Robert Harron

Robert Harron
Born	Robert Emmett Harron (1893-04-12)April 12, 1893 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	September 5, 1920(1920-09-05) (aged 27) Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Cause of death	Self-inflicted gunshot wound (accident)
Resting place	Calvary Cemetery
Nationality	American
Other names	Bobby Harron
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1907–1920
Religion	Roman Catholic
Relatives	John Harron (brother) Mary Harron (sister)

Robert Emmett "Bobby" Harron (April 12, 1893 – September 5, 1920) was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in over 200 films, he is known for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed films The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916).

Harron was the older brother of film actor John Harron and actress Mary Harron.

Early life and career

Born in New York City, Harron was second oldest child of nine siblings in a poor, working-class Irish Catholic family. He attended the Christian Brothers school in Greenwich Village and beginning at the age of thirteen found work as a messenger boy for American Biograph Studios to help support his family. Within a year of working for Biograph, Harron and Christian Brothers friend and classmate James Smith were noticed by newly hired director D.W. Griffith who put both young boys under contract and the pair began appearing in bit parts for the studio. His first film was the now lost 1907 Biograph short Bobby's Kodak. Harron quickly became a favorite of Griffith and Griffith began to give the 14-year-old increasingly larger film roles.

The teenaged Harron was often cast by Griffith in the role of the "sensitive" and "naïve" boy, who was overwhelmingly sympathetic and appealing to American film-goers in the very early years of American motion pictures and not far removed from Harron's real-life persona; Harron was often described as a quiet and soft-spoken youth. It was these traits that helped garner much public interest in the young actor, especially amongst young female fans. In 1912 alone, Robert Harron appeared in nearly forty films at Biograph.

Harron is probably best recalled for his roles in the three epic Griffith films: 1914's Judith of Bethulia, opposite Blanche Sweet, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall and Dorothy and Lillian Gish, 1915's controversial all-star cast The Birth of a Nation, and 1916's colossal multi-scenario Intolerance opposite such popular stars of the era Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, Wallace Reid, Harold Lockwood, Carol Dempster and Mildred Harris. One of Harron's most popular roles of the era came in 1919 when he starred opposite Lillian Gish in the Griffith directed romantic film True Heart Susie.

Robert Harron's film career continued to flourish throughout the 1910s and he was occasionally paired with leading actresses Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish with romantic plots, often in roles that cemented his "sensitive boy" image. Harron had, in fact, a burgeoning off-screen romantic relationship with Dorothy Gish.

Death

In 1920, D. W. Griffith cast Richard Barthelmess to star in Way Down East, and Harron signed a production deal with Metro Pictures. His first film for Metro, also the last film of his career, called Coincidence, was finished and then released the next year in 1921. Harron traveled from Los Angeles to New York by train to support Lillian Gish at the film premiere of Way Down East. He checked into the Hotel Seymour on September 1. He was also there for a preview of Coincidence and was sharing the hotel room with director Victor Heerman, who attended the preview and said it did not go very well.

While Harron was alone in his hotel room on September 1, a gun in his possession discharged and wounded him. According to published reports, Harron had a gun in a trunk along with other possessions. As he took some clothes out the trunk, the gun fell to the floor and discharged hitting him in the chest. He called the hotel desk for assistance and was still conscious when the hotel manager came to his room. Not realizing he was seriously wounded, Harron joked with the manager that he was in a "devil of a fix" having shot himself. Harron initially refused to let the manager call an ambulance, only wanting to be examined by a local physician. After a physician could not be found, Harron agreed to allow the manager to call an ambulance. Harron then insisted that he not be taken down by stretcher, but a chair. As Harron had lost a considerable amount of blood, he was finally convinced to be taken downstairs on a stretcher.

Harron was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. While he was being treated, Harron was arrested for possessing a firearm without a permit under the Sullivan Act. On September 5, 1920, Harron died of his wound.

Even before his death, there were rumors that Harron's death was not accidental and that he had attempted suicide. There was speculation that he was despondent over being passed over for a leading role by Griffith or over the breakup of his relationship with Dorothy Gish. Victor Heerman, with whom Harron would double-date, said that Harron was a teetotaler and a virgin because he was a devout Catholic, and for those reasons Heerman rejected claims it was a suicide. Miriam Cooper and Lillian Gish agreed, largely because he was his family's major source of income and he was about to start filming with Elmer Clifton.

Harron was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, New York City.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1907	Dr. Skinum	Boy at Door
1907	Mr. Gay and Mrs.	Messenger
1908	The Snowman	A child
1908	A Calamitous Elopement	George Wilkinson
1909	Those Awful Hats	Theatre Audience
1909	At the Altar	On Street
1909	A Drunkard's Reformation	Theatre Usher
1909	The Lonely Villa
1909	The Hessian Renegades	Farmer
1909	To Save Her Soul	Stagehand/Usher
1910	Ramona
1911	The Broken Cross
1911	The White Rose of the Wilds	White Rose's Brother
1911	Enoch Arden	Teenage Arden Son	Part II
1911	Fighting Blood	The Old Soldier's Son
1911	A Country Cupid	Among Students
1911	The Last Drop of Water	In Wagon Train
1911	The Battle	A Union soldier
1911	The Miser's Heart	Bakeshop Assistant
1912	For His Son	At Soda Fountain
1912	The Transformation of Mike	At Dance
1912	Under Burning Skies	On Street/At Farewell Party
1912	A String of Pearls	In Tenement
1912	One Is Business, the Other Crime	Delivery Boy
1912	The Lesser Evil	In Smuggler Band
1912	A Temporary Truce	The Murdered Indian's Son
1912	Man's Lust for Gold	The Prospector's Son
1912	The Inner Circle	In Crowd/Accident Witness
1912	A Change of Spirit	Young Man on Street
1912	Two Daughters of Eve)	At Stage Door
1912	Friends	Stableboy
1912	So Near, Yet So Far	The Rival/In Club
1912	A Feud in the Kentucky Hills	A brother
1912	The Painted Lady	Beau at Ice Cream Festival
1912	The Musketeers of Pig Alley	Rival Gang Member/In Alley/At Dance
1912	Heredity	Indian
1912	The Informer
1912	A Sailor's Heart	On Porch	Unconfirmed
1912	Brutality
1912	The New York Hat	Youth outside church
1912	My Hero	The Young Man
1912	The Burglar's Dilemma	Young Burglar
1912	A Cry for Help	Witness to Accident
1913	A Misappropriated Turkey	Union Member
1913	Brothers	The Father's Favorite Son
1913	Oil and Water
1913	Love in an Apartment Hotel	The Desk Clerk
1913	Broken Ways	In Telegraph Office
1913	Near to Earth	Gato's Brother
1913	The Sheriff's Baby	The Deputy
1913	A Misunderstood Boy	The Son
1913	The House of Darkness	Asylum Guard
1913	A Timely Interception	The Farmer's Adopted Son
1913	Death's Marathon	The Messenger
1913	The Sorrowful Shore	One of the Son's Friends
1913	The Battle at Elderbush Gulch	The father
1914	Brute Force	Harry Faulkner	Prologue - Weakhands (The Old Days)
1914	The Battle of the Sexes	John Andrews, the son
1914	Home, Sweet Home	The Easterner, Robert Winthrop
1914	The Escape	Larry Joyce
1914	The Rebellion of Kitty Belle
1914	The Avenging Conscience	The Grocer's boy
1915	The Birth of a Nation	Tod Stoneman
1916	Hoodoo Ann	Jimmie Vance
1916	Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages	The Boy (Modern Story)
1917	The Bad Boy	Jimmie Bates
1918	Hearts of the World	The Boy, Douglas Gordon Hamilton	Uncredited
1918	The Great Love	Jim Young
1918	Peacock Alley	Cleo of Paris
1918	The Greatest Thing in Life	Edward Livingston
1918	A Romance of Happy Valley	John L. Logan, Jr.
1919	True Heart Susie	William Jenkins
1919	The Greatest Question	Jimmie Hilton
1921	Coincidence	Billy Jenks

External links

• Robert Harron at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Harron at Silents Are Golden
• Robert Harron at Find a Grave