Thurlow Weed Bergen (1875–1954) was an American actor of stage and silent film.
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Bergen was born on January 14, 1875, East Saginaw, Michigan to Issarella (Ella) Winner and the lawyer George B. Bergen.[1][2] Bergen went to study law in Washington D.C., but at the age of 19 decided to become an actor instead.[3] As a kid he had written and composed Esther's Lullaby, which around the turn of the century was a well-known song. He played and sang it at the White House for President Cleveland, who gave him permission to dedicate the song to his daughter Esther.[4] Bergen moved to Newton, Massachusetts, where he married Clara Beatrice Farquhar in 1899, the daughter of the wealthy Boston financier Samuel Farquhar.[5][6] He started a successful touring company, and dabbled in composition and writing as well (he wrote many children's stories).[4] Up to 1914 he performed on stage only, but then made the switch to the movies, first starring in the Pathé movie The Stain.[4] By that time Farquhar and he had divorced, and in May 1914 Bergen married fellow Broadway performer Elsie Esmond née Sturkow.[7][8] They were the leading man and lady in most of the early Whartons Studio movies (shot in Ithaca, New York), including The Boundary Rider , The Kiss of Death, A Prince of India, The Fireman and the Girl and The Stolen Birthright (all still in 1914) and The Lottery Man of 1916.[9] After 1920, he returned to the stage and performed on Broadway as late as 1940,[3] when he appears in the census as a single theater actor living in an apartment in Manhattan, New York.[10] He died May 1, 1954.[3][5]
Selected filmography
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- The Stain (1914)
- The Running Fight (1915)
- The Little Gypsy (1915)
- The City (1916)
- The Lottery Man (1916)
- Lure of Ambition (1919)
References
edit- ^ Thurlow Bergen birth registration in Michigan Births, 1867-1902
- ^ George B Bergen family of East Saginaw, Michigan in the United States Census, 1880
- ^ a b c Pete Jones, Mini Biography at IMDb
- ^ a b c Motography's Gallery of Picture Players, Motography Vol XII, No. 25, December 19, 1914, p. 847/
- ^ a b Thurlow Bergen at lordheath.com
- ^ Marriage of Thurlow W. Bergen, actor, and Clara B. Farquhar in Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915
- ^ Thurlow Weed Bergen, actor in the United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
- ^ Ithaca Silent Movies
- ^ Movie reviews in Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1914), pages 67 and 937
- ^ Thurlow Bergen, theater actor in the United States Census, 1940
External links
edit- Thurlow Bergen at the Internet Broadway Database
- Thurlow Bergen with Florence Roberts, 1911 (Univ. of Washington Sayre collection)