Elmer Booth
| Elmer Booth | |
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Booth as Jack Doogan in the Carlyle Moore play Stop Thief! (1913)
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| Born | William Elmer Booth December 9, 1882 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Died | June 16, 1915 (aged 32) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | stage actor, film actor |
| Years active | 1901-1915 |
| Spouse(s) | Irene Outtrim (1908–unknown) |
William Elmer Booth (9 December 1882 - 16 June 1915) was an American actor. He was born in Los Angeles, California and was the elder brother of film editor Margaret Booth.[1]
Elmer began acting in touring stock companies as a teenager and achieved great success in the stock company at the Central Theater in San Francisco from 1903-1906. Between 1910 and 1915 he starred in 40 movies; one of those was D. W. Griffith's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), cited by many film experts as the first gangster movie. Playing The Snapper Kid, a Manhattan street tough engaged in a turf war on the Lower East Side, Booth interpreted the gangster as a cocky, enterprising antihero, far different from the standard teeth-gnashing movie bad guys of the time. His groundbreaking performance created a new character type and paved the way "for all the Cagneys, Bogarts, and Robinsons who later shot their way across the screen."[2]
Booth died at the age of 32 in a car crash in Los Angeles, caused by actor and director Tod Browning. D.W. Griffith, who planned to give Booth an important role in Intolerance, delivered the actor's graveside eulogy.[2]
Selected filmography[edit]
- A Beast at Bay (1912)
- An Unseen Enemy (1912)
- The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
- Gold and Glitter (1912)
- The Adopted Brother (1913)
- Mrs. Black is Back (1914)
- Gasoline Gus (1915)
- A Chase by Moonlight (1915)
References[edit]
- ^ Brownlow, Kevin (1968). The Parade's Gone By. Ballantine Books. p. 342.
- ^ a b findagrave.com
