Elliot Dexter

[Henry Nicolella]

He was a good actor who tended to underplay and was in many films for Cecil B. De Mille. Anyone know why his career tanked in the mid-twenties?
Henry Nicolella

[Mike Gebert]

He was 55 and he went out reasonably on top, i.e., the male leads in things like Stella Maris or The Age of Innocence, so it looks like he probably just chose to retire at that point, not to have suffered any decline or other precipitous cause.

[Danny Burk]

I believe he had a health problem of some kind that forced him to retire; someone else will probably remember more than I do.

[Henry Nicolella]

Elliott Dexter did have health problems briefly in the late tens and lost a couple of plum roles for DeMille as a result. In the mid-twenties he did some vaudeville and stage work. He returned to his native Texas in 1926 and did a play titled "Through the Years" in San Antonio. He was interviewed by the local press and told them that, far from abandoning the movies, he was forming his own production company. His obit in the LA Times claims he actually did so: "Dexter went into production for himself for Grand-Asher Pictures and was starred in a series known as Elliott Dexter Productions, the first of which was "The Common Law." Where they got all that from I don't know but I've found no record of either Grand-asher Pictures or Elliott Dexter Productions and "The Common Law"(1923)- in which Dexter did appear-was made by Selznick Pictures.
Perhaps whatver health issues he had earlier reoccurred.
Henry Nicolella

[drednm]

Dexter's health couldn't have been all that bad in 1925 when he retired from films at 55, He didn't die until 1941.

[Harold Aherne]

Taking a closer look at Elliott Dexter's filmography might provide part of the answer for his early retirement from the movies. After 1921 it appears that he began to freelance, and while he did net some plum roles in Only 38, The Age of Innocence, et al. he also began working for small firms like Truart, FBO, and Preferred--quite a step down from his time as a Lasky and FP-L contract player. He may have been disappointed in the path of his career and chose to rehabilitate himself via the stage. For whatever reason, his hiatus came to be permanent.

Almost all sources give his year of birth as 1870 (his headstone says 1869), but I've never been able to believe that--in Don't Change Your Husband he certainly looks younger than 48--and some early sources confirm my suspicions.

His WWI registration provides his full name as Adelbert Elliott Dexter, his employer as the Lasky Co, and his date of birth as 21 Dec. 1879. Nearest relative is a Walter O. Carroll in Houston. I used some of this info to locate him in the 1900 census, which found him in Houston, his houshold as follows:

Bradley Whittier, head, born August 1848, age 51, railroad engineer, 4 years in current marriage

Felecita Whittier, wife, born June 1846, age 53, born in Germany, father born in Germany, mother born in France

Walter [Oliver crossed out, Carrol written above], son, born September 1871, age 28, married 5 years, railroad engineer (wife not included on the enumeration)

Adelbert E. Dexter, born December 1879 [last two numbers are ambiguous; they appear to have originally been 80], age 19 [sic], clerk

There clearly must have been some re-marriages and step- or half-relatives along the line. As for his private life, he married his frequent early co-star Marie Doro in December 1915; they divorced sometime after 1917. In November 1922 he married Nina Untermeyer, who obtained an interlocutory decree of divorce in October 1927. Little information has been published about his post-film life, but the Ottawa Citizen of 4 Mar. 1929 noted that he planned a comeback in the talkies and the LAT of 20 Aug. 1935 published a letter from *an* Elliott Dexter, but I don't have access to their archives so I don't know if it's our man.

And that's about all I've definitely found so far.

-Harold

[Bob Birchard]

Dexter's health couldn't have been all that bad in 1925 when he retired from films at 55, He didn't die until 1941.

Grand-Asher definitely existed.

It is not clear what Dexter's health problem was, but it left him partially lame, at least for a time. His role in DeMille's "Something to Think About" (1920) was tailored to make Dexter's infirmity part of the story.

[drednm]

Harold... I saw the headstone also listing his birth year as 1869.

There's also reference to a son, Elliott Dexter Jr. who "later pursued a film career of his own," but I can't find any such person or who the mother was. Marie Doro had no children.

Dexter's marriage to Nina Untermeyer took place in 1922 at Cecil B DeMille home. The NYTimes says Dexter gave his age as 42, which backs up the birth year of 1879 or 1880.

[drednm]

Oh and let's not forget that Elliott Dexter co-starred in 1923's Flaming Youth with Colleen Moore, Milton Sills, and Ben Lyon.

His final film in 1925 was a remake of Stella Maris starring Mary Philbin. A print exists.

[drednm]

Gloria Swanson says (page 146 in her autobiography) that Dexter "had been ill for several months and so had missed out on the leading roles in Male and Female and Why Change Your Wife?"

They again co-starred in Something to Think About in 1920, but Swanson makes no direct reference as to what the ilnness was.

[Henry Nicolella]

Ran across a couple of things. In June of 1919 it was announced that Dexter would appear in "The Admirable Crichton." Shortly after came stories that he had fallen ill and couldn't do the role. A couple of articles said he'd suffered a nervous breakdown due to overwork. In the fall it was announced he would appear in "The Prince Chap" (he didn't). When he did return for "Something to Thing About" articles said he had suffered a stroke and still had a slight limp. Another piece had Cecil B. De Mille denying that Dexter really needed crutches for his role (a cripple) in the movie and that he was fully recovered.
Perhaps it was a combination of factors that led Dexter to call it quits: health, no longer working for a major studio, the failure of his proposed prodution company.
Henry Nicolella

[drednm]

Dexter is often referred to as a "vaudeville actor," a phrase that makes little sense to me. He appeared in a series of plays on Broadway between 1905 and 1915.

What his "vaudeville" experience was is debatable.

[greta de groat]

The Aug. 20, 1935 letter in the LA Times is from Mrs. Elliott Dexter and is one of several printed concerning the death of Will Rogers. It's just about Rogers with no mention of Elliott Dexter other than the signature.

greta

[drednm]

[drednm]

A rather cursory obituary (maybe the style of the time) and no mention of Dexter's big films. No mention of a son. The society wife got almost as much space as he did.....

[Harold Aherne]

I immediately wondered what the Percy Williams Home was, and Time's obit of William Faversham from 15 Apr. 1940 provided the answer: it was a home for indigent and/or sick actors and actresses, something of a predecessor and East Coast equivalent to the Motion Picture Country Home. The Brunswick Home was a sanitarium for disabled or mentally ill persons. Doesn't sound like his later years were much fun.

-Harold

[drednm]

Yes, I also thought they sounded like "homes" of one sort or another....

[Edith_Wharton]

Yes, and Brunswick Home in Amityville was for "the care and treatment of epileptic, idiotic, paralytic, amd feeble-minded persons." Dexter's last years do not sound as if they were good.

[Jim Roots]

Yes, and Brunswick Home in Amityville was for "the care and treatment of epileptic, idiotic, paralytic, amd feeble-minded persons." Dexter's last years do not sound as if they were good.

Let's shoot the first person to make a crack about "the Amityville horror of Elliot Dexter".

Jim

[R Michael Pyle]

Bang...!

[Harold Aherne]

There's *a lot* of information on Elliott Dexter's early life and family beginning on page 39 of this article:
http://www.unpuzzling.com/Guide%20to%20 ... tation.pdf

It pretty well confirms that he was born in 1879.

-HA