Tweet Earliest movie star biopic?

The discussion about lousy biopics led me to wonder:

What is the earliest movie star biopic?

I see that there were a couple of attempts at depicting Chaplin--Chaplin's Life (1916) and The Life Story of Charles Chaplin (1926). The former looks to be mostly a compliation of already-released material, but Life Story was at least a partial attempt at a biopic. In Directors in British and Irish Cinema, the film was described as "essentially a travelogue of London [...] with Chick Wango impersonating Chaplin revisiting his old haunts". Chaplin had the film suppressed; I don't know if anything survives of it.

As for films that were actually released, Myrna Loy's depiction of Billie Burke in The Great Ziegfeld was probably one of the earliest examples of someone with a notable film career being dramatised onscreen, although the film was devoted to her husband. After that, things get sketchier: you have some biopics of people who dabbled in film (like the Castles, Cohan, the Dolly sisters, Texas Guinan) as well as The Jolson Story, but it seems that The Perils of Pauline in '47 may have been one of the first biopics that concentrated chiefly on a film star qua a film star.

-Harold

I don't know if `Human Wreckage' (1922) counts as a biopic exactly, but it certainly would have been interpreted as one.

Not directly a biopic, but I have read that Bombshell with Jean Harlow included lots of elements of Clara Bow's life. It was directed by Victor Fleming, one of her male friends.

Rick

I thought Bombshell was loosely based on Jean Harlow's own life....

[Mike Gebert]

Well, if you're going to talk parodies and loosely disguised versions, how early do you have to go to find the first Teutonic tyrant director based on von Stroheim/von Sternberg etc.?

Ben Turpin parodies von Stroheim as well as Valentino in shorts.

Wasn't there a short film based on the Evelyn Nesbit/Harry Thaw case?

Well, if you're going to talk parodies and loosely disguised versions, how early do you have to go to find the first Teutonic tyrant director based on von Stroheim/von Sternberg etc.?

Or further back, and you get parodies of The Serpentine Dance performed by men in drag - 1890's ???

hmm the earliest i can think of isnt a movie star but of Richard Wagner. Richard wagner a 1913 full length british silent film, wonderfully done and got me interested in his work.

also i had read too that bombshell was loosely based off of clara bows life .

i think it would be hard for them to make a MOVIE star biopic in the silentera since most of the stars where, well still alive and had very healthy careers (it just seams odd to make a biopic of some one still alive and kicking).

although maybe not so hard in the thirties but i cant really think of one pre-1940's.

Are there any early biopics on Buffalo Bill or Annie Oakley?

Both "starred" for Edison in the 1890s.

Jim Gettys

there are a few movies with charecters of them but not about them i know gary cooper plays buffalo bill and jean arthur plays calamity jane in The Plainsmen.

ugh theres a biopic from the thirties about a silent star, but i cant remember who it is

wouldn't Garbo's THE DIVINE WOMAN be something of a biopic, about Sarah Bernhardt, who for better or worse had been something of a movie star at the turn of the century. Im pretty sure TDW would concentrate primarily on behind the scene theatrical nonsense obliquely referenced to Madame Sarah.

hmm the earliest i can think of isnt a movie star but of Richard Wagner. Richard wagner a 1913 full length british silent film, wonderfully done and got me interested in his work.

Are you sure its british? There is a full length 1913 German production as well...

I do believe the German production is meant. It starred the composer Giuseppe Becce in his only acting role as the star, as Becce looked so much like Wagner. He also wrote an original score for the film that was imitation-Wagner, as Cosima wouldn't let them use a note of Wagner's music, as was her wont. This film still exists, though I don't know about Becce's score. I'd love to see it; it played in Seattle a few years ago.

spadeneal