Wallace Beery

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was born on April 1, 1885, in Clay County, Missouri, near Smithville, the youngest of three boys. His family relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, during the 1890s, where his father worked as a police officer. Beery attended the Chase School in Kansas City and took piano lessons, though he showed little interest in academic pursuits. He ran away from home twice: the first time he returned after a brief period, having left school to work as an engine wiper in the Kansas City train yards. The second time, at age 16, he joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant elephant trainer, a position he held for two years before leaving after being clawed by a leopard.

In 1904, Beery followed his older brother Noah to New York City, where he found work in comic opera as a baritone and performed in both Broadway productions and summer stock theatre. His Broadway career spanned 1905 to 1907 and included two musicals: The Belle of the West, in which he appeared in 1905, and The Yankee Tourist, in which he starred in 1907 to favorable notices.

Beery transitioned to film in 1913, relocating to Chicago to work for Essanay Studios. His earliest screen work was likely the comedy short His Athletic Wife. Between 1914 and 1916, he portrayed a recurring character named Sweedie, a Swedish maid played in drag, across a series of short comedy films. Sweedie Learns to Swim co-starred Ben Turpin, while Sweedie Goes to College featured Gloria Swanson, whom Beery married the following year. Additional short films from this period included In and Out, The Ups and Downs, Cheering a Husband, Madame Double X, Ain't It the Truth, Two Hearts That Beat as Ten, and The Fable of the Roistering Blades. The Slim Princess, with Francis X. Bushman, was among his earliest feature-length appearances.

Beery played a German soldier in Cecil B. De Mille's The Little American alongside Mary Pickford in 1917, and contributed to two Mack Sennett comedies that same year, Maggie's First False Step and Teddy at the Throttle. Also in 1917, he first portrayed Pancho Villa in Patria, a role he would reprise nearly two decades later. He gradually moved away from comedy and toward villainous characters, appearing as a German antagonist in The Unpardonable Sin with Blanche Sweet in 1919. That year he also completed several films for Paramount, including The Love Burglar with Wallace Reid, Victory with Jack Holt, Behind the Door, and The Life Line.

In 1920, Beery appeared as a villain in five major releases: 813, The Virgin of Stamboul for director Tod Browning, The Mollycoddle opposite Douglas Fairbanks, The Round-Up starring Roscoe Arbuckle, and The Last of the Mohicans, in which he played Magua. He had a supporting role in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with Rudolph Valentino in 1921 and continued his run of antagonist roles through 1922 in films including A Tale of Two Worlds, Sleeping Acres, Wild Honey, and I Am the Law, the last of which also featured his brother Noah Beery.

Beery took on a substantial role as King Richard I in the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks vehicle Robin Hood, a performance that led directly to his starring in the sequel Richard the Lion-Hearted the following year, based on Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman. He played King Philip IV of Spain in The Spanish Dancer with Pola Negri in 1923 and the Duc de Tours in Ashes of Vengeance with Norma Talmadge. That same year he co-starred with Buster Keaton in Three Ages, the first feature Keaton wrote, produced, directed, and starred in, and took the title role in Bavu, a film centered on Bolsheviks and the Russian Revolution. He also appeared in The Eternal Struggle, a Mountie drama produced by Louis B. Mayer.

After signing with Paramount, Beery was cast in the starring role of Professor Challenger in the First National production The Lost World in 1925, an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's dinosaur epic that remains among his most frequently screened silent films. He starred in Paramount's The Devil's Cargo for director Victor Fleming and appeared in supporting capacities in The Night Club, The Pony Express, and The Wanderer. He headlined the baseball film Casey at the Bat in 1927 and appeared alongside Louise Brooks in Beggars of Life in 1928, directed by William Wellman, which was Paramount's first part-talkie production. Beery's resonant voice proved particularly effective in the transition to sound.

During the early sound era, Beery became one of Hollywood's most prominent leading men. He appeared opposite Marie Dressler in Min and Bill in 1930, won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his title performance in The Champ in 1931, and appeared as General Director Preysing in Grand Hotel in 1932. That same year, his contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated that he would be paid one dollar more than any other contract player at the studio, making him the highest-paid film actor in the world during that period. He played the pirate Long John Silver in Treasure Island in 1934 and reprised his earlier portrayal of Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! that same year, earning the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for that performance. Over a 36-year career, Beery appeared in approximately 250 films.

Beery was the brother of actor Noah Beery and the uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr. He died on April 15, 1949, at the age of 64. In 1960, he was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of his contributions to the film industry.