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Movie roles are sometimes based upon what the audience expects to see. If the role called for the tall stereotypical Englishmen with the stiff upper lip and stern determination, that man would be C. Aubrey Smith, graduate of Cambridge University, a leading Freemason and a test cricketer for England. Smith was 30 by the time he embarked upon a career on the stage. It took another 20 plus years before he entered the flickering images of the movies. By 1915, Smith was over 50 in a medium that demanded young actors and starlets. For the next ten years, he appeared in a rather small number of silent movies, and after that, he faded from the scene. It was in 1930, with the advent of sound, that Smith found his position in the movies and that position would be distinguished roles. He played military officers, successful business men, ministers of the cloth and ministers of government. With the bushy eyebrows and stoic face, he played men who know about honour, tradition, and the correct path. He worked with big stars such as Greta Garbo, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Shirley Temple. As for honours, Smith received the Order of the British Empire in 1938 and was knighted in 1944. He continued to work up to the time of his death.

In her younger days, auburn-haired Alison Skipworth had been a celebrated patrician beauty. She was the favorite model of English artist Frank Markham Skipworth (1854-1929) who would later become her husband. A physician's daughter, Alison did not make her professional acting debut until the age of thirty-one, having been privately tutored by academics from Oxford University. Her eventual move to stage acting was ostensibly to supplement her husband's meagre income. Alison's first performance was in "A Gaiety Girl" at London's Daly Theatre (in 1894), but, before long, she forsook England for Broadway and subsequently joined Daniel Frohman's company at the Lyceum in New York. She toured in Shakespearean roles and eventually became prolific on the 'Great White Way' in comedy plays. Unfortunately for her, many of these turned out to be conspicuous flops. After a string of failures (twenty-one, she claimed, between 1925 and 1930 alone!), Alison jumped at the opportunity to impose herself on the screen. Now stately and plump, 'Skippy' went on to carve herself a niche in Hollywood as imperious or seedy grand dames, dowagers and matrons, characters she often imbued with her own adroit sense of humour. She is most fondly remembered as a formidable foil (and, indeed, the only one to stand up to) W.C. Fields in If I Had a Million (1932), Tillie and Gus (1933), Alice in Wonderland (1933) and Six of a Kind (1934). Other memorable turns included her Mrs. Mabel Jellyman, hired to tutor a shady speakeasy proprietor (played by George Raft) in manners in Night After Night (1932), culminating in a confrontation with Mae West (both on and off the set); and Madame Barabas in Satan Met a Lady (1936), loosely based on Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon", in which Alison played the female equivalent of the role later made famous by Sydney Greenstreet in the classic 1941 Warner Brothers version. Alison retired from acting in 1942 after her Broadway swansong in "Lily of the Valley" and passed away ten years later at the venerable age of 88.

William Randolph Hearst was the greatest newspaper baron in the history of the United States and is the person whom Citizen Kane (1941), widely regarded as the greatest film ever made, is primarily based on. While there are many similarities between Charles Foster Kane, as limned by the great Orson Welles and his screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz (who knew Hearst), there are many dissimilarities also.

He was born on April 29, 1863, in San Francisco, California, the only child of the multi-millionaire miner George Hearst and his wife, Phoebe Apperson Hearst. Mrs. Hearst was a former school-teacher with refined manners who was over 20 years her husband's junior. Phoebe spoiled William Randolph, who was raised with personal tutors and sent to the most elite prep schools back East. He attended Harvard College but was expelled in 1885.

When he was 23 years old, William Randolph asked his father if he could take over the daily operation of the "San Francisco Examiner," a newspaper that George had acquired as payment for a gambling debt. His father relented and William Randolph took over, styling himself as its "Proprietor." The "Examiner," which he grandly called "The Monarch of the Dailies" on its masthead, was the first of many newspapers that the young Hearst would come to run, and the first where he indulged his appetite for sensationalistic, attention-getting, circulation-boosting news stories.

When his father George died, Phoebe Hearst liquidated the family mining assets to fund her son's acquisition of the ailing "New York Morning Journal." (The family continued to own forest products and petroleum properties.) Ruthless and driven, the aggressive Hearst willed the "Morning Journal" into becoming the best newspaper in New York City, hiring the best executives and finest reporters from the competition. In the style of yellow-news baron Joseph Pulitzer, with whom he now went into direct competition, Hearst introduced an in-your-face, outrageous editorial content that attracted a new market of readers. Though the term "Yellow Journalism" was originally coined to describe the practices of Pulitzer, Hearst proved adept at it. Hearst responded to the request of illustrator Frederic Remington, who had been detailed to Havana in 1898 in anticipation of something big, to return to the States with a terse message: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

After the U.S.S. Maine was blown-up in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, Hearst called the Journal city desk and demanded that the front page prominently play up the incident as the sinking of the American battleship meant war. The Journal began immediately running banner headlines proclaiming "War? Sure!" to inflame the public and pressure the government of President William McKinley to proclaim war against Spain. (Some critics accused Hearst of being indirectly responsible for McKinley's assassination as he had published a poem by Ambrose Bierce that seemed to call for such an act.)

The Spanish-American War became the Journal's war just as Vietnam was the television network's war. Ernest L. Meyer wrote about Hearst's journalistic standards: "Mr. Hearst in his long and not laudable career has inflamed Americans against Spaniards, Americans against Japanese, Americans against Filipinos, Americans against Russians, and in the pursuit of his incendiary campaign he has printed downright lies, forged documents, faked atrocity stories, inflammatory editorials, sensational cartoons and photographs and other devices by which he abetted his jingoistic ends."

Hearst added Chicago to his domain, acquiring the "Chicago American" in 1900 and the "Chicago Examiner" in 1902. The "Boston American" and the "Los Angeles Examiner" were acquired in 1904, firmly establishing the media empire that in its heyday during the 1920s, consisted of 20 daily and 11 Sunday newspapers in 13 cities, the King Features syndication service, the International News Service, and the American Weekly (Sunday syndicated supplement). One in four Americans in the '20s read a Hearst newspaper daily. His media empire also included International News Reel and the movie production company Cosmopolitan Pictures, plus a number of national magazines, including "Cosmopolitan," "Good Housekeeping" and "Harper's Bazaar." In 1924, he opened the "New York Daily Mirror," a racy tabloid that was an imitation of the innovative "New York Daily News," which ran many photographs to illustrate its lurid reporting.

Unlike Charles Foster Kane, Willaim Randolph Hearst never married the niece of the president of the United States. The closest he got to a president other than socializing with one was marrying Millicent Wilson, who shared the name of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921). The nuptials took place the day before he turned 40. His family opposed his marriage to Millicent, who was a 21-year-old showgirl whom he had known for many years. Before Millicent, he had been involved with Tessie Powers, a waitress he had financially supported since he had attended Harvard and trysted with her while still sporting the college's beanie. Hearst's personal life often was featured in stories that his competitors, the tabloid newspapers, ran during his lifetime, the kind of press he would have no moral qualms about if the proverbial shoe were on the other foot and it was someone else's other than his ox being gored. (So much for his moral outrage over Citizen Kane (1941).) He and Millicent had five sons, but Hearst took another showgirl, 20-year-old Marion Davies of the Ziefgeld Follies, as his mistress. She was 34 years his junior. It was a relationship that lasted until the end of his life.

Hearst used his media power to get himself twice elected to Congress as a member of House of Representatives (1903-1905; and 1905-1907) as a progressive, if not radical Democrat. However, he failed in his two bids to become mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, and was defeated by the Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes in his attempt to become governor of New York State in (1906). He supported the Spanish-American War - many observers believe he even was the casus belli of that conflict - but opposed the U.S. entry into World War One as he despised the British Empire. He also opposed President Wilson's formation of the League of Nations and American membership in the organization.

By the time of the First World War, his political ambitions frustrated, he decided to live openly with Davies in California and at a castle he bought in Wales. His wife and children remained in New York, where Hearst became known as a leading philanthropist, creating the Free Milk Fund for the poor in 1921. They officially separated in 1926.

Hearst spent many years and a fortune promoting Marion Davies' film career. According to the great critic Pauline Kael, Davies was a first-rate light comedienne, but Hearst wanted her to play the classical roles of a tragedienne, with the result that he pushed her into movies that were ill-suited for her, and that made her look ridiculous. She was not, however, the talentless drunk that Charles Foster Kane's second wife, Susan Alexander was. (Orson Welles said that his only regret over Citizen Kane (1941) was the backlash and grief caused to Davies, who was a woman adored by everyone who knew her. Davies nephew actually was the step-father of Welles' first child.)

Phoebe Hearst died in 1919, and Hearst moved onto the family's 268,000-acre San Simeon Ranch in southern California. On 127 acres overlooking the California coast north of Cambria, he built what is now called Hearst Castle but that he called "La Cuesta Encantada." Starting in 1922, and not finished until 1947, the 165-room mansion was built by an army of craftsmen and laborers. The mansion -- which cost approximately $37 million to build -- was not ready for full-time occupancy until 1927, and additions to the main building continued for another 20 years. At La Cuesta Encantada, Hearst entertained the creme de la creme of Hollywood and the world, whom he treated to his hospitality among his personal art collection valued at over $50 million, the largest ever assembled by any private individual. He could live openly in California with Davies.

Along with his sensationalism and jingoism, William Randold Hearst was a racist who hated minorities, particularly Mexicans, both native-born and immigrants. He used his newspaper chain to frequently stir up racial tensions. Hearst's newspapers portrayed Mexicans as lazy, degenerate and violent, marijuana-smokers who stole jobs from "real Americans." Hearst's hatred of Mexicans and his hyping of the "Mexican threat" to America likely was rooted in the 800,000 acres of timberland that had been confiscated from him by Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution.

The Great Depression hurt Hearst financially, and he never recovered from it. At one point, his financial distress was so great, his mistress, Marion Davies, had to pawn some of her jewels to get him the cash to keep him afloat. The Hearst media empire has reached its zenith in terms of circulation and revenues the year before the Stockmarket Crash of October 1929, but the huge over-extension of the Hearst media empire eventually cost him control of his holdings. Hearst's newspaper chain likely had never been profitable, but had been supported by the income from his mining, ranching and forest products interests. All of Hearst's business interests were adversely affected by the economic downturn, but the newspapers were hit particularly hard due to the decline in advertising revenues, the life's blood of any newspaper. His bellicose and eccentric behavior only made matters worse.

By the time Franklin D. Roosevelt exerted himself over the U.S. economy, Hearst had become a reactionary. He had produced a film, Gabriel Over the White House (1933) starring Walter Huston as a presidential messiah, but Roosevelt, apparently, wasn't his kind of Christ-figure. In the movie, President 'Judd' Hammond exercised near dictatorial powers, including apparently ordering summary executions of gangsters; this may have gone over well in corporate America, but hardly was a management paradigm for a working democracy. However, Roosevelt's attempts to centralize power in government and industry cartels to combat the Depression were eventually repudiated by Hearst. His anti-Roosevelt stance, trumpeted by his papers, proved unpopular with the common man who was his primary readership.

Once, he had served as the self-appointed tribune of the common man, and his progressive politics was denounced by the plutocrats as radical, but by the 1930s, Hearst was flirting with Fascism. The Hearst papers carried paid-for columns by both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, though Hearst claimed that he was only an anti-Communist. However, during a continental tour with Marion Davies, Hearst actually attended the Nuremberg rally of 1934. He later completed a newsreel deal with Hitler during the trip. Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course, was as staunchly anti-fascist as Hearst was anti-communist. His pro-intervention policies on the side of Britian during the early days of World War Two rankled the philo-German Hearst.

Hearst had a complicated relationship with Roosevelt, whom he helped obtain the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination (as a moderate). Hearst fluctuated between endorsing and attacking F.D.R. and his New Deal. In public, Roosevelt, on his part, would woo Hearst with invitations to the White House, obtaining a temporary truce, while in private, Roosevelt complained of Hearst's power and had his income taxes investigated. In 1934, Hearst launched a virulent anti-communist witch-hunt that would last for 20 years in which he tarred New Deal supporters as reds, then ended up labeling F.D.R. himself a communist. In response to his red-baiting, liberals and leftists retaliated with a boycott of Hearst newspapers.

Hearst had become a major liability to the Hearst Corp. by the mid-1930s as he became more noxious. He had started out as a populist, but had veered right in the 1920s, then tacked left in the early 1930s, only to veer to the far right beginning in the mid-'30s. Always a maverick, Hearst might have been psychologically unable to maintain a constant position; unable or unwilling to reign in his ego and support those in power, he could never stay allies with anyone for long, and thus regularly shifted positions. As Roosevelt went left, Hearst went right. Apparently, as his flirtation with fascism elucidates, he had cast himself as the savior of America in his own mind.

The economic result of Hearst's shift to the right (which also may have been influenced by his need to cajole financiers, who decidedly were anti-Roosevelt) was that advertising sales and circulation declined, just as millions in debt came due and had to be refinanced. In 1936, Hearst's efforts to raise more capital by floating a new bond issue was stymied by his creditors, with the result that he was unable to service the Hearst Corp.'s debts. The Hearst Corp. went into receivership and was reorganized, and William Randolph Hearst was reduced to the status of an employee, with a court-appointed overseer. A liquidation of Heart Corp. assets began, and newspapers were shed, Cosmopolitan Pictures was terminated, and there was an auctioning off of his art and antiquities. Hearst, the media baron of unparalleled power, was through as a major independent power in American politics and culture.

However, he still retained enough clout with his remaining newspapers (and their ability to publicize movies) in the early 1940s to make life miserable for Orson Welles after the supreme insult of his roman a clef Citizen Kane (1941). Allegedly, Hearst wasn't so much incensed at Welles as he was at Mankiewicz, a friend who had betrayed his secrets. ("Rosebud," the name of the Charles Foster Kane's childhood sled that supposedly is the key to his psychology but is actually a "McGuffin" around which to structure the movie's plot, was allegedly Hearst's nickname for Davies' private parts.)

The economic recovery that came with war production during World War II (which he opposed, just as he had America's entry into the First World War) buoyed the Hearst newspapers' circulation and advertising revenues, but he never returned to the prominence he had enjoyed in the old days. He did, still, have the love of Marion Davies, who was with him to the end, steadfast in her love. Hearst died in 1951, aged eighty-eight, at Beverly Hills, California, and is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

More than 50 years after his death, Hearst's stature has diminished while the reputation of Citizen Kane (1941) remains secure. Interestingly, Hearst's own current, largely negative image has largely been shaped by the film, which is considered a landmark in cinematic innovation. Perhaps it was just a case of Hearst living too long, of outliving his own innovative period. As a newspaper publisher, Hearst promoted innovative writers and cartoonists despite the indifference of his readers. George Herriman, the creator of the comic strip "Krazy Kat," was a Hearst favorite; Hearst even produced Krazy Kat movie shorts. "Krazy Kat" was not especially popular with readers, but it is now considered to be a classic and a watershed of that increasing respected art form. On the negative side, the sensationalistic, border-line fabricated, over-hyped journalistic paradigm that Hearst championed through his perfection of modern yellow journalism, a paradigm he made standard newspaper fare for over half-a-century, lives on in today's media.

Zeffie Tilbury was born on 20 November 1863 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Werewolf of London (1935) and Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935). She was married to L. E. Woodthorpe and Arthur Frederick Lewis. She died on 24 July 1950 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Al J. Jennings was born on 25 November 1863 in Virginia, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Lady of the Dugout (1918), Beating Back (1914) and The Tryout (1919). He died on 26 December 1961 in Tarzana, California, USA.

Konstantin Stanislavski was a wealthy Russian businessman turned director who founded the Moscow Art Theatre, and originated the Stanislavski's System of acting which was spread over the world by his students, such as Michael Chekhov, Aleksei Dikij, Stella Adler, Viktor Tourjansky, and Richard Boleslawski among many others.

He was born Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseev on January 5, 1863, in Moscow, Russia. His father, Sergei Alekseev, was a wealthy Russian merchant. His mother, Elisaveta Vasilevna (nee Yakovleva) was French-Russian and his grandmother was a notable actress in Paris. Young Stanislavski grew up in a bilingual environment. He was fond of theatre and arts, studied piano and singing, and performed amateur plays at home with his elder brother and two sisters. He studied business and languages at Lasarevsky Institute, the most prestigious private school in Moscow. He did not graduate, instead he continued self-education while traveling in several European countries and studying at libraries and museums. Eventually Stanislavski joined his father's company, became a successful businessman, and the head of his father's business, the Alekseev's factory and other assets. During the 1880s Stanislavski made a fortune in international business and trade, he was awarded the Gold Medal at the World's Fair in Paris. At the same time, he was an active patron of arts and theatre in Russia. In 1885 he studied acting and directing at the Maly Theatre in Moscow, and took a stage name Stanislavski. In 1888 he founded the "Society for Arts and Literature" in Moscow.

In 1898 Stanislavski together with his partner, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded the Moscow Art Theatre, which made a profound influence on theatrical art all over the world. They opened with staging of "Tsar Feodor" a play by Aleksei Tolstoy, then staged "The Seagull" written by Anton Chekhov specially for the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1900 Stanislavski brought the Moscow Art Theatre on tour in Sebastopol and Yalta in Crimea, where he invited then ailing Anton Chekhov to see several plays. Chekhov admired the company's stage production of his plays, and respected the theatrical achievements of Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Chekhov's legendary collaboration with the Moscow Art Theatre was fruitful for both sides: it resulted in creation of such classics as 'The Seagull', 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Three Sisters', and 'The Cherry Orchard', the four big plays which remained in the repertoire ever since.

Stanislavski's system was developed through his own cross-cultural experience as actor, director, and businessman. He constantly updated his method through inter-disciplinary studies, absorbing from a range of sources and influences, such as the modernist developments, yoga and Pavlovian behaviorist psychology. He introduced group rehearsals and relaxation techniques to achieve better spiritual connections between actors. Pavlovian approach worked well by conditioning actors through discipline in longer, organized rehearsals, and using a thorough analysis of characters. Stanislavski himself was involved in a long and arduous practice making every actor better prepared for stage performance and eventually producing a less rigid acting style. In his own words, Stanislavski described his early approach as "Spiritual Realism." His actors worked hard to deliver perfectly believable performances, as none of his actors wanted to hear his famous verdict, "I don't believe."

As an actor, Stanislavski starred in several classical plays. His most notable stage performances, such as Othello in the Shakespeare's 'Othello', and as Gayev in Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard', were acclaimed by critics and loved by public. His own students said that Stanislavski was a very comfortable partner on stage, due to his highly professional and truthful acting. At the same time, he could be very demanding off stage, because of his high standards, especially during his lengthy and rigorous rehearsals, requiring nothing less but the full devotion from each actor of his company, the Moscow Art Theatre.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, his factory and all other business property was nationalized by the Soviet Communists, but he was allowed to own his mansion in Moscow. Stanislavski wisely let go of all his wealth and possessions and expressed himself in writing and directing. He remained the principal director of Moscow Art Theatre for the rest of his life. During the turbulent years before and after the Russian Revolution, and later in the 1920s and 30s, he witnessed bitter rivalry among his former students. Some actors emigrated from Russia, others fought for their share of success, and the Moscow Art Theatre was eventually divided into several companies.

In 1928 Stanislavski suffered from a heart attack. He then distanced himself from disputes and competition between his former students Michael Chekhov and Aleksei Dikij, whose individual ambitions resulted in further fragmentation of the original Moscow Art Theatre company. At the same time, his younger apprentice, Nikolay Khmelyov, remained loyal to the teacher, and eventually later filled the position held by Stanislavski at Moscow Art Theatre. However, his other students, such as Vsevolod Meyerhold and Yevgeni Vakhtangov founded their own theatre companies and continued using their versions of the Stanislavski's system. In the 1930s, Stanislavski together with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko formed one more theatrical company in Moscow, the Musical Theatre of Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Stanislavski was a proponent of democratic ideas, such as equal opportunity and equal value of every human being on the planet. At that time Stanislavski's nephew was arrested for political reasons, and died in the Gulag prison-camp. Stanislavsky was also under permanent surveillance, because his Moscow Art Theatre was frequently attended by Joseph Stalin and other Soviet strongmen. However, at that time Moscow Art Theatre became especially popular, because Russian intellectuals needed a cultural oasis to escape from the grim Soviet reality. Under Stanislavski the Moscow Art Theatre produced several brilliant plays by Mikhail A. Bulgakov, and also continued running such classics as 'The Seagull', 'The Cherry Orchard', 'The Lower Bottom' and other original productions of plays by Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky.

In his later years, Stanislavsky wrote a book titled "An Actor Prepares" which, in Charley Chaplin's words, ".. helps all people to reach out for big dramatic art. It tells what an actor needs to rouse the inspiration he requires for expressing profound emotions." Stanislavsky explained how actors may use his System, "Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep braking traditions, I beg you!" And that was exactly what the best of his followers did. Stanislavski's ideas were used by many acting teachers, such as Michael Chekhov, Stella Adler, and Lee Strasberg, among others across the world.

During the 1930s Konstantin Stanislavski directed the original productions of several classic Russian plays, such as "Na Dne" (aka.. The Lower Depths) by Maxim Gorky, "Tsar Fedor Ioannovich" by A.K. Tolstoy, and other plays at the Moscow Art Theatre. After Stanislavski's death his original theatrical productions were adapted to black and white films, where Stanislavsky is credited as the original theatrical director. He died of a heart failure on August 7, 1938, in Moscow and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.

Stanislavski's mansion in central Moscow is now a public museum and research center displaying a collection of original stage sets and theatrical costumes. Stanislavski's personal library is also part of his museum. It has rare books that he collected in his numerous travels, as well as original manuscripts and letters by Stanislavski.

Gustav von Seyffertitz was born on 4 August 1863 in Haimhausen, Dachau, Bavaria [now Bavaria, Germany]. He was an actor and director, known for Sherlock Holmes (1922), Shanghai Express (1932) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). He was married to Katharina Hoffmann, Eugenie von Mink, Toni Creutzburg, Nelly Thorne and Frieda. He died on 25 December 1943 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Dan Crimmins was born on 18 May 1863 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Midnight Express (1924), The Valley of the Giants (1927) and Vagabond Lady (1935). He was married to Rosa Gore. He died on 12 July 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Harry Beresford was born on November 4, 1863 in London, England as Henry William Walter Horseley Beresford. He was an actor and writer, known for Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935), David Copperfield (1935) and Anna Karenina (1935).

He also used the stage name Harry's professional name was Harry J. Morgan.

His first marriage was to actress Emma Dunn, on October 4, 1897, in Chicago. They divorced on February 10, 1909, in New York City, and Dunn was awarded sole custody of their young daughter, Dorothy.

His second marriage was to Edith Wylie (actress). He died on October 4, 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Jan Hieronimko was born on 2 February 1863 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Vampyr (1932). He died on 26 June 1942 in Paris, France.

When John Bunny died the New York Times stated, "The name John Bunny will always be linked to the movies." Little did movie fans of 1915 realize that he would be completely forgotten the next year and completely omitted from many books on silent movies 70-80 years later.

Bunny was the ninth in a line of English sea captains and would be the first not to follow in that profession. He attended St. James High School in Brooklyn and worked as a grocery clerk before running away in the late 1800s to discover the world of entertainment and appear in a small touring minstrel show. He became involved in theater and appeared in musical comedies such as "Old Dutch" with Hattie Williams and Lew Fields. He also worked as a stage manager for various stock companies. Bunny's rebellious nature took over again and he quit the theater to become involved in the "flickers". This was a very bold step. Not only was it a major step down for a "legitimate" stage actor to go into the movies at that time, but Bunny took a pay cut from $150 to $40 a week to work for Vitagraph in 1910. He made more than 250 shorts for Vitagraph over five years and become the best known face in the world.

Bunny always said that he did not aim to be a comedian, but with his short, gnome-like appearance and a weight approaching the 300-pound mark, he wound up taking advantage of these features to play comedy (he once asked rhetorically, "How could I play Romeo with a figure like mine?"). Bunny's co-star for the majority of his films was Flora Finch, who contrasted with Bunny's figure by being tall and thin. They usually appeared as Mr. & Mrs. Bunny. Their shorts were referred to as "Bunnygraphs" and "Bunnyfinches". They stayed away from physical comedy and dealt with relationships, usually the man getting away with something that his wife disagrees with.

Bunny even traveled to England to make a version of Charles Dickens' "Pickwick Papers". He decided to go back on the road with "John Bunny in Funnyland", but it was not a success. Not only did the show fail, but he was tired and ill. He talked to Vitagraph about restarting his film career, but it was too late. The man who led an adventurous life--he raced horses and flew airplanes--died at his home at 1416 Glenwood Road in Brooklyn of Bright's Disease in 1915. His funeral was held at the Elks Club House on West 43rd St. After just five years in the business, Bunny was gone and forgotten. The news of his death was heard around the world. He was so popular in Russia they created a series with an impersonator using the name "Poxon" after Bunny died. Bunny had two children, George (dec. 1958) and John (dec. 1971) Sadly, only a handful of Bunny's films survive. The one most available is the popular A Cure for Pokeritis (1912).

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 - April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that middle-class Americans could afford, he converted the automobile from an expensive luxury into an accessible conveyance that profoundly impacted the landscape of the 20th century.

English dramatist and story writer, usually of tales involving the sea and village life and often dealing with supernatural or horror elements. He was a clerk until finding success as a full-time author with his first collected stories, published as "Many Cargoes" in 1896. He is best known for "The Monkey's Paw", a 1902 tale about a talisman which grants its owner three wishes, though inevitably those come with a heavy price.

Carrie Daumery was born Frederica Carolina Mess in Hague, Netherlands (wrongfully Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She was an actress violinist and who married Belgian composer and pianist, Théophile Ysaÿe (1865-1918). After her husband's death in Nice, France, she moved to the United States. She had acted in two short films in France in 1908, and began her career in Hollywood films in 1921 as a bit player at poverty row studios, eventually moving to the major studios. She died on July 1, 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Her son with Ysaÿe, John Daumery, was born in 1898 in Brussels, Belgium, and became a director for Warner Brothers and other studios.

E.H. Calvert was born on 27 June 1863 in Alexandria, Virginia, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Wizard (1927), The Love Parade (1929) and Vultures of Society (1916). He was married to Lillian Drew and Thelma M. (actress). He died on 5 October 1941 in Hollywood, California, USA.

His mother claimed he was adopted, perhaps because her husband had been away touring for several years before Sidney's birth and was dead before the great event took place. Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and John Barrymore, his niece and nephews, insisted he looked too much like "Mummum" to have been anybody else's child. But the mystery continues--there's a rumor he was born at sea (!) and even his date of birth is in doubt. The young Barrymores were largely raised by Sidney's mother (their maternal grandmother), and Uncle Googan, as they called Sidney, was often about the place during their childhood. The date of his first marriage is also unknown, but sometime before 1892 he wed Gladys Rankin, also from a famous acting clan. They were billed as Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew, played vaudeville and toured in marital comedies. If the material turned out to be bad, Mrs. Drew would rewrite it or come up with a better script. Later they joined Vitagraph where he worked as an actor and director. After his wife's death in 1914, he married Lucille McVey, the second Mrs. Sidney Drew, a vivacious 24-year-old writer he had met on the Vitagraph lot where they both worked. His son, S. Rankin Drew, also acted in films and was thought a promising director, but he enlisted in the army in World War I and was killed when his plane was shot down over France. Sidney never got over his only child's death, and died a year later.

Henry De Vere Stacpoole was born on 9 April 1863 in Kingstown, Ireland. Henry De Vere was a writer, known for The Blue Lagoon (1980), The Truth About Spring (1965) and The Blue Lagoon (1949). Henry De Vere was married to Florence Robson and Margaret Robson. Henry De Vere died on 12 April 1951 in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, England, UK.

William A. Brady was born on 19 June 1863 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Life (1920), Stolen Orders (1918) and Beloved Adventuress (1917). He was married to Grace George and Rose Marie René (French dancer). He died on 6 January 1950 in New York City, New York, USA.

Max Skladanowsky was a German inventor and early filmmaker. Born as the fourth child of glazier Carl Theodor Skladanowsky and Luise Auguste Ernestine Skladanowsky, he was apprenticed as a photographer and glass painter, which led to an interest in magic lanterns. In 1879, he began to tour Germany and Central Europe with his father Carl and elder brother Emil Skladanowsky, giving dissolving magic lantern shows. While Emil mostly took care of promotion, Max was mostly involved with the technology, and on 20 August 1892 he constructed their first film camera, but this more likely happened in the summer or autumn of 1894. He also single-handedly constructed the Bioskop projector, with which after shooting several short films the brothers would provide motion picture shows. Between the years 1895 and 1905, the brothers directed at least 25 to 30 short movies.

Adele Sandrock was born on 19 August 1863 in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. She was an actress, known for Helen of Troy (1924), Op hoop van zegen (1924) and Die Försterchristl (1931). She died on 30 August 1937 in Berlin, Germany.

Herschel Mayall was born on 12 July 1863 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor, known for The Beast (1916), Shackled (1918) and Arabian Love (1922). He died on 10 June 1941 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

British novelist/playwright Anthony Hope was born Anthony Hope Hawkins on 2/9/1863, in London. His father was the headmaster of the St. Johns Foundation School for the Sons of Poor Clergy. He was educated at Marlborough School and Baliol College, Oxford, obtaining an M.A. with honors in 1885. He studied to become a lawyer, and was admitted to the bar in 1887. He set up his own practice, but clients were few and far between, and he spent the periods in between cases by writing novels. When he couldn't find a publisher for his first novel, he published it himself. It became a hit, coincidentally at the same time his law practice began to take off. When it got to the point where he had to choose between his law practice and writing, he chose writing.

He published two successful novels in 1894--"The Dolly Dialogues", which was fairly successful but is little remembered today, and the now-classic "The Prisoner of Zenda". "Zenda" is generally credited as the first--and the best--of what came to be known as "Ruritanian" novels, stories set in a small fictional European principality involving intrigue, double-crossing, power grabs and forbidden romance at the royal court (Richard Harding Davis, among others, took up that particular genre with his "Graustark" series), and "Zenda" has been made into film and television productions at least ten times. In 1898 Hope wrote a sequel of sorts, "Rupert of Hentzau", using the villainous character of "Zenda".

He first toured the US in 1897, and made several subsequent trips there. On one of them he met an American woman named Elizabeth Somerville Sheldon, and they married in 1903. The marriage produced two sons and a daughter. Hope was knighted in 1918 and bought a country estate at Tadworth in Surrey, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote more books and several plays. He died in 1933 at age 70.

Harry Todd was born on 13 December 1863 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Ten Nights in a Bar-Room (1931), One Is Guilty (1934) and Tea: With a Kick! (1923). He was married to Margaret Joslin. He died on 15 February 1935 in Glendale, California, USA.

Edythe Chapman was born in Rochester, New York on October 8, 1863. A stage actress who came upon movies late in life, she nonetheless made 97 motion pictures. She was 51 years old when she played in _Richelieu (1914)_. Edythe was one of the busier actresses in the early silent era appearing in as many as nine films a year. She didn't achieve the fame as some of her counterparts such as Mary Miles Minter, Clara Bow, or Colleen Moore, but she was a commodity that movie moguls wanted because of her fine character performances. In 1920, Edythe appeared as Aunt Polly in Huckleberry Finn (1920), followed by 'The County Fair' (1920). Throughout the twenties she stayed busy. She was even lucky enough to make the successful transition into the "talkie" era when other performers were finished because their voices didn't lend themselves well to sound. Edythe made her final film 'Up the River' (1930) when she was 67. She was 85 years old when she died in Glendale, California on October 15, 1948.

William Humphrey was born William Jonathan Humphrey on January 2nd, 1875 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, USA. He entered films in 1909 as an actor, in 1910 as a director, and in 1917 as a screenwriter. He directed films and wrote screenplays until 1922. As an actor, he appeared in 124 films from 1909 until 1937. He died of coronary thrombosis on October 4th, 1942.