Walter Long (actor)

Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1879, Long was the youngest of six children of Catherine Lucia Jane (née Phillips) and Francis Long, who was a farmer."United States Census, 1880", image of original enumeration sheet, Walter H. Long, son in household of Francis and Lucia Long, Milford, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, June 22, 1880; Enumeration District (ED) 141, sheet 378; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Retrieved via subscribed online service FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 29, 2023.

Image:Birth-of-a-nation-klan-and-black-man.jpg by Long, in The Birth of a Nation (1915)]]

File:Kick In (1922) 1.jpg (1922)]]

After acting on stage for years, Long debuted in motion pictures in 1909 with Broncho Billy Anderson. He disliked the working conditions in film production, so after that screen project he returned to the stage.{{cite news |title=Walter Long Back on Screen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52484962/walter-long/ |access-date=May 31, 2020 |work=Pittsburgh Daily Post |date=January 4, 1920 |location=Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh |page=43|via = Newspapers.com}}

Long soon began to act again in motion pictures, over the years gaining recognition among theater audiences for being a popular "hissed-at villain"."Walter Long as a Stage Captain Wears His Genuine War Ribbons", New York Herald Tribune (New York City), February 25, 1945, p. C2. {{ProQuest| }} He can be seen in some of D. W. Griffith's early films, as well as Griffith's later, far more elaborate productions, most notably The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916). In The Birth of a Nation, Long appears in blackface make-up as the African American character "Gus", and in Intolerance he portrays the "Musketeer", who operates within the crime-ridden slums of a modern American city.{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Valerie |title=Representing Blackness: Issues in Film and Video |date=1997 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-2314-9 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1B4ui7EoylwC&dq=%22Walter+Long%22+actor&pg=PA14 |access-date=September 30, 2021 |language=en}} He was also cast as a supporting character for Rudolph Valentino in the films The Sheik (1921), Moran of the Lady Letty (1922), and Blood and Sand (1922). He also appears as a comic villain in four Laurel and Hardy shorts released in the early 1930s: as an abusive prisoner in Pardon Us (1931), a dissolute hotel owner and boxer in Any Old Port! (1932), an escaped convict in Going Bye-Bye! (1933), and as a gruff sea captain in The Live Ghost (1934).

On Broadway, Long performed in Adonis (1899),{{cite web |title=Walter Long |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/walter-long-463469 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=September 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411162059/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/walter-long-463469 |archive-date=April 11, 2021}} Leave It to Me! (1938), Very Warm for May (1939), Boys and Girls Together (1940),{{cite web |title=Walter Long |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/walter-long-97518 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=September 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210824005833/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/walter-long-97518 |archive-date=August 24, 2021}} Follow the Girls (1944), and Toplitzky of Notre Dame (1946).

Although he was often called upon to play antagonists and villains because of his rugged appearance and gravelly voice, many people reported that off-camera he was actually a warm, kindhearted man.{{cite web |last1=Erickson |first1=Hal |title=Walter Long |url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/walter-long-p43125 |website=AllMovie |access-date=September 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612020753/https://www.allmovie.com/artist/walter-long-p43125 |archive-date=June 12, 2021}}

Long served in the United States Army during both world wars. During World War I, he was a first lieutenant of Coast Artillery and then promoted in rank to captain by the time the conflict ended in November 1918."Walter H. Long, Film and Stage Actor, Dies", obituary, Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1952, p. 16. Retrieved via ProQuest Historical Newspapers database (Ann Arbor, Michigan), subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, March 28, 2023. {{ProQuest| }} He remained in the army reserves until World War II, when he was recalled to active duty, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel before officially retiring from service with an honorable discharge in October 1944.

On May 6, 1908, in Escanaba, Michigan, Long married Luray Grace Roblee, a native of Wisconsin and a stenographer, who later became an actress at Triangle/Fine Arts."Michigan Marriages, 182–1995", database, entry number 3285, marriage license and certificate of Lwray {{sic}} Roblee and Walter H. Long, May 6, 1908, Escanaba, Delta County, Michigan. Retrieved via FamilySearch (Salt Lake City, Utah), April 2, 2023. She died at the Pacific Hospital in downtown Los Angeles in 1919, at age 29, due to bronchial pneumonia contracted during the global "Spanish flu" epidemic."California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", image of original death certificate of Luray Roblee Long at Pacific Hospital, January 2, 1919, Los Angeles, California; Bureau of Vital Statistics, California State Board of Health, Sacramento. Record retrieved via FamilySearch, April 2, 2023. Over four years later in Los Angeles, on October 16, 1923, Long married California native Leta Amanda Held.{{cite web |title=Walter Long |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/walter-long-530275 |website=Internet Broadway Database |publisher=The Broadway League |access-date=September 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930143150/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/walter-long-530275 |archive-date=September 30, 2021}} The couple adopted a son whom they named John Huntley Long."Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930 Population Schedule", database with image of original enumeration page, "John H. Long", 7 years old, "Adopted son" in household of Leta A. and Walter H. Long, recorded April 2, 1930; ED [Enumeration District] 162, sheet 23B, line 55, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California; Bureau of the Census records, National Archives and Records Administration (Washington D.C.). Census page retrieved via FamilySearch, April 2, 2023.

Image:Walter Long and Carol Dempster.jpg in the Western drama Scarlet Days (1919)]]

Long died of a heart attack in California on July 4, 1952, after watching the Independence Day fireworks display at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. In its obituary for the actor published two days after his death, the Los Angeles Times notes, "Long and his wife, Leta, both of 632 North Cahuenga Blvd., had just left the Coliseum when he was stricken." Long's grave is located in the "Garden of Memory" at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

{{incomplete list|date=January 2011}}

{{commons category}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0519227|name=Walter Long}}
• {{tcmdb name}}
• {{Find a Grave|8245944}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Walter}}

Category:1879 births

Category:1952 deaths

Category:People from Nashua, New Hampshire

Category:American male silent film actors

Category:United States Army personnel of World War I

Category:United States Army personnel of World War II

Category:Hal Roach Studios actors

Category:Male actors from New Hampshire

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:United States Army colonels

Category:American male stage actors

Category:Broadway theatre people