1934, shortly after his comeback performance at Sam Wagner's 14th Street Museum in New York. He was 63 years old. - Stephenson was a firm, dignified, worldly presence in Hollywood's classic history-based films of the 30s and 40s. The tall British character actor Henry Stephenson could be both imposing and benevolent in his patrician portrayals, usually expounding words of wisdom or offering gentlemanly aid. He was born Henry S. Garroway in Granada, British West Indies on April 16, 1871 and studied at Rugby in England. His reputation was built solidly on the stage both in America and in England, making his Broadway debut around the turn of the century with "A Message from Mars" in 1901. While he did make a few silent pictures (from 1917), film audiences began taking a notice only in later years. After transferring a successful Broadway role to film with Cynara (1932), Stephenson settled in Hollywood where he distinguished himself in a variety of pictures for RKO, MGM and Warner Bros., among others. He appeared quite frequently in royal support for Warners' top star of the time, Errol Flynn, including Captain Blood (1935) as Lord Willoughby, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) as Sir Charles Macefield, The Prince and the Pauper (1937) as the Duke of Norfolk, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) as Lord Burghley. His last film was the sentimental yarn Challenge to Lassie (1949). Long married to character actress Ann Shoemaker, Stephenson died on April 24, 1956 in San Francisco, California at age 85, and was survived by his widow and daughter.
- Fannie Ward was a star of light comedies on Broadway and in vaudeville. Internationally famous, she was at the height of her career in the first decade of the 20th century. She debuted on Broadway at 19 in "Pippino" (1890). She went on to starring roles in "The Marriage of William Ashe", "Madam President" and "The Shop Girl". Although she was a good deal older than ideal for the role of the young spendthrift wife of a Wall Street tycoon, she made her screen debut in Cecil B. DeMille's production of The Cheat (1915). The film is a spectacular DeMille morality tale and features a shocking scene in which Ward's character is branded and nearly raped by a dapper but sinister Japanese ivory baron played by Sessue Hayakawa. She went on to star in several successful melodramas, the plots of most of which revolved around her near loss of virtue to a selection of nefarious characters. She was married to actor Jack Dean, who also appeared in at least 15 of her 26 films. Known as "The Youth Girl," she was continually cast in roles that were 20 to 30 years younger than her actual age. By the time she retired from the screen in 1920, she was just too old to carry it off anymore, and "The Youth Girl" sobriquet had become more of a joke than an honest tribute. After retiring from the screen, she opened a beauty palace in Paris called "The Fountain of Youth."
- Actress
- Soundtrack
German-born Gertrude Hoffman began her film career in Germany in 1918, but she didn't start her Hollywood career until she was past 60 years of age, making her American film debut in 1933. She worked steadily and made quite a few films over the next 20 years, though many of her parts were unbilled. She is probably best remembered as Mrs. Odets, the sassy next-door neighbor to Gale Storm in My Little Margie (1952), who was always up for a "caper" in one of Margie's many crazy schemes. She died in Hollywood of a heart attack in 1968.- Writer
- Additional Crew
Marcel Proust was a French intellectual, author and critic, best known for his seven-volume fiction 'In search of Lost Time'. He coined the term "involuntary memory", which became also known as "Proust effect" in modern psychology.
He was born Valentin Louis Georges Eugéne Marcel Proust, on July 10, 1871, in Paris, France. His father, Achille Proust, was a famous doctor. His mother, Jeanne Weil, was from a rich and cultured Jewish family. Proust's interests in art and literature were encouraged by his mother, who read and spoke English. He was fond of Carlyle, Emerson and John Ruskin, whose two works he also translated into French. From age 9 Proust suffered from severe allergy and asthma attacks, and eventually developed a chronic lung disease which caused his disability and affected his career and mobility. He was lucky to survive such a life threatening condition due to professional help from his doctor father. Proust's physical disability imposed serious restrictions on his lifestyle, and he expressed himself in writing. He was blessed with talent and imagination and also with a very large inheritance, that allowed him to write without any pressure. During the most years of his adult life Proust was confined to his cork-wood paneled bedroom, where he was attended mostly by his close friend, pianist and composer Reynaldo Hahn.
Proust's main work, 'A la recherche du temps perdu' was begun in 1909 and finished in 1922, just before the author's death. It also became known in English as 'In Search of Lost Time' (aka.. Remembrance of Things Past). The novel's life-like complexity and delicate fabric of language is influenced by his reading of Lev Tolstoy, especially by 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina', and it bears some structural and contentual resemblance of Tolstoy's major novels. It is spanning over 3000 pages in seven volumes and teeming with more than 2000 names. Proust's novel is set in the fictional town of Combray, near Paris, and covers all aspects of life of the upper class; nobility, sexuality, women, men, art and culture. It was praised from Graham Greene, W. Somerset Maugham and Ernest Hemingway, as being the greatest fiction of their time.
Marcel Proust died at age 51, of complications related to pneumonia and his chronic health condition, on November 18, 1922, and was laid to rest in Cimetiére du Pére-Lachaise, Paris, France. The town of Illiers, which became the model for imaginary town of Combray in the novel, was renamed Illiers-Combray in commemoration of the Proust's masterpiece.- Elspeth Dudgeon was born on 4 December 1871 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Old Dark House (1932), Becky Sharp (1935) and Mystery House (1938). She died on 11 December 1955 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Maurice Moscovitch was born on 23 November 1871 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for The Great Dictator (1940), Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) and Love Affair (1939). He died on 18 June 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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The youngest of three sons, he was born in Norfolk, Ontario, Canada and was educated at McGill University then In 1904 he moved to New York where he appeared in a number of plays on Broadway including The Blue Grass Handicap, The Superstition of Sue and successful The Chorus Lady after which he was invited by D.W. Griffith to join Biograph Studios where he made his film debut in The Greaser's Gauntlet (1908) followed by some 50 other films. Then, in 1910, he wrote his first film script, Sunshine Sue (1910), which was followed by many more. In 1912, he turned to directing with An Outcast Among Outcasts (1912) with a further 40 or so in the next 20 years. Acting wasn't neglected, with his appearing in Griffith's classic Intolerance (1916). Mack Sennett hired him to direct and star in a number of films at his Keystone Studios. He made the successful transition from silents to sound and frequently returned to his roots on Broadway. He married twice, first to actress Alice Louise Perine in October 1898 and had two children After their divorce and while working at Biograph Studios, he met and married actress/screenwriter Bess Meredyth (1890-1969) with whom he had a son.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Blanche Ring was born on April 24, 1877. She never dabbled with film acting until 1915 when she filmed THE YANKEE GIRL. She was 38 at the time. She only made two other films, IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME in 1926 and HAVING WONDERFUL CRIME in 1945. Blanche died in Santa Monica, California on January 13, 1961. She was 83 years old.- Theodore Dreiser was one of the great American writers, and a transitional figure between Victorian America and the "modern" age that was inaugurated after the cessation of hostilities after WWI and the publication of Sinclair Lewis' "Main Street" in 1920. A naturalist with a committed social conscience (Dreiser was a socialist in a time when socialists were an established third party and had many mayoral posts and seats in state legislatures before the post-WWI "Red Scare" wiped out socialism in the U.S.), Theodore Dreiser is a seminal figure in the evolution of American letters to a more mature literature.
Born on August 27, 1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana, he was the twelfth of thirteen children Born to John Paul & Sarah Dreiser, ten of whom survived infancy. Theordore's Dreiser's father, John, was a German immigrant and a strict Baptist. His mother Sarah came from a Mennonite community who later converted to Roman Catholicism. His older brother Paul Dresser became a famous songwriter.
Theodore Dreiser attended Indiana University from 1889 to 1890, but flunked out and became a journalist in Chicago and St. Louis. He married the former Sara White in 1898, but the marriage failed and they separated in 1909. Dreiser never divorced his wife.
His first novel "Sister Carrie" was published in 1900. It is considered a classic and a seminal piece of American literature. The publisher did not promote the novel, likely due to its controversial subject matter (adultery, extramarital sex), and the book sold poorly. He did not score a best-seller for a quarter-of-century, until "An American Tragedy" in 1925. (The novel was made into George Stevens 1951 masterpiece A Place in the Sun (1951).
Theodore Dreiser died on December 28, 1945, not long after he had joined the Communist Party, a move that Ernest Hemingway said was that of an old man trying to save his soul. - Director
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Segundo de Chomón became involved in film through his wife, who was an actress in Pathé films. In 1902 he became a concessionary for Pathé in Barcelona, distributing its product in Spanish-speaking countries and managing a factory for the coloring of Pathé films. He began shooting footage of Spanish locations for the company, then in 1905 moved to Paris where he became a trick film specialist. The body of work he created over five years was outstanding. Films such as The Red Spectre (1907), Kiri-Kis (1907), The Invisible Thief (1909) and A Panicky Picnic (1909) are among the most imaginative and technically accomplished of their age.
De Chomón created fantastical narratives embellished with ingenious effects, gorgeous color, innovative hand-drawn and puppet animation, tricks of the eye that surprise and delight, and startling turns of surreal imagination. It is curious why he is not generally known as one of the early cinema masters, except among the cognoscenti in the field. Perhaps it is because there is a smaller body of work than that created by Georges Méliès (his works can perhaps be described as a cross between that of Méliès and another who combined trickery with animation, Émile Cohl); perhaps it's because he was a Spaniard working in France for the key part of his film career that has meant that neither side has championed him as much as they might have done. De Chomón carried on as a filmmaker, specializing in trick effects, working for Pathé, Itala and others, and contributing effects work to two of the most notable films of the silent era, Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (1914) and Abel Gance's Napoleon (1927).- Scott Seaton was born on 11 March 1871 in Sacramento, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The House Without a Key (1926), Rich Men's Sons (1927) and The Other Tomorrow (1930). He was married to Maude Clarice Redmon, Lillian Elizabeth L'Abbe Petterson and Ruby Henrietta Ramdohr. He died on 3 June 1968 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Writer
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Emmett Dalton was the youngest of the three Dalton brothers, part of a bandit gang notorious for robbing trains and banks in the Midwest during the late 1890s (interestingly, the brothers started their life of crime with a failed attempt at breaking into the safe on a Southern Pacific Railroad train in 1891 near San Luis Obispo, California). Emmett was shot several times and nearly died in the gang's infamous--and, as it turned out, futile--attempt to rob two banks simultaneously on October 5, 1892, in his hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas. Sentenced to life in prison, he served almost 15 years before being pardoned in 1907, in part because while in prison he found religion and rehabilitated himself to the satisfaction of prison authorities. Upon his release he married his childhood sweetheart and set out to rehabilitate the world--at least what he perceived as the world's proclivity to elevate outlaws to the status of heroes. Eventually his message came to Hollywood, where he acted in and consulted on several films about the "Wild West", at least two of them about his own folly as an outlaw. He also wrote the book "When the Daltons Rode," which was the basis of the western film When the Daltons Rode (1940). His exploits in life also include adventures in selling real estate and in advocating and campaigning for prison reform. He died in 1937 in Los Angeles, not too far from where Wyatt Earp (who had also found a place for himself in Hollywood) had also lived and died.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Like many pioneers, the work of 'Winsor McCay' has been largely superseded by successors such as Walt Disney and Max Fleischer but he more than earns a place in film history for being the American cinema's first great cartoon animator. He started out as a newspaper cartoonist, achieving a national reputation for his strips 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' and 'Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend'. Inspired by his son's flick-books, he spent four years and produced four thousand individual drawings in making his first animated cartoon 'Little Nemo', completing it in 1911. But his biggest cartoon success was 'Gertie the Dinosaur' (1913), which was the centrepiece of a vaudeville act in which the live McCay would interact with his cartoon character. For this, he single-handedly produced ten thousand individual drawings, laboriously re-drawing the background every time. It is often wrongly cited as the first animated cartoon, but it was certainly the first successful one, and influenced dozens of imitators. His 1918 production 'The Sinking of the Lusitania' was even more ambitious: comprising 25,000 drawings, it was the first feature-length American cartoon, and the second one made anywhere. He retired from film-making in the 1920s, but would subsequently describe himself as "the creator of animated cartoons". This honour, strictly speaking, belongs to the Frenchman Emile Cohl - but McCay was certainly the first to bring them to a wide audience.- Matronly or grandmotherly, Alma Kruger appeared onscreen between 1935-47. She was 64 years old when she made her film debut in William Wyler's These Three (1936). She then proceeded to appear in over 40 films in the space of little more than a decade, appearing in, among others, Mother Carey's Chickens (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944), and Saboteur (1942). She was likely best-known as head nurse "Molly Byrd" in the Dr. Kildare and Dr. Gillespie films of the 1930s/40s. She died at age 88 in 1960.
- Actor
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
James Gordon was born on 23 April 1871 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Last of the Mohicans (1920), Hearts of Oak (1924) and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913). He was married to Rita and Mabel Van Buren. He died on 12 May 1941 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Seymour Hicks was an extremely successful actor and theatrical impresario who flourished from the late 19th century into the 1930s. He was best remembered for his portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".
Born on January 30, 1871 on the Isle of Jersey, he first trod the boards as a professional at the age of sixteen. He became a musical-comedy star in London in 1894 in "The Shop Girl", which he followed up with "The Circus Girl" (1896) and "A Runaway Girl" (1898), both of which co-starred his wife Ellaline Terriss, whom he had married in 1893.
After the turn of the century, Hicks began writing musical comedies that he and his wife appeared in. These efforts were met with great success. With his earnings from his successful career, he built the Aldwych Theatre in 1905 and the Seymour Hicks Theatre in 1906. (The Hicks was renamed the Globe Theatre in 1909 and eventually the Gielgud Theatre in 1994.) The first production at the Aldwych, Hicks' own musical comedy "The Beauty of Bath", was a hit. Jerome Kern was the composer and P.G. Wodehouse gained his first paying job as a writer on the musical. Wodeouse would be credited with the lyrics to two songs on another Hicks musical, "The Gay Gordons", in 1907.
(Hicks also was instrumental in "discovering" the young Alfred Hitchcock. When the director Hugh Croise walked off the set of the 1923 short Always Tell Your Wife (1923), based on a play by Hicks, starring Seymour Hicks, and produced by his Seymour Hicks Productions, the actor enlisted Hitchcock to finish directing it. It was only the second directing gig for Hitchcock, and though he was uncredited, it was his first film to be screened. (Hitch's first movie, Number 13 (1922), was never completed.))
By the time of the "Always Tell Your Wife" movie, Hicks had successfully navigated the change in theatrical tastes brought about by the Great War. He had begun writing and appearing in light, escapist comedies and satiric farces. Many of the farces he put on in the 1920s were adapted from French plays. Eventually, as his star waned, he worked in music halls.
It was in 1901 that Hicks first played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, the role for which he was most famous. He appeared in "A Christmas Carol" thousands of times on stage and made two movie versions of the Charles Dickens classic, a silent film (Old Scrooge (1913)) in 1913 and a talkie (Scrooge (1935)) in 1935.
By the mid-'30s, he was a well-established and highly respected actor and theatrical impresario. He became the 13th actor to become knighted in 1934, which came three years after the French Republic awarded him the Legion of Honor in recognition of his services in promoting French theater in England. (In 1915, he had won the French Croix de Guerre for entertaining Allied troops in France during in World War One and would win his second Croix de Guerre in World War II for the same service to the Allies.)
Seymour Hicks died on April 6, 1949 in Hampshire, England. He was 78 years old. He had continued appearing on stage and in movies until the year before his death.- Lesya Ukrainka was born on 25 February 1871 in Novograd-Volynsky, Volhynian Governorate, Russian Empire [now Novohrad-Volynskyi, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine]. She was a writer, known for Lisova pisnya (1961), The Enticement of Don Juan (1985) and Lisova pisnya. Mavka (1981). She died on 1 August 1913 in Surami, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire [now Shida Kartli, Republic of Georgia].
- Ellaline Terriss was a leading musical comedy star in the late Victorian Era, throughout the Edwardian Era, and into the Modern Era. She was the daughter of one famous actor, William Terriss (born William Lewin, in 1847; murdered by a disgruntled actor, in 1897), and the wife of an even more famous and accomplished one, Sir Seymour Hicks, whom she was married to, from 1893 until his death in 1949.
She was born Ellaline Lewin on April 13, 1871, in Stanley, the capital of the British colony of the Falkland Islands, when her father, then called William Lewin, was a sheep farmer. Lewin was an adventurous sort of chap, and had been a sailor and tea farmer, as well as an actor, before raising sheep in the South Atlantic. Eventually, he decided to give acting another chance, and returned to England with his family. He became a great success under the stage name "William Terriss." He was a swashbuckling type, nicknamed "Breezy Billy". He was murdered in 1897 as he was arriving to give a performance at the theater when his daughter was becoming a major star.
Ellaline made her debut in 1888 and was soon a critical and popular ingenue. She became a musical-comedy star in London in the 1890s, co-starring with Hicks in such productions as "The Shop Girl" (1894), "The Circus Girl" (1896) and "A Runaway Girl" (1898). In 1900 they appeared in the French farce "My Daughter-in-Law," on Broadway, Ellaline's only appearance on the Great White Way (Hicks had earlier appeared on Broadway in "The Shop Girl").
Hicks became an actor-impresario and, after the turn of the 20th century, began writing musical comedies and light comedies, in which he and his wife appeared. These efforts met with great success. With the earnings from his successful career, he built the Aldwych Theatre, in 1905, and the Seymour Hicks Theatre, in 1906 (the Hicks was renamed the Globe Theatre, in 1909, and eventually the Gielgud Theatre, in 1994).
The couple toured South Africa in 1911, and she retired from the stage in 1917. She did make a return to tread the boards in one play in the 1925-26 season, "The Man in Dress Clothes," which co-starred not only her husband but their daughter Betty Hicks, who was making her stage debut.
Ellaline first appeared in the movies in 1907, in two films made by director Arthur Gilbert, My Indian Anna (1907) and Glow Little Glow Worm, Glow (1907). In 1913, she appeared in three films with her husband, in which he reprized two of his greatest stage roles, Ebenezer Scrooge in Old Scrooge (1913) and the title role in David Garrick (1908). She appeared in a baker's dozen more films from 1914 to 1939, acting with both her husband and other luminaries such as Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson and George Arliss.
Seymour Hicks was knighted in 1934, which made Ellaline "Lady Hicks." He died on April 6, 1949, in Hampshire, England. She followed him on June 16, 1971, at the age of 100. - Actor
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Richard Carle was born on 7 July 1871 in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Ghost Walks (1934), Ninotchka (1939) and Seven Sinners (1940). He was married to Laura Casner and Ella Samantha Clifford. He died on 28 June 1941 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
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Frank Terry toured Europe and Asia on the legitimate stage professionally known as "Nat Clifford". He came back to America and became a comedy gag man for silent film comedies. He became somewhat notorious for an unfortunate incident that occured on August 24th, 1919 in a movie studio in Downtown Los Angeles. He inadvertingly handed over a thought-to-be dummy bomb prop to "Harold Lloyd". It soon exploded in his hands and Harold Lloyd then lost two fingers and a thumb from his right hand. Frank Terry later became "Laurel and Hardy's" comedy writer for their films in the 1920's to the middle 1930's. He also acted in some of their films in bit roles as a butler and radio voice over("Me And My Pal"), and a safecraker ("Midnight Patrol"), etc... Around 1935, Frank Terry left films and became a missionary chaplain to a leper colony in Hawaii. He later opened a mission hall in Honolulu. Sometime in the early 1940's, Frank Terry officially retired and returned to California to live out his remaining years with his wife and two daughters (Lillian and Madeline). His wife's name was- Lillian Mary Edwards. She passed away in 1942. (mini-biography credit is given to- "Glenn Mitchell" from his 1995 book- "The Laurel And Hardy Encyclopedia".) Glenn Mitchell lives in Stratham, England, UK.- Sam Appel was born on 8 August 1871 in Magdalena, Jalisco, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Revenge (1928), The Lion's Claws (1918) and Give Us This Night (1936). He died on 18 June 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Marc McDermott was born Marcus Patrick McDermott in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia, on July 24, 1871. His father Patrick James McDermott and mother Annie Massey McDermott were born in Ireland, and Marc later became an English citizen when he moved to London. His younger sister May, was born in Australia in 1881. He received his early education at a Jesuit school in Sydney. When Marc was 15, his father died suddenly. To support his mother and little sister, Marc joined a small local theater company. A year later, he was discovered by the famous Shakespearean actor George Rignold and made his first appearance on the stage in Sydney. He stayed with the company for several years, learning his craft. When Rignold's company departed for London, Marc quickly caught the eye of Charles Frohman, a New York agent and producer, whose clients included Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the first lady of the London stage. Tall with thick auburn hair and dark brown eyes, Marc cut an impressive figure. Mrs. Pat, as she was called, chose the 20-year-old to be her leading man. The company sailed to the US and landed in New York, where he played opposite her as Sir George Orreyed in "The Second Mrs. Tanqeray." The company returned to London, where he was hired by Frohman to play "Sherlock Holmes" in London for two years. For the next several years, Marc became a celebrated West End actor. In 1906, he accepted Frohman's offer to sail to New York and join the company of the great classical actor Richard Mansfield. He toured the US for several years, and in 1909 was approached by Charles Brabin, a fellow stage actor (and soon to be director) who was working at Thomas Edison's film studio in the Bronx. Marc was quickly hired to appear as a featured player, replacing Maurice Costello, who had moved to Vitagraph. His first film was Les Misérables (1909), followed by Lochinvar (1909) (Lochinvar was released first but he filmed "Les Miserables" prior to it). From 1909 through the summer of 1916, he starred in over 140 films for Edison, appearing frequently in popular early film magazines like Photoplay, Motion Picture, and Moving Picture World, voted as one of the most popular leading men during these years. In 1911, Marc costarred with Mary Fuller in Edison's first popular series "What Ever Happened to Mary?" Another favorite leading lady of Marc's was Miriam Nesbitt, who was eight years his senior. Their on-screen romance soon grew into a real-life love affair. On April 7, 1914, Marc made film history when he appeared in the first-ever "chapter" series; each chapter was a complete story in and of itself. The 10-chapter series was titled The Man Who Disappeared (1914), and was filmed on location in New York and New Jersey. Each printed chapter story was featured in "Popular Magazine" as each filmed chapter simultaneously appeared on the screen. As Marc told "Motion Picture" writer Gladys Roosevelt, he did all his own stunts, including driving an automobile into the icy East River, fighting a villain on top of a NYC skyscraper that was actually being built at the time, and being handcuffed to the railroad tracks. On April 20, 1916, Marc and Miriam married in Leonia, New Jersey. By this time, he had made more than 140 films. Later that year, Marc left the Edison Studio to join his best friends Charles Brabin and Ashley Miller at the Vitagraph Studio, where he starred in a number of films. In 1918, Marc moved to Fox Films in New York to star with Theda Bara in "Kathleen Mavourneen," directed by Charles Brabin, who would soon marry his star. Marc left Fox in 1920 to freelance, appearing with Norma Talmadge in "The New Moon." He then costarred with Estelle Taylor in "While New York Sleeps," with Brabin working as both writer and director. Another director friend from his Vitagraph days, John Robertson, directed him in "Footlights" (1921) with Elsie Ferguson. In 1922, his marriage began to unravel when Miriam discovered some love letters to actress Helen Gilmore and filed for a separation. The New York Times reported that he was arrested on August 11 and held in Ludlow Street Jail until he was released after paying $5,000 in bail. Marc left to visit his older brother's family, who had settled in Lowell, Massachusetts. After appearing in a vaudeville skit, he boarded a train in Boston and headed to Hollywood. Marc immediately went to work for Fox Films in "Hoodman Blind" directed by John Ford. At Warner Bros., he appeared in "Lucretia Lombard" with Irene Rich, Monte Blue, and Norma Shearer, which was produced by Harry Rapf. Marc next appeared with Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl, in "The Satin Girl." When M-G-M was formed in 1924, Marc was contracted to appear in their very first film, "He Who Gets Slapped." The cast included Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert. Mary Pickford, an old friend from his New York days, cast him in "Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall" as Sir Malcolm Vernon. Another director friend, Marshall "Micky" Neilan, directed. Marc was in high demand at different studios for the next two years: "In Every Woman's Life" and "Siege" both with Virginia Valli; "This Woman" with Irene Rich, Ricardo Cortez, and Clara Bow in a minor role; and "The Sea Hawk" with Milton Sills, Enid Bennett, and Wallace Beery. At Universal Pictures in 1925, he appeared in "The Goose Woman" with Louise Dresser, Jack Pickford, and Constance Bennett. The film was directed by his friend Clarence Brown. Once again, Norma Talmadge cast him as the villain in "Graustark." In 1926, Marc was busy at M-G-M playing in both "The Temptress" with Greta Garbo and Antonio Moreno and "Flesh and the Devil" with Garbo and John Gilbert. One of his favorite costars was Greta Nissen, with whom he appeared in "The Love Thief" for Universal and "Lucky Lady" for Paramount. Norma Talmadge tapped his talent once again for "Kiki," a saucy little comedy with Ronald Coleman. During 1927, Marc starred in several M-G-M films, including "California" with Tim McCoy and Dorothy Sebastian, directed by W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke; and "Man, Woman and Sin" with Jeanne Eagels and John Gilbert, directed by Monta Bell. When the newly formed Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences held their first meeting at the Biltmore Hotel's Crystal Ballroom on May 11, 1927, Marc was among the 230 pioneer members in attendance. His name appears in the program listing of 102 actors. Later that year, his old friend John Robertson recruited him for "The Road to Romance" with Ramon Navarro and Marceline Day, and he also appeared in "Taxi Dancer" with Joan Crawford, as well as "Resurrection" with Rod La Rocque and Dolores Del Rio at United Artists. In 1928, during a vaudeville tour to Chicago, Marc became ill and returned to Hollywood to recuperate. His next film for M-G-M was "Under the Black Eagle" directed by Woody Van Dyke. For "Glorious Betsy" at Warner Bros., some Vitaphone talking sequences were included. The film starred Dolores Costello, the beautiful wife of John Barrymore and daughter of Maurice Costello, whom Marc had replaced at Vitagraph back in 1916. First National cast Marc in "The Yellow Lily" starring the lovely Bessie Dove. His last two films were "The Mysterious Island" shot in Technicolor with black and white sequences. Vitaphone sound sequences, a musical score, and sound effects were later added. Marc's old friend Charles Brabin directed him in his last film, "The Whip," which starred Dorothy Mackaill, Ralph Forbes, and Anna Q. Nilsson. During filming, Variety reported that Marc became very ill from ptomaine poisoning, lapsed into a three-month coma, and died from a gallbladder operation. However, Dr. E.F. Miller wrote on the death certificate that he had attended to Marc at home for eight months and then in the hospital from December 5, 1928 until his death at 5:20 a.m. on January 5, 1929. Further, he stated that no operation had preceded his death. The diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver was confirmed by clinical and laboratory tests performed on January 6. His body was cremated at the Hollywood Crematory, and his ashes were placed in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, where the brass plaque reads: Marcus McDermott, 1881-1929 (his correct birth date is 1871 according to his will and Australian birth records). His untimely death coincided with the death of silent films.
- Actress
- Producer
Clare Greet was born on 14 June 1871 in Leicestershire, England, UK. She was an actress and producer, known for Mrs. Dane's Defence (1933), Lord Camber's Ladies (1932) and Love at the Wheel (1921). She died on 14 February 1939 in London, England, UK.- Actor
- Director
Agostino Borgato was born on 30 June 1871 in Venice, Italy. He was an actor and director, known for Il ponte dei sospiri (1921), Supremo olocausto (1918) and Il cuore di Musette (1919). He died on 14 March 1939 in Hollywood, California, USA.- DeWitt Jennings was born on 21 June 1871 in Cameron, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Exit Smiling (1926), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and The Squaw Man (1931). He was married to Margaret Ethel Conroy. He died on 1 March 1937 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
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.- John Rand was born on 19 November 1871 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for The Circus (1928), The Fireman (1916) and Name the Woman (1934). He died on 25 January 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Theo Frenkel made more than 220 films between 1908 and 1925, but only a few have survived, making it impossible properly to assess his artistic importance. He was a director on a European scale, producing a vast body of work spanning Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Frenkel preferred to call himself Theo Bouwmeester after his mother, who came from a well-known theatrical family in the Netherlands. Before entering the film industry, he worked as a stage actor in many countries. He directed his first film in Cecil Hepworth's filmstudio in Walton-on-Thames (England) in 1908. He soon had his own troupe of actors and made more than fifty pictures in a variety of genres, mostly writing the scripts himself. In 1910 he became head of Charles Urban's studio's in Hove near Brighton (UK) and in Nice (France), where he directed more than 120 films in two years, many of them in colour, using one of the earliest colour systems, Kinemacolor. To enhance the spectacle aspect of his films, he selected stories that demanded glamorous costumes and monumental landscapes, like Greek myths, biblical tales and historical romances. Frenkel cast his first wife Julie Meijer (1878-1963) in many leading roles and he himself seized every opportunity to appear with her in front of the camera. These films never made a profit, however, and Frenkel had to move on. He worked for the British Pathé studios in 1912, moved to Berlin in 1913, and finally returned to neutral Holland at the outbreak of the World War I. In his own country he was one of the most experienced directors at the time, and he waisted no time creating several sensational dramas such as Het wrak van de Noordzee (The Wreck of the North Sea, 1915), Genie tegen geweld (Genius Against Violence, 1916) and Pro domo (1918). After the war, Frenkel returned to Berlin to direct German-Dutch co-productions such as Alexandra (1922) and Frauenmoral (1923), but his international career was over. Since the Netherlands could not support his ambitions either, he retired from film-making in 1925, only returning to direct his last feature in 1928.- George Morrell was born on 10 April 1871 in California, USA. He was an actor, known for Custer's Last Stand (1936), Gold Fever (1952) and The Utah Kid (1944). He was married to Rosalie. He died on 28 April 1955 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Eduard von Winterstein was born on 1 August 1871 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor, known for The Blue Angel (1930), Die Sonnenbrucks (1951) and Emilia Galotti (1958). He was married to Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein and Minna Mengers. He died on 22 July 1961 in Berlin, Germany.
- Stephen Crane was the 14th child of parents who were both writers. Descended from a line of soldiers and clergymen (his father, Rev. Jonathan T. Crane, was a Methodist minister), Crane inherited from his forebearers the obsessive subject of war, stoical compassion and, particularly in his poetry, a Biblical style. His short, phenomenal literary career, which began in 1891 when he quit Syracuse University as a freshman, yielded the novels "The Red Badge of Courage" (1895), "The Open Boat" (1898) and "The Blue Hotel" (1899), as well as two volumes of poetry. His novel "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets", reputed to have been written in two days in 1891, is often credited with starting the naturalistic tradition in American fiction. He worked as a reporter in New York and later as a foreign correspondent following the wars. During his brief residence in England he befriended Henry James, Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells and F.M. Ford, who all recognized Crane's ruthless literary talent. His emergence as a fiction writer and poet was cut short when he died of tuberculosis at the tragically premature age of 28.
- Actor
- Writer
Joseph W. Girard was born on 2 April 1871 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Captain Midnight (1942), Social Error (1935) and Beloved Jim (1917). He died on 21 August 1949 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Heinrich Schroth was born on 23 March 1871 in Pirmasens, Kingdom of Bavaria [now Rhineland-Palatinate], Germany. He was an actor, known for 1914, die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand (1931), Die Ratte (1918) and Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart (1918). He was married to Käthe Haack and Else Ruttersheim. He died on 13 January 1945 in Berlin, Germany.
- Joe Roberts was born on 2 February 1871 in Albany, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Our Hospitality (1923), The Primitive Lover (1922) and Three Ages (1923). He was married to Lillian Stuart Feld Roberts and Nina Mildred Straw Shannon. He died on 28 October 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Hilda Borgström was born on 13 October 1871 in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an actress, known for The Phantom Carriage (1921), Ingeborg Holm (1913) and Striden går vidare (1941). She died on 2 January 1953 in Stockholm, Sweden.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Hanns Heinz Ewers (born November 3, 1871 in Düsseldorf, Germany) was a German writer famous for his short stories and novels that expanded the parameters of the horror genre. He began his literary career as a poet when he published "A Book of Fables", satirical verses, in 1901. In addition to writing, he was an actor and created a vaudeville theater the same year he made his literary debut. He also founded another acting company that toured Central and Eastern Europe, but he abandoned the theater due to censorship.
It was his stories about the occult and horror that made his name. His first novel "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" was published in 1910 and his masterpiece, "Alarune", in 1911. The two novels were part of a trilogy based on the autobiographical character of Frank Braun, who also appears in the 1921 novel "Vampyr".
Ewers was deeply attracted to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Nietzschean philosophy of the "intellectuals" of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, as well as their nationalism (to say nothing of their mysticism) attracted him to the Nazi Party, though he never joined it. Though he wrote a novel based on the life of Nazi martyr Horst Wessel, allegedly at the bequest of Adolf Hitler, his works were banned by the Nazis in 1934.
A penniless Hanns Heinz Ewers died from tuberculosis on June 12, 1943 in Berlin. He was 72 years old.- Frederick Burton was born on 20 October 1871 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for The Fighting Blade (1923), Arizona (1918) and The Big Trail (1930). He was married to Lora Osgood and Jessie Perine Lawrie. He died on 23 October 1957 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Leonid Andreev was born on August 21, 1871 in Orel, Russia. His father, named Nikolai Ivanovich Andreev, was a member of the provincial Russian Nobility and worked as a land inspector for the government. His mother, Named Anastasia Nikolaevna Andreeva (Pazkovska) belonged to the Polish Nobility. Andreev graduated from the Orel Gymnasium, went to study law at the St. Petersburg University, and graduated from the Moscow University. His work as a crime reporter for "Moscovski Vestnik" (Moscow daily paper) provided material for his stories. He was fond of reading Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov. He also red then popular Friedrich Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. After the death of his father and a painful first love experience in 1894 he was depressed and tried to shoot himself in a suicide attempt. He survived and worked hard to support his mother and his two sisters and two younger brothers. He successfully passed the Russian Law Bar in 1897 and practiced law as an attorney for five years from 1897-1902.
Andreev published his first story "Bargamot and Garaska" in 1898. It was noticed by Maxim Gorky, who promoted Andreev to the circle of writers and publishers, called Znanie (Knowledge). In 1901 his first book of stories was published by Znanie. His story "Bezdna" (Abyss, 1902), about a teenager's experience with a prostitute ending in her murder and his suicide, was attacked by Lev Tolstoy. But Andreev became an instant celebrity in Russia. After his anti-war story "Krasny Smekh" (Red Laughter, 1904), written during the Russian-Japanese war, he got involved with anti-Czar revolutionaries. Andreev was arrested and jailed by the Czar's secret service in 1905, after that he emigrated to Europe and lived in Capri, Italy as a guest of Maxim Gorky. While developing his expressionist style, Andreev wrote a bluntly realistic anti-war story "Rasskaz o semi poveshennykh" (A Story About the Seven Hung, 1909) and a realist novel "Sashka Zhegulev" (1911). After the war and the first Russian revolution of 1905, Andreev was writing a play every year. His plays were staged at the Moscow Art Theatre and theatres in Vienna, Berlin, Odessa and Kazan by directors Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and Vsevolod Meyerhold among others. His best plays "Anathema", "Tsar-Golod" (Czar-hunger), "Samson v okovakh" (Samson in Handcuffs, 1914) were banned by Russian censorship under the Czar. Andreev built a big villa in Kuokkala, Finland, where many Russian intellectuals lived, just 50 km. West of St. Petersburg. He was a regular member of the circle of Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy and maintained friendship with Maxim Gorky. Leonid Andreev also was a friend of writers Aleksandr Kuprin, Vladimir Korolenko, Ivan Bunin, Vikenti Veresaev, and singer Feodor Chaliapin Sr.. During WWI he was a strong critic of German aggression. In 1917 he opposed the Bolshevik Revolution.
Leonid Andreev was the founder of the Russian Expressionism in literature. He modernized his style through experiments with spiritualism, symbolism, eroticism and mysticism, and also studied a range of occult and religious traditions. His literary parallel was the American writer H.P. Lovecraft. Andreev remained in his villa in Finland after it's separation from Russia during the Russian revolution of 1917. He was a staunch critic of the Soviet communism and wrote powerful articles about the atrocities of communists in Russia. He died on September 12, 1919, at his home in Kuokkala, Finland, at the age of 48. Some mystery was haunting his burial; his grave in Finland was later on the Soviet territory since WWII. His magnificent villa was destroyed. In 1957 Leonid Andreev's remains were exhumed and moved to the prestigious "Poet's Alley" at the "Literatorskie Mostki" (Literary burials) near the graves of Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Nikolai Leskov and other Russian cultural luminaries at the Volkovo Cemetery in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). - John Millington Synge was born on 16 April 1871 in Dublin, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. He was a writer, known for The Playboy of the Western World (1962), Theatre Night (1957) and Theatre Night (1985). He died on 24 March 1909 in Dublin, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland].
- William Ricciardi was born on 12 July 1871 in Sorrento, Campania, Italy. He was an actor, known for Anthony Adverse (1936), Man of the People (1937) and Stars Over Broadway (1935). He died on 16 February 1961 in Naples, Italy.
- Evelyn Selbie was born on 6 July 1871 in Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for The Silver Treasure (1926), Dangerous Paradise (1930) and The Prisoner's Story (1912). She died on 7 December 1950 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
David Miles was born on 26 October 1871 in Milford, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Everyman (1913), Twin Brothers (1909) and Local Color (1913). He was married to Anita Hendrie. He died on 28 October 1915 in New York City, New York, USA.- Paco Martínez was born on 17 March 1871 in Valencia, Spain. He was an actor, known for Don Juan Tenorio (1937), Luponini de Chicago (1935) and Cruz Diablo (1934). He was married to Prudencia Grifell. He died on 20 February 1956 in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Kathrin Clare Ward was born on 31 March 1871 in Bradford, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for The Isle of Lost Ships (1929), Air Eagles (1931) and Man Against Woman (1932). She was married to Charlie Ward. She died on 14 October 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Legendary Swedish dramatic stage actress and tragedienne: The brilliant Gerda Lundequist is considered as one of Scandinavian theatre's most important modern female pioneers of the early 1900s stage.
With new modern portrayals of the Ibsen, Strindberg and the classic Shakespeare leading women, her importance to modern female stage characterization in Swedish and Scandinavian theatre is not to be underestimated.
Born in Stockholm 1871, she was brought up by foster mother Amalia Charlotta Ekecrantz, a manufacturer's widow, and later tutored by the great Swedish drama teacher Signe Hebbe at the Royal Academy of Music's old Theatre School in Stockholm 1886-89. Lundequist made her professional debute at Svenska teatern in Stockholm 1889, and her breakthrough came already the following year with her astounding portrayal of Kristina in play "Mäster Olof" by August Strindberg at the old Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. Then followed the magnificent and historically important portrayals of the Shakespeare women Queen Gertrude in "Hamlet" and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth", title role in "Antigone" by Sofokles, Ingrid in "Peer Gynt" by Henrik Ibsen, Ingeborg in Ibsen's "The Pretenders", title role in Hjalmar Söderberg's "Gertrud", title role in "Monna Vanna" by Maurice Maeterlinck, title role in "Maria Stuart" by Friedrich Schiller, Goneril in Shakespeare's "King Lear", Irene in "When We Dead Awaken" by Ibsen... and from there on.
Her thespian nickname as "Sweden's Sarah Bernhardt" is indeed flattering, in a way slightly misread and unjust for her as an actress. To change from the actress she most likely was as Antigone on stage 1908, or her Lady Macbeth in 1909, via her powerful and yet subtle performance as Margaretha Samzelius, the matron at Ekeby, in classic silent film The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924) - is nothing but a presentation of a true artists development. In Of Love and Lust (1955) - at age 84! - we get to see a brilliant glimpse of a true character actress at her very element: balanced, natural and collected in all her movements and thoughts. In full control of her melodic voice, character and limbs, she delivers as the old Royal Highness a refined example of timeless female bitchiness to a fellow sister! What we get to see is not at all an overacting or old melodramatic gesticulating theatre diva (as you perhaps would expect from a stage actress of her generation and with such a record), but a complete and absolutely magnificent character actress performance. Also such roles as her lovely cynical Änkedomprostinna, Mrs Hyltenius, in "The Baron's Will" by Hjalmar Bergman (a role she played 1945, 1948 and 1949 in different stagings due to her success in it) and her simple and very moving portrayal of the lonely Mrs Dowey in J.M. Barrie's beautiful little play "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals" (in 1940), shows that she indeed had an unusual wide ability for someone of her theatre generation when it came to shift from big classic tragedy to small drama stage plays, and to work with simple means when necessary.
According to colleagues and theatre people around, she was during her life described as reserved, hard to get in and as a person who never liked to talk about herself with others; she hated interviews on her roles by inquisitive journalists (and soon refused all of them!). But people who knew her closely private stated that she had a wonderful sense of humor (and because of that said they found it very regretful that she never played comedy on stage) and a very genuine warmth and kindness. So most likely she guarded her integrity well, and did hide herself in the primadonna role that somewhat became her trade mark in public, both on- and off-stage (on which subject there are many amusing stories!).
But diva or no diva; there is a reason why Gerda Lundequist is still spoken of in the Swedish theatre world of today - almost 50 years after her death and nearly 100 years after her first legendary female characterizations. Many of her character portrayals of the most classic female parts became so popular with the audience and critics at the time that she was called to reprise them at other theatres later on. - Nick De Ruiz was born on 24 February 1871 in Santa Barbara, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Unknown (1927), Call of the West (1930) and Wings of Adventure (1930). He died on 21 June 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Emmett Corrigan was born on 5 June 1871 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He was an actor, known for The Beast of the City (1932), Corsair (1931) and The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932). He was married to Molly I. Mack and Myra Corrigan (actress). He died on 29 October 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Frank Hayes was born on 17 May 1871 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Vanity Fair (1923), A Hoosier Romance (1918) and After His Own Heart (1919). He was married to Lottie Harriet Ward Christensen Kemp (maiden name: Ward). He died on 28 December 1923 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Writer
- Music Department
- Composer
American poet, novelist and essayist James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, FL, in 1871. He came from a musically inclined family--his brother was noted composer and songwriter J. Rosamond Johnson--and received his B.A. from Atlanta University and his M.A. from that institution two years later, a significant accomplishment in an era when many blacks were prevented from getting any higher education at all.
He was hired as a teacher and the principal at an all-black school in Jacksonville. At the same time he was studying law and in 1897 he received his law degree and was admitted to the Florida bar, the first black attorney to do so since the end of the Civil War. In 1901 he relocated to New York City, where he joined his brother Rosamond and his partner in writing songs for both the stage and light opera, and the team was quite successful. One song was so popular that they cleared $13,000 from it--an astonishing sum at the time--and used that money to travel to France, where they spent several months partying and traveling before returning to the US.
He was soon appointed as the American Consul in Venezuela, and his tenure there was so productive he was appointed to the same position in Nicaragua, again with great success. In 1910 he married Grace Nail, and two years later produced his first novel, the (fictional) "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" (the subject was so sensitive at the time that the book was published with no writer's credit; it wasn't until 1927 that he was acknowledged as the author). He continued writing essays, books and songs and wrote the English libretto for the opera "Goyescas", which was presented at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1915. In addition, he served for many years as secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He returned to teaching in 1930--while still continuing his writing--and became Professor of Creative Literature at Fisk University. In 1934 he was named Visiting Professor of Literature at New York University.
On June 26, 1938, Johnson was driving through a railroad crossing near his summer home in Bar Harbor, ME, when his car was struck by a train. His wife was seriously injured but survived. Johnson was killed instantly.