Phony spiritualists were given a good going-over in the early talkie melodrama Darkened Rooms. Evelyn Brent stars as Ellen, a fraudulent medium working in cahoots with genuine clairvoyant Emory Jago (Neil Hamilton). The plotline is secondary; the film's main purpose was to emulate the methods of such professional "de-bunkers" as Mrs. Harry Houdini by exposing the various tricks of the spiritualist's trade.
11-23-1929
1h 6m
THIS
HELLA
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David Newell was originally an actor, who became a makeup artist after being involved in a car crash that left him with some facial disfigurement.
David Newell was primarily known as an American character actor, whose acting career spanned from the very beginning of the sound film era through the middle of the 1950s. He made his film debut in a featured role in The Hole in the Wall, a 1929 film starring Edward G. Robinson and Claudette Colbert. Early in his career he had many featured roles, in such films as: RKO's The Runaway Bride in 1929, starring Mary Astor; 1931's Ten Cents a Dance, starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Lionel Barrymore; and White Heat in 1934.
In the late 1940s he also began working as a make-up artist, which he transitioned full-time to in 1955; this was due to injuries sustained during a car accident, which left him physically disfigured. He retired from the film industry in 1961, although he continued to work in television through the beginning of the 1970s, his last position being the make-up artist on the television show, Lassie.
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From Wikipedia
Wallace Archibald MacDonald (5 May 1891, Mulgrave, Nova Scotia, Canada - 30 October 1978, Santa Barbara, California) was a Canadian silent film actor, also a film producer.
MacDonald started as a messenger boy with the Dominion Steel Company in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He later worked up to teller with the Royal Bank in Sydney before the bank transferred him to Vancouver, British Columbia. From there, he moved to California, where he acted on the stage before making inroads into Hollywood.
MacDonald initially began as an actor in films in 1914 and appeared in almost 120 motion pictures between then and 1932. He had notable roles in such films as Youth's Endearing Charm in 1916 working with Mary Miles Minter and Harry von Meter.
Late in World War I he returned briefly to Nova Scotia to enlist in the 10th Canadian Siege Battery where he assisted in recruiting for the Canadian Army. With the advent of sound, MacDonald's acting career diminished, and most of his roles between 1927 and 1932 went uncredited. He retired from acting in 1932 to concentrate on script writing. However, by 1937 he had recognized the potential of film production. It is in his role of producer that MacDonald is now probably best remembered. He produced well over 100 films between 1937 and 1959.
He died in 1978. Sometimes he is mistaken as a brother of actor Francis McDonald. Though both resembled one another and were born in 1891, they were born three months apart and spelled their surnames differently.
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George Beranger (27 March 1893 – 8 March 1973), also known as André Beranger, was an Australian actor and Hollywood and stage director.
Beranger began playing Shakespearean roles at the age of sixteen with the Walter Bentley Players. He then emigrated from Australia to California, United States in 1912 and worked in the silent film industry in Hollywood. According to a researcher, he "reinvented himself in Hollywood, claiming French parentage, birth on a French ocean liner off the coast of Australia and a Paris education." Beranger worked under the names George Alexandre Beranger and André de Beranger.
By the 1920s, Beranger had become a star, appearing in the movies of Ernst Lubitsch and D. W. Griffith. He also directed ten films between 1914 and 1924. Beranger owned a large Spanish-style home in Laguna Beach, rented a room at the Hollywood Athletic Club and owned an apartment in Paris, France.
Beranger eventually appeared in more than 140 films between 1913 and 1950. Beranger's career dissipated following the 1930s Great Depression and the advent of sound film, and his roles in later films were small and often uncredited. He supplemented his income as a draftsman for the Los Angeles City Council. He sold his large properties and moved into a modest cottage beside his house in Laguna Beach.
He entered into a "lavender marriage" with a neighbouring widow, but they never shared the same house and he continued his gay lifestyle unabated.
Beranger retired in 1952 and lived his later years in seclusion. He was found dead of natural causes in his home on 8 March 1973.
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