Owen Moore

Owen Moore
from the film High Voltage (1929).
Born	(1886-12-12)12 December 1886 Fordstown Crossroads, County Meath, Ireland
Died	9 June 1939(1939-06-09) (aged 52) Beverly Hills, California
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles
Spouse(s)	Mary Pickford (1911–1920) Katherine Perry (1921–1939)

Owen Moore (12 December 1886 – 9 June 1939) was an Irish-born actor in American films, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937.

Early life and career

Moore was born in Fordstown Crossroads, County Meath, Ireland, and along with his brothers Tom, Matt, and Joe (1895–1926), and sister Mary (1890–1919), he emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the S.S. Anchoria and was inspected on Ellis Island in May 1896. All went on to successful careers in motion pictures in Hollywood, California.

While working at D. W. Griffith's Biograph Studios, Moore met a young Canadian actress named Gladys Smith whom he married on January 7, 1911. Their marriage was kept secret at first because of the strong opposition of her mother. However, Gladys Moore would soon overshadow her husband under her stage name, Mary Pickford. In 1912, he signed on with Victor Studios, co-starring in a number of their films with studio owner/actress Florence Lawrence.

Mary Pickford left Biograph Studios to join the Independent Moving Pictures (IMP) to replace their major star, Pickford’s Canadian friend, Florence Lawrence. Carl Laemmle, the owner of IMP who soon merged IMP into Universal Studios, agreed to sign her husband as part of the deal. This humiliation, together with his wife's meteoric rise to fame, drastically affected Moore and alcohol became a problem that led to violent behavior and his physically abusing Pickford. In 1916, Pickford met actor Douglas Fairbanks, Pickford filed for a divorce from Moore, and Pickford and Fairbanks married in 1920.

Appearing in a number of successful films for Lewis J. Selznick (father of producer David O. Selznick and agent Myron Selznick), in the late teens and early 1920s, Moore was a popular star at Selznick Pictures along with Olive Thomas, Elaine Hammerstein, Eugene O'Brien and Conway Tearle. He also appeared in films for his own production company as well as Goldwyn and Triangle.

Moore married a second time to another silent film actress, Katherine Perry, in 1921. With the advent of sound film, Moore's career declined and he became basically a supporting actor for newer stars. He competed, as the third lead, with Cary Grant and Noah Beery, Sr. for the attentions of Mae West in She Done Him Wrong, Paramount's most lucrative film of 1933. His last film appearance was as a movie director in the 1937 drama A Star Is Born starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.

Death

After years of fighting alcoholism, Owen Moore died in Beverly Hills, California from a heart attack and was interred in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Owen Moore has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6727 Hollywood Blvd.

Selected filmography

• The Guerilla (1908)
• The Lonely Villa (1909)
• The Hessian Renegades (1909)
• The Red Man's View (1909)
• Resurrection (1909)
• In Little Italy (1909)
• To Save Her Soul (1909)
• The Rocky Road (1910)
• What the Daisy Said (1910)
• In the Border States (1910)
• Love in Quarantine (1910)
• The Lesser Evil (1912)
• So Runs the Way (1913)
• The Battle of the Sexes (1914)
• Home, Sweet Home (1914)
• The Escape (1914)
• Cinderella (1914)
• The Little Teacher (1915)
• Little Meena's Romance (1916)
• Piccadilly Jim (1919)
• Sooner or Later (1920)
• The Desperate Hero (1920)
• The Poor Simp (1920)
• The Chicken in the Case (1921)
• A Divorce of Convenience (1921)
• Reported Missing (1922)
• Oh, Mabel Behave (1922)
• Love Is an Awful Thing (1922)
• Modern Matrimony (1923)
• Hollywood (1923)
• The Silent Partner (1923)
• The Blackbird (1926)
• The Skyrocket (1926)
• Money Talks (1926)
• The Road to Mandalay (1926)
• Becky (1927)
• The Red Mill (1927)
• The Taxi Dancer (1927)
• The Actress (1928)
• High Voltage (1929)
• Side Street (1929)
• Outside the Law (1930)
• Stout Hearts and Willing Hands (1931)
• Hush Money (1931)
• As You Desire Me (1932)
• She Done Him Wrong (1933)
• A Man of Sentiment (1933)
• A Star Is Born (1937)

References

• Menefee, David Sweet Memories (Menefee Publishing Inc., 2012) ISBN 1469966956

External links

• Owen Moore at the Internet Movie Database
• Owen Moore at Find a Grave