Charles Brabin
{{short description|British-American film director (1882–1957)}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2016}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Charles Brabin
| image = Film director Charles Brabin (SAYRE 10365).jpg
| caption = Brabin in 1923
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1882|04|17|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Liverpool, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1957|11|3|1882|4|17|mf=y}}
| death_place = Santa Monica, California, U.S.
| resting_place = Forest Lawn Memorial Park
| occupation = Film director
| years_active = 1909–1934
| spouse = {{Plainlist|* {{marriage|Suzan Jeanette Mosher|1913|1920|end=div}}
- {{marriage|Theda Bara|1921|1955|end=died}} }}
| relatives = Lori Bara (sister-in-law)
| education = St Francis Xavier's College, Liverpool
}}
Charles Brabin (April 17, 1882 – November 3, 1957) was a British-American film director.
Biography
File:The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) 1.jpg, Charles Brabin, and Merritt B. Gerstad on the set of The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) Note the cleavage of the French actress, which later would not be allowed, under the Motion Picture Production Code.]]
Born in Liverpool, England, he was educated at St. Francis Xavier College. Brabin sailed to New York City in the early 1900s and, while holding down odd jobs there, he tried his hand as a stage actor. He joined the Edison Manufacturing Company around 1908, first acting, later writing and directing. He was active during the silent era, then pursued a short-lived career in talkies. His last film was A Wicked Woman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934.{{cite book |last=Langman |first=Larry |chapter=Bragin, Charls J. (1883-1957), b. England, director |title=Destination Hollywood: The Influence of Europeans on American Filmmaking |publisher=McFarland |publication-place=Jefferson, NC |year=2000 |isbn=9780786406814 |oclc=1193398184 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/destinationholly0000lang/page/128/mode/1up |chapter-url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |page=128}}
Brabin married, firstly, to socialite Suzan Jeanette Mosher, daughter of Edwin Howard Mosher and Jennie Slater Mosher, of New York City. They married on December 14, 1913, at Bedford Congregational Church in The Bronx, New York, shortly after Brabin returned from a trip to England and Europe. Brabin's best friend, screen actor Marc MacDermott, served as best man.{{cite journal |title=BRABIN—MOSHER |publisher=Moving Picture Exhibitors' Association |journal=The Moving Picture World |date=December 27, 1913 |oclc=1717051 |url=https://archive.org/details/movingpicturewor18newy/page/1528/mode/1up?view=theater |via=Internet Archive |page=1528 |volume=18 |number=13}} Charles and Suzan Brabin remained married for seven years."United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," names and record appear in database with images, National Archives and Records Administration.
File:Theda Bara & Charles Brabin 1922.jpg and Charles Brabin (1922)]]
Brabin later wed silent-film "vamp" star Theda Bara July 2, 1921, remaining married to her until her death from abdominal cancer on April 7, 1955.
Partial filmography
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
- A Soldier's Duty (1912)
- What Happened to Mary (1912, 12-episode serial)
- An Unsullied Shield (1913)
- The Man Who Disappeared (serial, 1914)
- {{ill|The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (film)|it|The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere}} (1914)
- The Raven (1915)
- The Price of Fame (1916)
- That Sort (1916)
- The Adopted Son (1917)
- Red, White and Blue Blood (1917)
- The Sixteenth Wife (1917)
- Babette (1917)
- Mary Jane's Pa (1917)
- His Bonded Wife (1918)
- The Poor Rich Man (1918)
- Breakers Ahead (1918)
- Social Quicksands (1918)
- A Pair of Cupids (1918)
- Buchanan's Wife (1918)
- Kathleen Mavourneen (1919)
- La Belle Russe (1919)
- Thou Shalt Not (1919)
- While New York Sleeps (1920)
- Blind Wives (1920)
- Footfalls (1921)
- The Lights of New York (1922)
- The Broadway Peacock (1922)
- Six Days (1923)
- Driven (1923)
- So Big (1924)
- Stella Maris (1925)
- Ben-Hur (1925, uncredited)
- Mismates (1926)
- Twinkletoes (1926)
- Framed (1927)
- Hard-Boiled Haggerty (1927)
- The Valley of the Giants (1927)
- Burning Daylight (1928)
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929)
- The Ship from Shanghai (1929)
- Call of the Flesh (1930)
- The Great Meadow (1931)
- Sporting Blood (1931)
- The Beast of the City (1932)
- The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
- Rasputin and the Empress (1932)
- Stage Mother (1933)
- A Wicked Woman (1934)
{{col div end}}
Archive
Outtakes from Brabin's 1925 version of Stella Maris survive and were preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.{{cite web |title=STELLA MARIS [ -- OUTS] |website=Preserved Projects | Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |url=https://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/preserved-projects?title=&filmmaker=brabin&category=All&collection=All |access-date=April 20, 2021}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Charles Brabin}}
- {{IMDb name|102643}}
- {{IBDB name|399082}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Charles Brabin}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brabin, Charles}}
Category:Film directors from California
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:English film directors
Category:English male screenwriters
Category:English emigrants to the United States
Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American screenwriters
Category:Film people from Liverpool
Category:20th-century British screenwriters
Category:People educated at St Francis Xavier's College, Liverpool