Milton Sills' Death?

[ZackMcD]

In his book Hollywood Babylon, Kenneth Anger claims that silent film actor Milton Sills committed suicide by driving his last limousine off of Dead Man's Curve on Sunset Boulevard. However all other sources that I can find say that he died of a heart attack while playing tennis. Does anyone know the truth and/or where Anger got his story?

[Bob Birchard]

Everyone treats HOLLYWOOD BABYLON as if it had validity as a work of history. This was a paperback original written quickly for a flat fee. No research was done. It was based on rumor and imagination. It is a worthless piece of trash and is every bit as believable as the author's provably false claim that he appeared in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

[ZackMcD]

Thanks for the heads up. I was aware the book had some falsities, but did not know the extent of it!

[missdupont]

Never believe a word of Anger's trash. It's easily disapproven, as every newspaper and magazine of the time reported that Sills collapsed and died of a heart attack that occurred while playing tennis. There were witnesses. So many people seem to prefer myth to actual truth and history, using this book as one example; it's like, if it's in print, it must be true, though this and several other more recent books by people spout off with no references or hearsay.

[Wm. Charles Morrow]

Never believe a word of Anger's trash. It's easily disapproven, as every newspaper and magazine of the time reported that Sills collapsed and died of a heart attack that occurred while playing tennis. There were witnesses.

After seeing The Sea Hawk (1924) on TCM a few years ago, I looked up Milton Sills in the clippings file at the Performing Arts Library, and read several obits. From the descriptions he comes off as an interesting and unusual man, highly intelligent. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1903, and stayed on for several years afterward as an instructor of philosophy. He also took part in amateur theatricals, which soon lead to success on the stage, and then in the movies.

I have a photocopy of one clipping on hand that goes into a fair amount of detail about the circumstances of his death, for those who are interested. (The newspaper isn’t identified, but based on the typeface it appears to be the L.A. Times.) On Sep. 15, 1930, Sills and his second wife, Doris Kenyon, hosted a lawn party. At one point during the afternoon he complained he wasn’t feeling well, but then said it was nothing serious. He was playing tennis with Doris that evening when he collapsed, and was carried into the house. His wife, and daughter Dorothy, were among those present when he died about fifteen minutes later, before doctors could arrive. The article reports that his wife went into shock, and was under the care of physicians. It’s also noted that this tragic event marked the second passing of a prominent screen actor within a month, after the death of Lon Chaney. Sills was 48 years old, Chaney 47.

Not to belabor the point or anything, but Kenneth Anger is a loathsome person, best ignored. It really bothers me that a number of things he fabricated in Hollywood Babylon have wormed their way into popular belief.

[bobfells]

As an aside, following Milton Sills' death in Sept 1930, his wife, film star Doris Kenyon, planned to retire. However, George Arliss who had worked with her in one of his silent films, persuaded her to return to the screen playing Betsy Hamilton in his ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1931).