William S. Hart

William Surrey Hart was born on December 6, 1864, in Newburgh, New York, to Nicholas Hart, who was born in England, and Rosanna Hart, who was born in Ireland. He had two brothers, both of whom died young, and four sisters. He was a distant cousin of western star Neal Hart.

Hart began his stage career in his twenties, making his acting debut in 1888 as a member of a company led by Daniel E. Bandmann. The following year he joined Lawrence Barrett's company in New York, and subsequently spent several seasons with Mlle. Hortense Rhéa's traveling company. Around 1900, he directed shows at the Asheville Opera House in North Carolina, during a period when his family had relocated to Asheville. After his youngest sister Lotta died of typhoid fever in 1901, the family departed together for Brooklyn. Hart pursued Shakespearean roles on Broadway, working alongside Margaret Mather and other prominent performers, and appeared in the original 1899 stage production of Ben-Hur. His Broadway career extended from 1895 to 1912 and included productions such as The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The Silent Call, The Barrier, The Squaw Man, and Strolling Players, among others.

Hart entered motion pictures in 1914, initially taking supporting roles in two short films before achieving stardom the same year as the lead in the feature The Bargain. Beginning in 1915, he starred in a series of two-reel Western short subjects produced by Thomas Ince, which proved popular enough to give way to a series of feature films. In 1915 and 1916, exhibitors voted him the biggest money-making star in the United States. His films were distinguished by authentic costumes and props, and his acting ability, developed across Shakespearean stages in the United States and England, informed his screen performances. In 1917, Hart accepted an offer from Adolph Zukor to join Famous Players–Lasky, which later merged into Paramount Pictures. That same year, he volunteered with the Four Minute Men program, delivering short pro-war speeches across the country through 1918.

During his film career, Hart rode a brown and white pinto he called Fritz, a horse that preceded later famous movie horses such as Tom Mix's Tony, Roy Rogers's Trigger, and Clayton Moore's Silver. In 1919, Hart appeared opposite actress Winifred Westover in John Petticoats, a film shot in New Orleans in which he played a lumberman who inherits a shop selling ladies' clothing. Hart later courted Westover when she was working in New York City, escorting her to dinner and shows. When she was on the verge of signing a five-year contract with Lewis J. Selznick, Hart sent her a telegram urging her to wait for a letter he was mailing, which contained a marriage proposal. She telegraphed her acceptance. On December 7, 1921, Hart married Westover in Los Angeles; he was 57 and she was 22. The only guests were the bride's mother, Hart's sister Mary, and his attorney. On the day of the wedding, Westover signed an agreement to retire from acting.

Six months into the marriage, Hart asked his pregnant wife to leave the home he shared with his sister Mary, and Westover went to live with her mother in Santa Monica. During the subsequent divorce proceedings, Westover testified that Hart's sister had been the cause of the separation. The couple's son, William S. Hart Jr., was born on September 22, 1922. On February 11, 1927, Westover was granted a divorce in Reno, Nevada, receiving $100,000 under the condition that she would not return to acting or have her photograph published. A trust fund of $100,000 was also established for William S. Hart Jr. to support his upbringing and education.

By the early 1920s, Hart's style of gritty, moralistic Westerns with drab costumes had begun to fall out of fashion, displaced in public favor by a newer kind of movie cowboy exemplified by Tom Mix. Paramount dropped Hart, who then produced Tumbleweeds in 1925 with his own money, releasing it independently through United Artists. The film featured an epic land-rush sequence but performed only moderately at the box office. Hart sued United Artists over what he considered inadequate promotion of the film, and after years of legal proceedings the courts ruled in his favor in 1940. Following Tumbleweeds, Hart retired to his ranch home in Newhall, California, called La Loma de los Vientos, which was designed by architect Arthur R. Kelly. In 1939, he appeared in a spoken prologue for a reissue of Tumbleweeds, filmed at his ranch, in which the 74-year-old Hart reflected on the Old West and his silent film career. This appearance served as his farewell to the screen.

Hart was particularly close to his sister Mary, who accompanied him when he moved to California, managed his fan mail, and was listed as cowriter on two of his published books, Pinto Ben and Other Stories in 1919 and And All Points West in 1940. When Mary died in 1943, Hart entered her funeral service leaning on the arm of his son, William S. Hart Jr. Hart died on June 23, 1946, in Newhall, California, at the age of 81, and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. His will stated that he had made no provision for his son on the grounds that he had already provided for him during his lifetime.