Thomas Meighan

Thomas Meighan (April 9, 1879 – July 8, 1936) was an American actor whose career spanned Broadway, silent film, and early sound pictures. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to John and Mary Meighan, he grew up in a prosperous household; his father served as president of Pittsburgh Facing Mills. Although his parents encouraged him to pursue higher education, Meighan resisted, and his father responded by putting him to work shoveling coal at age fifteen. He subsequently enrolled at Mount St. Mary's College to study pharmacology but left after three years to pursue acting.

Meighan began his theatrical training in 1896 as a juvenile player with the Pittsburgh Stock Company, then led by Henrietta Crosman, earning $35 per week. His Broadway career commenced in 1900 and continued through 1911, encompassing productions including The Return of Peter Grimm, The Family, Major Andre, Glad of It, and The Dictator. Four years after his Broadway debut he appeared in The Two Orphans, and in 1908 he took a role alongside William Collier Sr. in The Dictator. A leading part in The College Widow followed during the 1907–1908 Broadway season, a run during which he met stage actress Frances Ring, whom he would later marry. Ring was a younger sister of singer Blanche Ring and vaudeville actress Julie Ring; actor and director A. Edward Sutherland was a nephew of both Blanche Ring and Meighan through Julie Ring.

Meighan entered motion pictures in 1914. His first film, shot in London, was Dandy Donovan, the Gentleman Cracksman, which led to a contract with Famous Players–Lasky. His first American film, The Fighting Hope, appeared in 1915. In 1918 he participated in a World War I Liberty Loan Appeal propaganda film and appeared opposite Mary Pickford in M'Liss. Stardom arrived in 1919 with The Miracle Man, which featured Lon Chaney Sr. and is now considered largely lost. That same period brought Cecil B. DeMille's Male and Female, in which Meighan starred alongside Gloria Swanson and Lila Lee, with much of that cast returning for the 1920 production Why Change Your Wife?, which co-starred Bebe Daniels. In April 1925, Meighan and Swanson produced a short comedic film directed by Allan Dwan for The Lambs' annual Spring Gambol, recorded in Lee DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process.

His popularity extended through the 1920s. In 1924 he appeared in The Alaskan with Estelle Taylor and Anna May Wong, and in 1927 he starred in The City Gone Wild alongside Louise Brooks. His final two silent films, both produced by Howard Hughes in 1928, were The Mating Call, which addressed the Ku Klux Klan, and The Racket, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Both films were believed lost until rediscovered in private collections in 2006; they were subsequently restored by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. Throughout much of his career Meighan commanded a salary of $5,000 per week, which at its peak reached $10,000 per week.

Meighan's first sound feature was The Argyle Case in 1929. Approaching fifty and concerned about his long-term prospects in the industry, he turned his attention to real estate before returning to the screen in 1931 with Young Sinners. He completed four additional sound films before illness curtailed his acting; his final screen appearance was in Peck's Bad Boy in 1934.

Beyond his professional work, Meighan was a witness to Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas's private wedding in New Jersey on October 25, 1916. In March 1923, he contributed a substantial portion of the bail money that helped secure Rudolph Valentino's release from jail on a bigamy charge, despite having little personal acquaintance with Valentino. In the mid-1920s, following conversations with his brother and realtor James E. Meighan, he purchased property in Ocala, Florida in 1925 and built a winter home in New Port Richey, Florida in 1927. On July 1, 1926, The Meighan Theatre opened in New Port Richey with a screening of his film The New Klondike; sound was added to the venue in 1930, an occasion at which Meighan was present. The theatre closed in 1934 and later reopened under successive names, continuing to operate as the Richey Suncoast Theatre.

Meighan and Frances Ring remained married until his death and had no children. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1934 and underwent surgery at Doctors Hospital in Manhattan the following year. He died at 9:10 pm on July 8, 1936, at his home in Great Neck, New York, with family members present. Initially interred at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, his remains were later moved to a family plot at Saint Mary Cemetery in Pittsburgh. Meighan was a noted donor to Catholic charities and to the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies.