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Monte Blue

{{short description|American actor (1887–1963)}}

{{More citations needed|date=October 2014}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2014}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Monte Blue

| image = Monte Blue, Stars of the Photoplay.jpg

| caption = Blue in 1924

| birthname = Gerard Montgomery Blue

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1887|01|11}}

| birth_place = Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1963|02|18|1887|01|11}}

| death_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.

| resting_place = Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California

| spouse = {{plainlist|

  • Erma Gladys King
    ({{abbr|m.|married}} 1909; {{abbr|div.|divorced}} 1923)
  • {{marriage|Tova Jansen|1924|1956|end=died}}
  • {{marriage|Betty Jean Munson Mess|1959}}

}}

| children = 2

| othername =

| alma_mater = Purdue University

| occupation = Actor

| years_active = 1915–1960

}}

Gerard Montgomery Blue (January 11, 1887 – February 18, 1963) was an American film actor who began his career as a romantic lead in the silent era; and for decades after the advent of sound, he continued to perform as a supporting player in a wide range of motion pictures.[http://allmovie.com/artist/monte-blue-6869 Monte Blue bio; allmovie.com]

Early life

Gerard Montgomery Bluefeather{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pkK9DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22in+a+woman%27s+power%22+1913+film&pg=PT55 | title=American Indian Image Makers of Hollywood | isbn=9781476678139 | last1=Berumen | first1=Frank Javier Garcia | date=December 4, 2019 | publisher=McFarland }} was born in Indianapolis, Indiana to an Irish mother, Orphalena Lousetta Springer, while his father William Jackson Blue was believed to be half French and part Cherokee and Osage.The War, The West and The Wilderness c.1979 by Kevin Brownlow Retrieved September 3, 2015 {{ISBN|9780394489216}}. Brownlow or any source does not offer any documentation of Cherokee or Osage enrollment, nor are Blue or his father listed on the Dawes Rolls. He had three brothers; Charles Bertram, Leroy, and William Morris. His father was a Civil War veteran, and served as a scout for Buffalo Bill.{{Citation needed |date=December 2022}}

When his father died in a railroad collision, his mother could not rear four children alone, so Blue and one of his brothers were admitted to the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's Home. He eventually worked his way through Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.{{Citation needed |date=December 2022}}

Blue grew to a height of {{height|ft=6|in=3|abbr=mos}}. He played football and worked as a fireman, boilermaker, coal miner, cowpuncher, ranch hand, circus rider, lumberjack, and day laborer at the studios of D.W. Griffith.{{Citation needed |date=December 2022}}

Career

Blue had no theatrical experience when he came to the screen. His first movie was The Birth of a Nation (1915), in which he was a stuntman and an extra. Next, he played another small part in Intolerance (1916). He also was a stuntman or stand-in for Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree during the making of Macbeth (1916). Gradually moving to supporting roles for both D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, Blue earned his breakthrough role as Danton in Orphans of the Storm, starring sisters Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Then, he rose to stardom as a rugged romantic lead along with top leading actresses such as Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson, and Norma Shearer. He most often acted with Marie Prevost, with whom he made several films in the mid-1920s at Warner Bros. Blue portrayed the alcoholic doctor who finds paradise in MGM's White Shadows in the South Seas (1928). Blue became one of the few silent stars to survive the sound revolution; however, he lost his investments in the stock market crash of 1929.

He rebuilt his career as a character actor, working until his retirement from films in 1954, and he played character roles in various television series until 1960, mostly Westerns, such as Annie Oakley. From the mid-1930s, he was a contract player at Warner Bros., working in character parts and as an extra.Slide, Anthony. Hollywood Unknowns: A History of the Extras, Bit Players, and Stand-Ins. Jackson: University of Missouri Press. p 167.

One of his more memorable roles was as the sheriff in Key Largo opposite Lionel Barrymore.

For his contributions to the motion pictures industry, Monte Blue received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6290 Hollywood Boulevard on February 8, 1960.{{Cite web|url=http://www.walkoffame.com/monte-blue|title=Monte Blue {{!}} Hollywood Walk of Fame|website=www.walkoffame.com|access-date=2016-06-27}}{{Cite web

| url = http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/monte-blue/

| title = Monte Blue

| website = Los Angeles Times

| access-date = 2016-02-28

}}

Personal life

Blue divorced his first wife in 1923 and married Tova Jansen the following year. He had two children, Barbara Ann and Richard Monte. During the later part of his life, Blue was an active Mason and served as the advance man for the Hamid-Morton Shrine Circus. In 1963, while on business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he died after suffering a heart attack attributed to complications from influenza.{{Cite web

| url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19630218&id=OMQgAAAAIBAJ&pg=6512,4758034&hl=en

| title = Lewiston Evening Journal - Google News Archive Search

| website = news.google.com

| access-date = 2016-02-28

}} He is interred next to his mother-in-law, actress Bodil Rosing, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZraJCgAAQBAJ&dq=monte+blue+forest+lawn&pg=PA36 Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries][https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&dq=monte+blue+bodil+rosing+forest+lawn&pg=PA70 Resting Places]

Selected filmography

File:Broadway Rose 1922.jpg and Blue in Broadway Rose (1922)]]

File:Betrayed 1917.jpg and Hobart Bosworth in a production still promoting Betrayed (1917)]]

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{{Portal|Biography|Indiana|California|Film|Television}}

References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{commons category|Monte Blue}}

  • {{IMDb name|0089524}}
  • [http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/1382/monte-blue Literature on Monte Blue]
  • [http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/sayre/searchterm/monte%20blue/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/cosupperess/ Monte Blue] portraits in the J. Willis Sayre collection of the University of Washington

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue, Monte}}

Category:1887 births

Category:1963 deaths

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male silent film actors

Category:Male actors from Indianapolis

Category:Purdue University alumni

Category:Male actors from Los Angeles

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:Warner Bros. contract players

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

Category:People from Rush County, Indiana

Category:American people who self-identify as being of Cherokee descent

Category:American people of French descent

Category:American people of Irish descent