Burr McIntosh

William Burr McIntosh was born on August 21, 1862, in Wellsville, Ohio, the son of William A. McIntosh, who died in 1921, and Minerva McIntosh, née Bottenberg, who died in 1883. His father served as president of the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company and held membership in the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an organization whose activities were blamed for the failure of the South Fork Dam, which caused the Johnstown Flood of 1889 and the deaths of more than 2,200 people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, though the club's members were not held legally responsible. McIntosh's sister Nancy was an operatic soprano who became the protégée, adopted daughter, and heir to the estate of W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan. McIntosh graduated from Lafayette College in 1884, where he competed as an athlete and joined the Sigma Chi fraternity.

McIntosh pursued a career that spanned stage acting, silent film, lecturing, photography, publishing, authorship, and early work in both the film and radio industries. His Broadway career extended from 1895 to 1923 and included appearances in the comedy Thunder, Mile-a-Minute Kendall, the play Trilby, Cordelia Blossom, and Under Southern Skies, among other productions. From the stage he transitioned into silent film, accumulating credits in 53 films between 1914 and 1934. His most prominent screen role came in D. W. Griffith's Way Down East in 1920, in which he played Squire Bartlett, a character who drives the figure portrayed by Lillian Gish from his home into a harsh Maine winter. Gish described McIntosh as a gentle giant who was always apologizing for having to treat her so cruelly.

Beyond performing, McIntosh founded and published The Burr McIntosh Monthly, a magazine that ran from 1903 to 1910. The publication consisted primarily of photographs of notable individuals and landscapes, and its pages were bound with string to allow readers to remove and frame the images. Clark Hobart served as art director of the magazine. McIntosh died in Hollywood on April 28, 1942, from a heart attack, at the age of 79.