Robert Edeson
{{Short description|American actor (1868–1931)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Robert Edeson
| image = Stage actor Robert Edeson (SAYRE 23364).jpg
| caption = Edeson in 1913
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1868|06|03}}
| birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1931|03|24|1868|06|03}}
| death_place = Hollywood, California, U.S.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19310326&id=HcolAAAAIBAJ&pg=940,3624549|title=Gettysburg Times - Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com}}
| othername =
| occupation = Actor
| yearsactive = 1912–1931
}}
Robert Edeson (June 3, 1868 – March 24, 1931) was an American film and stage actor of the silent era and a vaudeville performer.{{cite journal |title=Edeson in New York |journal=Dramatic Mirror |date=January 5, 1918 |volume=LXXVIII |issue=2037 |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9e1DAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Morgan+Wallace%22+actor&pg=RA3-PA30 |access-date=January 24, 2020}}
Life and career
Edeson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of manager and actor George R. Edeson.{{cite journal|last1=Leslie|first1=Frank|title=Robert Edeson|journal=Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly|date=1902|pages=590|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9cfQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Robert+Edeson%22&pg=PA590|access-date=16 April 2018|publisher=Frank Leslie Publishing House|language=en}} After working as treasurer of the Park Theatre in Brooklyn,{{cite book|last1=Briscoe|first1=Johnson|title=The actors' birthday book: First -third series. An authoritative insight into the lives of the men and women of the stage born between January first and December thirty-first|date=1908|publisher=Moffat, Yard and Company|page=133|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AG0uAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Robert+Edeson%22&pg=PA133|access-date=16 April 2018|language=en}} he initially acted in New York in 1887{{cite book|last1=Liebman|first1=Roy|title=Broadway Actors in Films, 1894–2015|date=2017|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476626154|page=81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPQHDgAAQBAJ&q=%22Robert+Edeson%22&pg=PA81|access-date=16 April 2018|language=en}} in a production of Fascination. He debuted on Broadway in Marriage (1896). In 1901 he created the role Edward Warden in the original production of Clyde Fitch's The Climbers.{{cite book|title=Clyde Fitch and the American Theatre: An Olive in the Cocktail|first=Kevin Lane|last= Dearinger|year=2016|isbn=9781611479485|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|chapter=The Climbers|page=540}} His last Broadway appearance was in The World We Live In (1922). He also performed in vaudeville.{{cite web|title=Robert Edeson|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/robert-edeson-39226|website=Internet Broadway Database|publisher=The Broadway League|access-date=16 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416023014/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/robert-edeson-39226|archive-date=16 April 2018}}
Edeson received his first boost in films in 1914 when he starred in the Cecil B. DeMille directed film, The Call of the North (1914).
Edeson replaced actor Rudolph Christians in Erich von Stroheim's production of Foolish Wives (1922), after Christians died of pneumonia. Edeson famously only showed his back to the camera so as not to clash with shot footage of Christians that was still to be used in the completed film.
Death
On March 24, 1931, Edeson died at his home in Hollywood. He was 62 years old.{{cite news|last1=Hennessy|first1=Duane|title=Death Rings Down Curtain Upon Hero of Stage and Film After Futile Battle Against Illness|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19300890/robert_edeson/|work=The San Bernardino County Sun|agency=United Press|date=March 25, 1931|location=California, San Bernardino|page=3|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = April 16, 2018}} {{Open access}}
Selected filmography
- The Paymaster's Son (1913) as The Paymaster's Son
- The Call of the North (1914) as Ned Stewart
- Where the Trail Divides (1914)
- The Absentee (1915) as Nathaniel Crosby
- The Light That Failed (1916) as Dick Hedlar
- Big Jim Garrity (1916) as Jim Garrity
- On the Night Stage (1915) as Austin
- The Caveman (1915) as Hanlick Smagg
- Public Defender (1917) as Arthur Nelson
- Extravagance (1921) as Richard Vane
- Foolish Wives (1922) as Andrew J. Hughes
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) as Colonel Zapta
- Sure Fire Flint (1922) as Anthony De Lanni
- Any Night (1922) as Jim Barton
- You Are Guilty (1923) as Theodore Tennent
- The Tie That Binds (1923) as Charles Dodge
- The Silent Partner (1923) as Ralph Coombes
- To the Last Man (1923) as Gaston Isbel
- The Ten Commandments (1923) as Inspector Redding
- Feet of Clay (1924) as Dr. Fergus Lansell
- Welcome Stranger (1924) as Eb Hooker
- Men (1924) as Henri Duval
- Triumph (1924) as Samuel Overton
- Thy Name Is Woman (1924) as The Commandante
- Missing Daughters (1924) as Secret Service Chief
- The Prairie Pirate (1925) as Don Esteban
- Men and Women (1925) as Israel Cohen
- The Golden Bed (1925) as Amos Thompson
- Go Straight (1925) as The Hawk
- Locked Doors (1925) as Norman Carter
- Blood and Steel (1925) as W.L. Grimshaw
- The Volga Boatman (1926) as Prince Nikita
- The Clinging Vine (1926) as T. M. Bancroft
- The Blue Eagle (1926) as Chaplain Regan
- The King of Kings (1927) as Matthew the Apostle
- Chicago (1927) as William Flynn
- Altars of Desire (1927) as John Sutherland
- The Night Bride (1927)
- George Washington Cohen (1928) as Mr. Gorman
- The Little Wildcat (1928
- A Ship Comes In (1928) as Judge Gresham
- Beware of Blondes (1928) as Costigan
- Walking Back (1928) as Edgar Thatcher
- Dynamite (1929) as Wise Fool
- Romance of the Rio Grande (1929) as Don Fernando
- Pardon My Gun (1930) as Pa Martin
- A Devil with Women (1930) as General Garcia
- Danger Lights (1930) as Tom Johnson
- The Lash (1930) as Don Mariana Delfine
- The Way of All Men (1930) Swift
- Swing High (1930)
References
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External links
{{commons category}}
- {{IMDb name|0249187}}
- {{IBDB name}}
- [http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/+sep-jul-1905-theatre-magazines-hitchcock-glaser a young Robert Edeson on the cover of THE THEATRE magazine September 1905]
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Category:American male film actors
Category:American male stage actors
Category:American male silent film actors