Silent Film Tragedies

Wisconsin Mark · Post by **Wisconsin Mark** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 4:59 pm

Frederica wrote:
poul wrote: What is it with Psilander and suicide - there´s absolutely no proof of that.

Best, Poul
Also Thomas Ince, not murder, not even probably.

Oh, come now, you know perfectly well there is a raging debate about that. I am comfortable with "Probable murder." So sue me.

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:02 pm

Pepi Lederer (1910-35) suicide.

Donald Binks · Post by **Donald Binks** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:07 pm

Lottie Lyall (1890-1925) Consumption

Frederica · Post by **Frederica** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:10 pm

Wisconsin Mark wrote:
Frederica wrote:
poul wrote: What is it with Psilander and suicide - there´s absolutely no proof of that.

Best, Poul
Also Thomas Ince, not murder, not even probably.
Oh, come now, you know perfectly well there is a raging debate about that. I am comfortable with "Probable murder." So sue me.

There really isn't.
http://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title ... sdC-ZElg8Y" target="_blank" target="_blank

But it's your list.

missdupont · Post by **missdupont** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:25 pm

Frederica is 100% correct, Ince died of natural causes, which Brian Taves explains very well in his excellent, researched, scholarly book.

Wisconsin Mark · Post by **Wisconsin Mark** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:43 pm

missdupont wrote:Frederica is 100% correct, Ince died of natural causes, which Brian Taves explains very well in his excellent, researched, scholarly book.

To keep from derailing the thread, I'll change the notation to:

Thomas H. Ince (1882-1924) - Cause of death disputed; officially, heart attack (possibly related to overwork); rumors of murder.

Truly, I was not trying to create a ruckus.

kaleidoscopeworld · Post by **kaleidoscopeworld** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:48 pm

Vladimir Fogel, 1902-1929. Suicide related to his mental illness.

Wisconsin Mark · Post by **Wisconsin Mark** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:54 pm

kaleidoscopeworld wrote:Vladimir Fogel, 1902-1929. Suicide related to his mental illness.

I've added that one to the updated list in a prior post.

I'll have a further updated list sometime tomorrow. I've already got 18 more names to include. Yikes.

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 5:59 pm

Virginia Rappe

JLNeibaur · Post by **JLNeibaur** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 6:45 pm

Vedah Bertram in 1912. Fred Goodwins in 1923. Dee Lampton in 1919. Paddy McGuire in 1923.

And am I the first one to bring up Roscoe Arbuckle?

bobfells · Post by **bobfells** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 6:58 pm

Did anybody mention John Bowers - one of the more flamboyant suicides.

Harold Aherne · Post by **Harold Aherne** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:23 pm

If we're letting some over-40s in, that open things up a bit.

Arthur V. Johnson (1876-1916) tuberculosis
Myrtle Gonzalez (1891-1918) influenza
David Powell (1883-1925) pneumonia
Lucille McVey Drew (1890-1925) no cause specified; the second Mrs. Sidney Drew
Casson Ferguson (1891-1929) pneumonia
William Russell (1884-1929) pneumonia
John Griffith Wray (1896-1929) director; complications from appendectomy
Evelyn Preer (1896-1932) pneumonia
Earle Rodney (1888-1932) actor/director/writer; pneumonia
Walter Hiers (1893-1933) pneumonia
Lillian Hall-Davis (1898-1933) suicide
Hugh Trevor (1903-1933) complications from appendectomy
Francelia Billington (1895-1934) tuberculosis
Lowell Sherman (c.1888-1934) pneumonia
Edith Roberts (1899-1935) childbirth
John Harron (1903-1939) spinal meningitis
James Hall (1897/98-1940) cirrhosis
Helene Chadwick (1897-1940) injuries from fall
Jeanette Loff (1906-1942) ammonia poisoning
Sylvia Breamer (1897-1943) no cause specified
Mildred Harris (c.1901-1944) pneumonia
Merna Kennedy (1908-1944) heart attack
Mary Nolan (1902/05-1948) drug overdose

Sounds like we could write more of an encyclopaedia of untimely endings rather than just a book!

-HA

JFK · Post by **JFK** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 8:34 pm

1. Lew Cody died at age 50 in 1934
2. A book partly/sort of on the subject

Suicide in the Entertainment Industry:
An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth-Century Cases
David K. Frasier, Kenneth Anger (Foreword)
McFarland & Company, 2001

sepiatone · Post by **sepiatone** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:40 am

*Lester Cuneo (1925) - suicide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Cuneo" target="_blank

*Frank Urson (1928) - drowned
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Urson" target="_blank

*Lou Tellegen (1934) - Hari Kari /aka Seppuku
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Tellegen" target="_blank

*Elsie McKay(akaPoppy Wyndham)(1928) - lost at sea, emulating Lindbergh's flight
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy_Wyndham" target="_blank

Frederica · Post by **Frederica** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:53 am

Harold Aherne wrote:If we're letting some over-40s in, that open things up a bit.

Arthur V. Johnson (1876-1916) tuberculosis
Myrtle Gonzalez (1891-1918) influenza
David Powell (1883-1925) pneumonia
Lucille McVey Drew (1890-1925) no cause specified; the second Mrs. Sidney Drew
Casson Ferguson (1891-1929) pneumonia
William Russell (1884-1929) pneumonia
John Griffith Wray (1896-1929) director; complications from appendectomy
Evelyn Preer (1896-1932) pneumonia
Earle Rodney (1888-1932) actor/director/writer; pneumonia
Walter Hiers (1893-1933) pneumonia
Lillian Hall-Davis (1898-1933) suicide
Hugh Trevor (1903-1933) complications from appendectomy
Francelia Billington (1895-1934) tuberculosis
Lowell Sherman (c.1888-1934) pneumonia
Edith Roberts (1899-1935) childbirth
John Harron (1903-1939) spinal meningitis
James Hall (1897/98-1940) cirrhosis
Helene Chadwick (1897-1940) injuries from fall
Jeanette Loff (1906-1942) ammonia poisoning
Sylvia Breamer (1897-1943) no cause specified
Mildred Harris (c.1901-1944) pneumonia
Merna Kennedy (1908-1944) heart attack
Mary Nolan (1902/05-1948) drug overdose

Sounds like we could write more of an encyclopaedia of untimely endings rather than just a book!

-HA

But given mortality rates/causes at that time, I don't know if most of these deaths would have been considered untimely. Parameters are fuzzy, ruling from the judges needed.

bobfells · Post by **bobfells** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 1:02 pm

We're getting into the nitty-gritty by now. I don't think anybody mentioned:

Willard Louis (director/actor) BEAU BRUMMEL, DON JUAN, who died in July 1926 of typhoid.

Ullrich Haupt (actor) TEMPEST, THE IRON MASK, who died in 1931 in a hunting accident.

Mitch Farish · Post by **Mitch Farish** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 3:53 pm

Has anyone mentioned F. W. Murnau - car crash? He was 42.

Gregg Rickman · Post by **Gregg Rickman** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 4:44 pm

Bernard Durning (1893-1923), director, died of typhoid, it says on Wikipedia, although I recall seeing something else elsewhere (in William Wellman's memoirs?).

Florence Lawrence (1886-1938), suicide.

Billie Ritchie (1878-1921) really was kicked in the stomach by an ostrich while working on one of Pathe Lehrman's comedies (it was in a trade paper before he died). I believe I saw a later trade paper entry attributing his death to another cause.

Frank Urson (1887-1928) drowned after directing CHICAGO.

Wisconsin Mark · Post by **Wisconsin Mark** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:17 pm

Frederica wrote: But given mortality rates/causes at that time, I don't know if most of these deaths would have been considered untimely. Parameters are fuzzy, ruling from the judges needed.

The cases of death between the ages of 40 and 50 are trickier, certainly, than those of performers under the age of 40. I will look at all of these, and think that most of them will fall within the guidelines. Deaths after 1950 (none given here) might be considered as too late in time to count as "silent film tragedies." (But I'm counting Marion Aye, a career-related suicide at age 48 in 1951.)

I've added about 20 to the list since last night, and have at least 35 more cases to look at. I'll have a completely updated version of the list up as soon as I can. Keep those nominations coming!

God, the entertainment world is SAD.

sepiatone · Post by **sepiatone** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:12 pm

keeping with the OPs original post

*BOBBY CONNELLY(1909-1922), 13 years old - endocarditis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Connelly" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

*DIANA ELLIS(1909-1930), 20 years old - infection, died in Madras India on honeymoon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Ellis" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

*LYA DE PUTTI(1897-1931), 34 years old - pleurisy complicated by pneumonia; left two daughters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lya_De_Putti#Death" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

*GABY DESLYS(1881-1920) 38 years old - throat infection and lingering effects of Spanish/Flu Pandemic of 1918
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaby_Deslys" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

BankofAmericasSweetheart · Post by **BankofAmericasSweetheart** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 7:52 pm

does anybody know if the high rate of suicides were related to these people finding out they were terminally ill? There were no antibiotics back then.

Or is it easy to assume it was because they were mentally ill?

Post by **Mike Gebert** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:07 pm

I think it was a hard, lonely life and people drank a lot. I did some digging through old Varietys and it was kind of amazing how many obits there were for some guy who was famous for his vaudeville routine who was playing cards with some other performer in their boarding house in Moose Jaw and the one guy goes out for more ice and the other guy jumps out the window or blows his brains out. I think we're just better these days at keeping practitioners of a neurotic profession from being driven to those extremes of despair quite as much.

drednm · Post by **drednm** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:11 pm

Did anyone mention Patterson Dial (1902-45) barbiturate poisoning. A tad past 40. Memorable in Tol'able David and The Seventh Day.

JFK · Post by **JFK** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:27 pm

Mike Gebert wrote: I think we're just better these days at keeping practitioners of a neurotic profession from being driven to those extremes of despair quite as much.

I've met (at least) four celebrities who wound up killing themselves, while, so far as I as I know, only one "personal acquaintance" of mine has taken the same path. And yet, might it not be that the suicide rates of folks in and outside show biz are nearly the same, and that, in certain instances, show biz "suicides" (Monroe, Garland, Walker, Carradine...) may sometimes be something else entirely ?
Perhaps it's just that "arts" deaths, self-inflicted or otherwise, are more widely publicized, and "civilian" suicides are under-reported, or- for the sake of the surviving families- are ruled as accidental, or of undetermined cause.

Gregg Rickman · Post by **Gregg Rickman** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:28 pm

If you read thru issue after issue of Variety, as I have, issue after issue is full of notices about extras or bit players attempting or succeeding in committing suicide.

Bernard Durning was married to Shirley Mason. Sticking to the Flugrath sisters, Shirley's sister Viola Dana was married to director John Collins (1889-1918) at the time of his death in the flu epidemic that year.

A couple of years later she was seeing aviator-turned-film-star Ormer Lockyear (1891-1920) when his plane crashed during a stunt. (She discusses this in the Brownlow series "Hollywood").

Also -- I haven't checked to see if it's already been listed, but the death of at least one film star, Harold Lockwood (1887-1918), is also attributed to the flu pandemic.

odinthor · Post by **odinthor** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 11:43 pm

JFK wrote:
Mike Gebert wrote: I think we're just better these days at keeping practitioners of a neurotic profession from being driven to those extremes of despair quite as much.

I've met (at least) four celebrities who wound up killing themselves, while, so far as I as I know, only one "personal acquaintance" of mine has taken the same path. And yet, might it not be that the suicide rates of folks in and outside show biz are nearly the same, and that, in certain instances, show biz "suicides" (Monroe, Garland, Walker, Carradine...) may sometimes be something else entirely ?
Perhaps it's just that "arts" deaths, self-inflicted or otherwise, are more widely publicized, and "civilian" suicides are under-reported, or- for the sake of the surviving families- are ruled as accidental, or of undetermined cause.

I'd say that it's the nature of creativity and Art that artists have higher expectations--sometimes unrealistic (whatever "real" might be)--of life, and greater sensitivity, and so react to pleasures and, what is more usual in life, disappointments as you might expect people with higher expectations and greater sensitivity to react. Sometimes artists add to their higher expectations and greater sensitivity a greater resilience as well; but not everyone can tap into this pool of resilience after having been numbed by the thump-thump-thump of disappointment (and some don't have that pool of resilience to begin with). My quote from Proust (below) relates to this matter.

Wisconsin Mark · Post by **Wisconsin Mark** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 11:58 am

JFK wrote:
Mike Gebert wrote: I think we're just better these days at keeping practitioners of a neurotic profession from being driven to those extremes of despair quite as much.

I've met (at least) four celebrities who wound up killing themselves, while, so far as I as I know, only one "personal acquaintance" of mine has taken the same path. And yet, might it not be that the suicide rates of folks in and outside show biz are nearly the same, and that, in certain instances, show biz "suicides" (Monroe, Garland, Walker, Carradine...) may sometimes be something else entirely ?
Perhaps it's just that "arts" deaths, self-inflicted or otherwise, are more widely publicized, and "civilian" suicides are under-reported, or- for the sake of the surviving families- are ruled as accidental, or of undetermined cause.

Suicides are definitely under-reported, for a variety of reasons, among them the difficulty in determining the facts of the situation - was a overdose accidental or intentional, for example. Vehicular suicides without suicide notes are hard to prove, but I suspect quite common.

Euphemisms are common in reporting deaths generally. I wonder a little about the frequent appearance of "pneumonia" in these lists. Even if the description is accurate, there can be so much behind pneumonia. I imagine there are plenty of cases of untreated progressive venereal disease in these lists, but that would never have been given as the cause of death at that time.

All our discussion reminds me of a terrific bit in Curtis Hanson's great film Wonder Boys:

Tobey Maguire: George Sanders?...Pills. April 25, 1972, in a Costa Brava hotel room...Pier Angeli, 1971 or '72, also pills. Donald "Red" Barry, shot himself in 1980. Charles Boyer, 1978, pills again. Charles Butterworth, 1946, I think. In a car. Supposedly, it was an accident, but, you know, he was distraught. Dorothy Dandridge, pills, 1965. Albert Dekker, 1968. He hung himself. He wrote his suicide note in lipstick on his stomach. William Inge, carbon monoxide, 1973. Carole Landis, pills again. I forget when. George Reeves, "Superman" on TV, shot himself. Jean Seberg, pills, of course, 1979. Everett Sloane - he was good - pills. Margaret Sullavan, pills. Lupe Velez, a lot of pills. Gig Young, he shot himself and his wife in 1978. There are tons more.

Robert Downey, Jr.: You did them alphabetically.

Tobey Maguire: It's just how my brain works, I guess.

"But, you know, he was distraught." Classic.

Wisconsin Mark · Post by **Wisconsin Mark** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:52 pm

As an example of what I mean about venereal disease, take the case of Chaplin co-player Paddy McGuire (1884-1923). Syphilis is only a guess, but not an unreasonable one.

http://alt.movies.chaplin.narkive.com/W ... dy-mcguire

Paddy McGuire appears in most of the Chaplin Essanays, perhaps most
memorably as the farmhand Charlie deals with for about half of THE
TRAMP's running time.

I happened to see a copy of his death certificate yesterday. Sadly,
he passed away in late 1923 at a mental institution in Norwalk,
California, where he'd been confined for a couple of years. The
official cause of death was attributed to insanity, which raises more
questions than it answers.

According to his wife's testimony on the death certificate, his name
was really Paddy McGuire (not "McQuire"), and he was born in Ireland.
He only lived to be 39 years old.

After Essanay, he'd spent a year or so working in Ben Turpin
comedies at Vogue, and then joned Sennett for another year or so of
steady work. (He left Vogue for Sennett at just about the same time
Turpin did, come to think of it.) His film credits for 1919 are few,
and there's just one that I know of for 1920, so it's very possible
that the condition that ultimately killed him was underway by late
1918. Of course, insanity isn't a terminal illness, but it's hard to
say what the underlying problem was. (Syphilis?)

Wisconsin Mark · Post by **Wisconsin Mark** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:56 pm

JFK wrote:

1. Lew Cody died at age 50 in 1934
2. A book partly/sort of on the subject

Suicide in the Entertainment Industry:
An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth-Century Cases
David K. Frasier, Kenneth Anger (Foreword)
McFarland & Company, 2001

I'm going to have to get this. McFarland puts out the most AMAZING books.

Wisconsin Mark · Post by **Wisconsin Mark** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 1:14 pm

Mitch Farish wrote:Has anyone mentioned F. W. Murnau - car crash? He was 42.

That one was a great artistic loss - he might have made many more major films.

The crash was caused by Murnau's 14-year-old Filipino chauffeur. Some sources say the chauffeur died, some say he survived. Kenneth Anger and others have mentioned rumors about the gay Murnau, the boy, and sexual activity in the car. Who knows.