Richard Barthelmess

Richard Semler Barthelmess (May 9, 1895 – August 17, 1963) was an American actor whose career spanned silent film, the sound era, and Broadway. Born in New York City to Alfred W. Barthelmess and Caroline W. Harris, a stage actress, he lost his father when he was one year old. Raised in theatrical surroundings through his mother's profession, Barthelmess performed walk-on roles from an early age while also receiving a formal education at Hudson River Military Academy in Nyack, New York, and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1919 he had accumulated five years of stock company experience.

His entry into professional screen acting came through a family connection: Russian actress Alla Nazimova, whom Caroline Barthelmess had taught English, encouraged Richard to pursue acting as a career. He made his screen debut in 1916 as an uncredited extra in the serial Gloria's Romance and subsequently appeared in supporting roles in several films starring Marguerite Clark. His work opposite Nazimova in War Brides drew the attention of director D. W. Griffith, who eventually cast him alongside Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920). Those collaborations established Barthelmess as a major Hollywood presence. Together with Charles Duell and Henry King, he founded the Inspiration Film Company, which produced Tol'able David (1921), in which he starred as a teenage mailman who discovers courage — a film that proved a significant commercial and critical success.

Barthelmess became one of Hollywood's more highly compensated performers during the 1920s. His 1927 film The Patent Leather Kid, for which he also received a special citation as producer, and his 1928 film The Noose both earned him nominations for Best Actor at the first Academy Awards ceremony. He was additionally among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. When the sound era arrived, Barthelmess sustained his stardom for several years, taking leading roles in Son of the Gods (1930), The Dawn Patrol (1930), The Last Flight (1931), The Cabin in the Cotton (1932), and Heroes for Sale (1933). He frequently gravitated toward socially conscious or controversial material. As the decade progressed, however, his popularity declined, and he transitioned into character work. His most noted later performance came in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), in which he played a disgraced pilot and the husband of Rita Hayworth's character. He retired from film in 1942.

In 1936, Barthelmess appeared on Broadway in The Postman Always Rings Twice, adding a stage credit to a career built predominantly in film. During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve and served as a lieutenant commander stationed at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. He did not return to the screen after the war, instead supporting himself through real estate investments.

His personal life included two marriages. On June 18, 1920, he married stage and screen actress Mary Hay in New York; the couple had one daughter, Mary Barthelmess, before divorcing on January 15, 1927. In August 1927 he became engaged to Broadway actress Katherine Young Wilson, though the engagement was subsequently broken off. On April 21, 1928, Barthelmess married Jessica Stewart Sargent, later adopting her son Stewart from a prior marriage. That marriage lasted until his death.

Among the honors Barthelmess received later in life, he was named one of the second group of recipients of the George Eastman Award in 1957, presented by the George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. In 1960, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6755 Hollywood Boulevard. Barthelmess died of throat cancer on August 17, 1963, in Southampton, New York, at the age of 68, and was interred at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.