The First One Hundred Noted Men and Women of the Screen (1920 list)

1. May Allison

Born in Rising Fawn, GA (youngest of 5 children) Parents: Dr. John S. Allison and Nannie Virginia Wise Sisters: Maude, Verda, Zetta Brother: Herschel Mother Lived with her in California until her death. After Quirk's death, she met C. N. Osborne in NYC, they were married for over 40 years until his...

2. Oscar Apfel

Director | The Squaw Man

Entering the film industry almost at its beginning, Oscar Apfel began his career in 1911 as a director. He hit the big leagues in 1914 when he was given many prestigious assignments for Paramount Pictures, often in collaboration with Cecil B. DeMille. In 1916, he switched to Fox, and then ...

as Oscar C. Apfel

3. Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle

Actor | Coney Island

Roscoe Arbuckle, the youngest of nine children, reportedly weighed 16 pounds at birth in Smith Center, Kansas on March 24, 1887. His family moved to California when he was one year old. At age 8 he first appeared on the stage. His first part was with the Webster-Brown stock company. From then until...

as Roscoe Arbuckle

4. Clarence G. Badger

Director | Rangle River

A graduate of the Boston Polytechnic Institute, Clarence Badger had a varied early career as an artist, stage actor, editor and journalist with several newspapers and magazines (including "The Youth's Companion"), before entering the film business with Mack Sennett in 1915. At Sennett's ...

5. Leah Baird

Actress | Don't Doubt Your Wife

Leah Baird first made a name for herself in summer stock and traveling stock companies. After playing several leads in the William F. Brady troupe opposite Douglas Fairbanks Vitagraph signed her to a contract. Her peak years in film were from 1916-1918 at which time she was a very popular player. ...

6. George D. Baker

Director | Heliotrope

A former newspaper writer and cartoonist, George D. Baker joined Vitagraph in 1913 as a director, and was the main director for the films of the studio's popular comedian John Bunny--of Bunny's 43 comedies at Vitagraph, Baker made 39 of them. Bunny left Vitagraph to return to the stage, and ...

7. Reginald Barker

Director | The Iron Strain

Canadian-born (Winnipeg) Reginald Barker moved with his family to Scotland shortly after he was born, and they eventually emigrated to the US, settling in California. Bitten by the show-business bug early, Barker was acting in plays by age 16, and then joined up with a traveling stock company as ...

8. Bessie Barriscale

Actress | Rose of the Rancho

Bessie Barriscale was born on September 30, 1884 in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Rose of the Rancho (1914), Home (1916) and The Painted Soul (1915). She was married to Howard Hickman. She died on June 30, 1965 in Kentfield, California, USA.

9. Enid Bennett

Actress | The Red Lily

Australian-born Enid Bennett (her sisters, Catherine Bennett and Marjorie Bennett, were also actresses) started her career on stage in Sydney. She became a well-regarded stage actress there, and eventually made her way to New York to conquer Broadway. Broadway, however, wasn't particularly ...

10. Clara Beranger

Writer | Cameo Kirby

Clara S. Beranger was born in Baltimore, Maryland and was a 1907 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Goucher College in Baltimore. Early in her career, she wrote some newspaper and magazine articles. On a whim, she submitted a screenplay which was accepted. She eventually found work writing for several ...

as Carla S. Beranger

11. Ouida Bergère

Actress | Mates and Mis-Mates

Diminutive red-headed actress, playwright and screenwriter. Her marriage to star actor Basil Rathbone was one of the most enduring in show business, lasting from 1926 until his death in 1967. The Rathbones were legendary in the 1930's for giving the most lavish Hollywood parties at their luxurious ...

12. Herbert Blaché

Director | The Song of the Wage Slave

Herbert Blaché was born on October 5, 1882 in London, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for The Song of the Wage Slave (1915), A Prisoner in the Harem (1913) and The Million Dollar Robbery (1914). He was married to Alice Guy. He died on October 23, 1953 in Santa Monica, California,...

13. J. Stuart Blackton

Director | The Glorious Adventure

In the US from the age of 10, he first worked as a journalist-illustrator for the New York World. Interviewing Thomas A. Edison, he so impressed the inventor with his drawings that Edison suggested he allow some of them to be photographed by the Kinetograph camera. The result was a short film, ...

14. Alice Brady

Actress | My Man Godfrey

Alice Brady was born in New York City on November 2, 1892. She was interested in the stage from childhood, as her father was famed Broadway producer William A. Brady. After a few stage productions, Alice was discovered by movie producers in New York, since this was the film capital at the time. Her...

15. Sylvia Breamer

Actress | Robes of Sin

Sylvia Breamer was one of a flock of Australians who came to Hollywood in the early silent era. She had been a stage actress in her native Sydney for several years, and had played in several Australian productions of American stage plays, which met with great success. Hoping to capitalize on that ...

16. Edwin Carewe

Director | Across the Pacific

Married petite actress Mary Akin when she was just 17 and he was 38. He was already married once - in 1905 but the records of that union are lost - and divorced. Carewe and Akin had two children during their first marriage, daughter Sally Ann (b. 1925) and son William (b. 1927). A third child with ...

17. Ethel Clayton

Actress | Pettigrew's Girl

Silent-screen actress Ethel Clayton was a convent-educated girl from Champaign, IL, who sought work as a stage actress after finishing her education. She secured small parts here and there, but hit the big time when she went to work for the Frawley Organization, which had several touring stock ...

18. Dorothy Dalton

Actress | Fool's Paradise

Dorothy Dalton was a silent film star who worked her way up from a stock company to a movie career. She made her film debut in 1914 in Pierre of the Plains (1914), co-starring Edgar Selwyn, and appeared in Charles E. Blaney's Across the Pacific (1914) that same year. Producer-director Thomas H. Ince...

19. Viola Dana

Actress | Two Sisters

Viola Dana (real name Virginia Flugrath) was born in Brooklyn, NY, on June 26, 1897. She was the middle sister of three sisters (the other two were Edna Flugrath and Shirley Mason). She made her film debut in 1914 in Molly the Drummer Boy (1914). The following year she received top billing playing ...

20. J. Searle Dawley

Director | Rich Man, Poor Man

J. Searle Dawley, the man who considered himself "the first motion picture director", was born James Searle Dawley on 5/13/1877 in Del Norte, CO. He was educated in Denver, and after graduating in 1895 became an actor with Louis Morrison's stock theatrical company. The tour he was hired for was ...

21. Charles T. Dazey

Writer | The Kentucky Derby

Charles T. Dazey was born on August 13, 1855 in Lima, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and editor, known for The Kentucky Derby (1922), Manhattan Madness (1916) and The Midnight Trail (1918). He was married to Lucy Harding. He died on February 9, 1938 in Quincy, Illinois, USA.

22. Hampton Del Ruth

Writer | Defenders of the Law

Hampton Del Ruth was born on September 7, 1879 in Delaware, USA. He was a production manager and writer, known for Defenders of the Law (1931), Naughty (1927) and The Marriage Chance (1922). He was married to Alta Allen and Helen Carlyle. He died on May 15, 1958 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, ...

23. Cecil B. DeMille

Producer | The Ten Commandments

His parents Henry C. DeMille and Beatrice DeMille were playwrights. His father died when he was 12, and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. Too young to enlist in the Spanish-American War, Cecil followed his brother William C. de Mille to the New ...

as Cecil Blount de Mille

24. Allan Dwan

Director | Bound in Morocco

Allan Dwan was born on April 3, 1885 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a director and writer, known for Bound in Morocco (1918), A Perfect Crime (1921) and Panthea (1917). He was married to Marie Shelton and Pauline Bush. He died on December 28, 1981 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, ...

25. Douglas Fairbanks

Actor | The Thief of Bagdad

Douglas Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado, to Ella Adelaide (nee Marsh) and Hezekiah Charles Ullman, an attorney and native of Pennsylvania, who was a captain for the Union forces during the Civil War. Fairbanks' paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants, ...

26. Marion Fairfax

Writer | The Lying Truth

Marion Fairfax, movie screenwriter and Broadway playwright, was born Marion Neiswanger in Richmond, Virginia, on October 25, 1875. After graduating from Chicago's South Division High School she went on to Emerson College in Boston. She went on the boards briefly as an actress before focusing her ...

27. Dustin Farnum

Actor | The Squaw Man

American leading man of silent pictures who specialized in Westerns. His mother and father were, respectively, a singer and an actor, and he and his younger brother William Farnum were introduced to the theatre at an early age. Raised in Maine, Dustin attended the East Maine Conference Seminary, ...

28. William Farnum

Actor | The Man Hunter

William Farnum was born the son of G.D. Farnum and Adela Le Gros, actors who trained their William and his two brothers, Dustin Farnum and Marshall Farnum, in their profession. William made his stage debut at the age of 10 in Richmond, Virginia, in a production of "Julius Caesar" starring Edwin ...

29. Thomas J. Geraghty

Writer | The End of the World

Born and raised in Indiana, Thomas Geraghty left for New York after graduating school and got a job as a reporter for the New York Herald and later the New York Tribune. His entrance into the film business was as a publicist, and he later became a writer for the one-reel comedies of Sidney Drew. In...

30. D.W. Griffith

Director | The Birth of a Nation

David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War veteran. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually shape his movies. In 1897 ...

as David Wark Griffith

31. Louise Glaum

Actress | Sex

Louise Glaum was born on September 10, 1888 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Sex (1920), Sweetheart of the Doomed (1917) and The Three Musketeers (1916). She was married to Zachary M. Harris and Harry J. Edwards. She died on November 25, 1970 in Los Angeles, ...

32. Julia Swayne Gordon

Actress | My Lady's Slipper

Julia Swayne Gordon was born on October 29, 1878 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for My Lady's Slipper (1916), You Can't Fool Your Wife (1923) and The Painted World (1919). She was married to Hugh Thomas Swayne. She died on May 28, 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

33. Robert Harron

Actor | Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

Today screen actor Robert (Bobby) Harron is one of Hollywood's forgotten souls, although he was a huge celebrity in his time and graced some of the silent screen's most enduring masterpieces. A talented, charismatic star in his heyday, Bobby had everything going for him but died far too young to ...

34. Sessue Hayakawa

Actor | The Bridge on the River Kwai

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 ...

35. Joseph Henabery

Actor | The Birth of a Nation

Joseph Henabery was born on January 15, 1888 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916) and The Man from Painted Post (1917). He was married to Lillian Nolan and Maceal Nolan. He died on February 18, 1976 in Woodland Hills, Los ...

as Joseph E. Henabery

36. Hobart Henley

Director | Society Snobs

Hobart Henley was born on November 23, 1887 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Society Snobs (1921), The Abysmal Brute (1923) and Parentage (1917). He was married to Corinne Barker. He died on May 22, 1964 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

37. Howard Hickman

Actor | Gone with the Wind

Howard Hickman was born on February 9, 1880 in Columbia, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), Kitty Kelly, M.D. (1919) and Nobody's Kid (1921). He was married to Bessie Barriscale. He died on December 31, 1949 in San Anselmo, California, USA.

38. Allen Holubar

Actor | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Born in San Francisco's Castro District, Allen Holubar was the first of five children of Constantin Josef Holubar and Margaret Allen C. Holubar, who immigrated from Bohemia in 1875 and married Margaret, a Scots woman, in San Francisco (Allen was born at 44 Caselli Ave. in a house that still stands)...

as Allan J. Holubar

39. Louise Huff

Actress | Seventeen

Louise Huff was born on November 14, 1895 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. She was an actress, known for Seventeen (1916), T'Other Dear Charmer (1918) and Heart of Gold (1919). She was married to Edwin A. Stillman. She died on August 22, 1973 in New York City, New York, USA.

40. Charles Hutchison

Actor | Lightning Hutch

Charles Hutchison was born on December 3, 1879 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Lightning Hutch (1926), The Judgement Book (1935) and Bachelor Mother (1932). He was married to Edith Thornton. He died on May 30, 1949 in Hollywood, California, USA.

41. Peggy Hyland

Actress | The Honeypot

The beautiful English brunette star of the silent screen Peggy Hyland born in Birmingham in 1884. Educated in England and in convents in Europe. Began working on stage in 1910. Peggy starred in more than 45 movies in both Britain and Hollywood, making her film debut in Percy Nash's 'In the Rank' ...

42. Thomas H. Ince

Producer | The Devil

Thomas H. Ince was born into a family of stage actors. He appeared on the stage at age six and worked with a number of stock companies, making his Broadway debut at 15. Vaudeville work was inconsistent, so he was a lifeguard, a promoter and part-time actor. His stage career was a failure but by ...

43. Rex Ingram

Director | The Great Problem

Renowned director Rex Ingram started his film career as a set designer and painter. His directorial debut was The Great Problem (1916). A true master of the medium, Ingram despised the business haggling required in the Hollywood system. He was also unhappy with the level of writing he found in ...

44. Edward José

Director | Mothers of Men

Belgian-born Edward José began his film career as an actor, starring opposite Theda Bara in one of her most famous films, A Fool There Was (1915). Turning to directing shortly afterwards, he handled several Pearl White serials, and piloted many features in the late 1910s and early 1920s. His most ...

45. Alice Joyce

Actress | Beau Geste

Having worked as a telephone operator at age 13 and a fashion model afterwards, Alice Joyce joined the Kalem film company at 20, making her debut in The Deacon's Daughter (1910), and achieved popularity as a charming, proper leading lady in many shorts. After Vitagraph bought out Kalem, Joyce began ...

46. Maxwell Karger

Producer | The Hole in the Wall

Karger was married to Ann Conley of the "Ann & Effie Conley Sisters" Vaudeville Act. He was one of the original founders and the general manager of Metro Pictures in New York before they moved to Hollywood and merged with Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer to form MGM Pictures. His son Fred Karger ...

47. Madge Kennedy

Actress | Marathon Man

In 1906, Madge went to New York City to study at the Art Students League where she hoped to become an illustrator. This lasted until she appeared in a student musical, which led to a full time job in a traveling stock company. By 1912, Madge was a Broadway Star with the bedroom farce "Little Miss ...

48. Theodore Kosloff

Actor | The Tree of Knowledge

Theodore Kosloff was born on January 22, 1882 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for The Tree of Knowledge (1920), To Have and to Hold (1922) and Sunny (1930). He was married to Maria Alexandra Baldina. He died on November 22, 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

49. Sheldon Lewis

Actor | The Monster Walks

Sheldon Lewis was born on April 20, 1869 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Monster Walks (1932), Orphans of the Storm (1921) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920). He was married to Virginia Pearson. He died on May 7, 1958 in San Gabriel, California, USA.

50. E.K. Lincoln

Actor | Lafayette, We Come

E.K. Lincoln was born on August 8, 1884 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Lafayette, We Come (1918), The Almighty Dollar (1916) and The Painted World (1914). He died on January 9, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

51. Max Linder

Actor | Seven Years Bad Luck

Although all too frequently neglected by fans of silent comedy, Max Linder is in many ways as important a figure as Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, not least because he predated (and influenced) them all by several years and was largely responsible for the creation of the classic ...

52. Frank Lloyd

Director | Mutiny on the Bounty

Frank Lloyd was an unpretentious, technically skilled director, who crafted several enduring Hollywood classics during the 1930's. He started out as a stage actor and singer in early 1900's London and was well-known as an imitator of Harry Lauder. After several years in music hall and with touring ...

53. John Lynch

Writer | The Valley of Silent Men

John G. Lynch operated a chain of theaters in Utica, Syracuse, Albany and Rochester, New York before coming to Hollywood around 1917 to work for Thomas H. Ince as a script writer. In all he was said to have worked on some 800 scripts and stories over his 19 year career in Hollywood. At the time of ...

54. Bert Lytell

Actor | Alias the Lone Wolf

Bert Lytell was born on February 24, 1885 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Alias the Lone Wolf (1927), Obey the Law (1926) and A Message from Mars (1921). He was married to Grace Menken, Claire Windsor and Evelyn Vaughn. He died on September 28, 1954 in New ...

55. Jeanie Macpherson

Actress | The Merchant of Venice

Born in Boston to Evangeline Tomlinson and John Sinclair Macpherson. Jeanie Macperson was educated at Madame de Facq's school in Paris, the Kenwood Institute in Chicago and took dancing lessons from Theodore Kosloff. Her stage experience began when she got the lead in a school play and was awarded ...

56. Tully Marshall

Actor | Scarface

Tully Marshall intended to pursue a legal career, until he tried a dramatic course at Santa Clara University. He started stage work in San Francisco in 1883 and moved to New York in 1887, where he played in various roles on Broadway and on the road. After a few small parts in films he was given the...

57. Vivian Martin

Actress | Louisiana

On Broadway from 1901, vivacious, blonde Vivian Martin was one of the first stars of the stage to be signed by the fledgling World Film Corporation in 1914 (then under the auspices of Arthur Spiegel and Lewis J. Selznick). Vivian's first step to fame had come in 1911, when the impresario George M. ...

58. Shirley Mason

Actress | Sally in Our Alley

Shirley Mason was born Leonie Flugrath on June 6, 1900, in Brooklyn, NY. The youngest of three acting sisters (the others were Edna Flugrath and Viola Dana), Shirley made her debut in At the Threshold of Life (1911) at age 11. As a child actress she wasn't in much demand until she grew older, then ...

59. June Mathis

Writer | Greed

June Mathis was born June Beulah Hughes in 1887 in Leadville, Colorado. Her father died at a young age and her mother married William Mathis. She grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, which she would proudly consider her hometown for the rest of her life.

At the age of 13 she pursued a career in ...

60. Charles Miller

Director | At the Mercy of Men

Charles Miller was born in 1857 in Saginaw, Michigan, USA. He was a director and actor, known for At the Mercy of Men (1918), The Ghosts of Yesterday (1918) and A Corner in Colleens (1916). He died on November 14, 1936 in New York City, New York, USA.

61. Mary Miles Minter

Actress | Jenny Be Good

Little Mary Miles Minter was a child star who was dominated by her mother. At the age of 5 she first appeared on the stage in the play "Cameo Kirby". From that time on she worked steadily without a single vacation. Her greatest stage success was in "The Littlest Rebel", with William Farnum and ...

62. James Morrison

Actor | Captain Blood

James Morrison was born on November 15, 1888 in Mattoon, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Captain Blood (1924), The Sex Lure (1916) and The Count of Luxembourg (1926). He died on November 15, 1974 in New York City, New York, USA.

63. Eugene Mullin

Writer | Twelfth Night

Eugene Mullin was born on December 18, 1894 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Twelfth Night (1910), The Ruse (1916) and Our Other Lives (1916). He died on April 15, 1967 in Brentwood, Long Island, New York City, New York, USA.

64. Conrad Nagel

Actor | The Ship from Shanghai

Conrad Nagel was born on March 16, 1897 in Keokuk, Iowa, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Ship from Shanghai (1930), Quality Street (1927) and Kongo (1932). He was married to Michael Coulson Smith, Lynn Merrick and Ruth Helms. He died on February 24, 1970 in New York City, New York,...

65. Alla Nazimova

Actress | Salomé

The grand, highly flamboyant Russian star Alla Nazimova of Hollywood silent films lived an equally grand, flamboyant life off-camera, though her legendary status has not held up as firmly as that of a Rudolph Valentino today.

Alla Nazimova was born Miriam Edez Adelaida Leventon in 1879, in Yalta, ...

66. Roy William Neill

Director | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Roy William Neill was born on September 4, 1887 in ship off Ireland. He was a director and producer, known for Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), The Scarlet Claw (1944) and Murder Will Out (1939). He was married to Betty MacLaglen. He died on December 14, 1946 in London, England, UK.

as R. William Neill

67. Marshall Neilan

Actor | Daddy-Long-Legs

In the early days of silent pictures, Marshall Neilan was a top director for Goldwyn Pictures. He had also directed a small number of Louis B. Mayer's independently produced melodramas, but there was a mutual dislike between the two men. During the festivities inaugurating the merger of Metro and ...

68. Fred Niblo

The Artist

Fred Niblo entered films in 1917 after two decades as a touring actor in vaudeville and one-time manager of 'The Four Cohans' (he married Josephine Cohan, the sister of George M. Cohan). He made his film debut with two early Australian silent films in 1916. He worked for Thomas H. Ince from 1917 as ...

69. John W. Noble

Director | Reckless Decision

John W. Noble was born on June 24, 1880 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Reckless Decision (1933), Stranger of the North (1924) and Black Fear (1915). He was married to Iva Barbour. He died on August 10, 1946 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, USA.

70. Mabel Normand

Actress | Mickey

Mabel Normand was one of the comedy greats of early film. In an era when women are deemed 'not funny enough' it seems film history has forgotten her contributions. Her films debuted the Keystone Cops, Charlie Chaplin's tramp and the pie in the face gag. She co-starred with both Chaplin and Roscoe "...

71. Wilfrid North

Actor | Captain Blood

London-born Wilfrid North had a long and distinguished career on the stage as an actor, director and manager before joining Vitagraph Pictures in 1913 as a director. Vitagraph placed him at the helm of the films of its reigning comedy star, the portly John Bunny. North acquitted himself well in ...

72. Sidney Olcott

Director | For Ireland's Sake

Prolific silent film director, the son of Irish immigrants. Olcott started as an actor on the New York stage and then appeared in films for Mutoscope in 1904, eventually working his way up to general manager of Biograph. Lured away to a rival company he began to direct features for Kalem by 1907. ...

73. William Parke

Director | Mystery of the Double Cross

William Parke was born on January 17, 1873 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Mystery of the Double Cross (1917), Ten Scars Make a Man (1924) and The Paliser Case (1920). He was married to Alice Harrington . He died on July 28, 1941 in New York City, New ...

74. Virginia Pearson

Actress | Impossible Catherine

Virginia Pearson was born on March 7, 1886 in Anchorage, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Impossible Catherine (1919), A Daughter of France (1918) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). She was married to Sheldon Lewis. She died on June 6, 1958 in Hollywood, California, USA.

75. Dorothy Phillips

Actress | Broadway Love

A former stage actress, Dorothy Phillips was married to actor/director/producer Allen Holubar. They were known as two of the screen's most prominent players--her the star, he the director/producer. Dorothy was well known in Hollywood as one of the most warm-hearted, approachable stars in the ...

76. Mary Pickford

Actress | Coquette

Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Elsie Charlotte (Hennessy) and John Charles Smith. She was of English and Irish descent. Pickford began in the theater at age seven. Then known as "Baby Gladys Smith", she toured with her family in a number of theater ...

77. Florence Reed

Actress | The Eternal Sin

Florence Reed was born on January 10, 1883 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Eternal Sin (1917), Wives of Men (1918) and The Black Panther's Cub (1921). She was married to Malcolm Williams. She died on November 21, 1967 in East Islip, Long Island, New York, USA.

78. Luther Reed

Writer | Dixiana

Luther Reed was born on July 14, 1888 in Berlin, Wisconsin, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Dixiana (1930), Hit the Deck (1929) and Rio Rita (1929). He was married to Jocelyn Lee and Naomi Childers. He died on November 16, 1961 in New York City, New York, USA.

as Luther A. Reed

79. Wallace Reid

Actor | Carmen

The son of writer-theater producer-director-actor Hal Reid, Wallace was on stage by the age of four in the act with his parents. He spent most of his early years, not on the stage, but in private schools where he excelled in music and athletics. In 1910, his father went to the Chicago studio of "...

80. Ruth Roland

Actress | The Haunted Valley

Ruth Roland was, along with Pearl White, the queen of the early movie serials. She came from a show-business family, her father being a San Francisco theater manager and her mother a professional singer. Ruth made her acting debut at age 3-1/2, and soon became a professional actress and singer. Her...

81. William Russell

Actor | The Roof Tree

Silent-film star William Russell was born in the Bronx, New York, in the late 1880s (various sources give it as 1884, 1886 and 1889). His mother, Clara, was a highly regarded stage actress. Russell studied law at Fordham University (and, some sources say, Harvard University). He started a law ...

as William F. Russell

82. Monroe Salisbury

Actor | The Barbarian

Monroe Salisbury was born Orange Salisbury Cash, the son of David Cash and Ellen Louise Salisbury Cash, and grandson of Aaron Cash and Ann Roat Cash of Evans, Erie County, New York. He grew up with two sisters, Adelaide Mary Cash and Anna Louise Cash. By 1900, he was a working actor supporting his ...

83. Paul Scardon

Director | Partners of the Night

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Paul Scardon had extensive experience on the stage in his home country before coming to the US in 1905. He made films for Majestic and Reliance, among other studios, before joining Vitagraph in 1914. He appeared in several films there as an actor, but soon turned to ...

84. J. Barney Sherry

Actor | A Little Brother of the Rich

J. Barney Sherry was born on March 4, 1874 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for A Little Brother of the Rich (1919), The Warrens of Virginia (1924) and The Live Wire (1925). He died on February 22, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

85. Milton Sills

Actor | The Sea Hawk

American leading man of silent pictures. Born into affluence in Chicago, he attended the University of Chicago on scholarship and remained there as a professor of psychology and philosophy. A chance visit to the school by actor- manager Donald Robertson led to Sills abandoning his career and ...

86. Anita Stewart

Actress | A Midnight Romance

Anita Stewart was born on February 7, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for A Midnight Romance (1919), Her Kingdom of Dreams (1919) and The Lodge in the Wilderness (1926). She was married to George Peabody Converse and Rudolph Cameron. She died ...

87. Edith Storey

Actress | The Christian

According to an article in The Paterson (New Jersey) Morning Call of 15 April 1921, she had just returned "...to the screen after a long absence, during which she was busy making history in Europe as a driver of one of the American hospital corps ambulances." Other accounts say she did this in New ...

88. C. Gardner Sullivan

Writer | All Quiet on the Western Front

C. Gardner Sullivan was born on September 18, 1884 in Stillwater, Minnesota, USA. He was a writer, known for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), The Return of Draw Egan (1916) and The Monster (1925). He was married to Ann May. He died on September 5, 1965 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

89. Blanche Sweet

Actress | Anna Christie

Born into a family of show people, Blanche Sweet first appeared on the stage when she was 18 months old. She was a dancer by the time she was four and a talented actress by 1909 when she started work at the Biograph with D.W. Griffith. By 1910, aged 14, she was four years younger than Mary Pickford...

90. Norma Talmadge

Actress | Camille

Norma Talmadge was born on May 26, 1895, in Jersey City, New Jersey. The daughter of an unemployed alcoholic and his wife, Norma did not have the idyllic childhood that most of us yearn for. Her father left the family on Christmas Day and his wife and three daughters had to fend for themselves. Her...

91. Robert G. Vignola

Director | Broken Dreams

Robert G. Vignola was born on August 5, 1882 in Trivigno (Potenza), Basilicata, Italy. He was a director and actor, known for Broken Dreams (1933), The Knife (1918) and More Deadly Than the Male (1919). He died on October 25, 1953 in Hollywood, California, USA.

92. Erich von Stroheim

Actor | Sunset Blvd.

Erich von Stroheim was born Erich Oswald Stroheim in 1885, in Vienna, Austria, to Johanna (Bondy), from Prague, and Benno Stroheim, a hatter from Gleiwitz, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland). His family was Jewish.

After spending some time working in his father's hat factory, he emigrated to America ...

93. Bryant Washburn

Actor | Captain Midnight

Bryant Washburn was born on April 28, 1889 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Captain Midnight (1942), Skinner's Baby (1917) and Till I Come Back to You (1918). He was married to Virginia Vance and Mabel Forrest. He died on April 30, 1963 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, ...

94. Kenneth S. Webb

Director | The Devil's Garden

Kenneth S. Webb was born on October 16, 1892 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Devil's Garden (1920), His Wife's Husband (1922) and The Master Mind (1920). He was married to Lorraine Frost. He died on March 23, 1966 in Hollywood, California, USA.

as Kenneth Webb

95. Lois Weber

Director | Suspense

Lois Weber, who had been a street-corner evangelist before entering motion pictures in 1905, became the first American woman movie director of note, and a major one at that. Herbert Blaché, the husband of Frenchwoman Alice Guy, the first woman to direct a motion picture (and arguably, the first ...

96. Harry McRae Webster

Director | The Devil's Playground

Harry McRae Webster was a stage actor in the legitimate theater, as well as in vaudeville and burlesque before moving up to producing and directing stage shows. He started his film career as a director for Essanay Studios; after five years there, he branched out into solo work for a number of ...

97. Niles Welch

Actor | Dangerous Pleasure

Niles Welch was born on July 29, 1888, in Hartford, Connecticut. He attended Yale and Columbia Universities, where he excelled in athletics. Welch spent two years in France studying literature, languages, painting and drama. He started his career on stage in 1909 in a production at Columbia. After ...

98. Irvin Willat

Director | On the High Seas

Irvin Willat was born on November 18, 1890 in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. He was a director and writer, known for On the High Seas (1922), The Grim Game (1919) and The Isle of Lost Ships (1929). He was married to Billie Dove. He died on April 17, 1976 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

as Irvin V. Willat

99. Earle Williams

Actor | The Scarlet Runner

Earle Williams was born on February 28, 1880 in Sacramento, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Scarlet Runner (1916), Arsene Lupin (1917) and The Wolf (1919). He was married to Florine Walz. He died on April 25, 1927 in Hollywood, California, USA.

as Earle Rafael Williams

100. Clara Kimball Young

Actress | The Common Law

Clara Kimball Young was born Clarisa Kimball on September 6, 1890, to Edward Kimball and the former Mrs. E.M. Kimball, traveling stock company actors with the Holden Co. Though she claimed Chicago as her birthplace, there are no records of her being born in Cook County--which includes Chicago--and ...