William Collier Jr.

William Collier Jr.
William Collier circa 1913 with his adoptive father
Born	Charles F. Gall Jr. (1902-02-12)February 12, 1902 New York City, U.S.
Died	February 5, 1987(1987-02-05) (aged 84) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	Actor: 1916–1935 producer: 1946–1956
Spouse	Marie Stevens (1934–1981) (her death) (1 child)

William Collier Jr. (born Charles F. Gall Jr., February 12, 1902 – February 5, 1987) was an American film and stage actor who appeared in 89 films.

Biography

William Collier (nicknamed "Buster") was born in New York City. When his parents divorced, his mother, the actress Paula Marr, remarried the actor William Collier Sr. who adopted Charles (the two did share a resemblance) and gave the boy the new name William Collier Jr. Collier's acting experience in childhood, having first appeared on stage at age seven, helped him to get his first movie role at the age of 14 in The Bugle Call (1916).

He went on to become a popular leading man in the 1920s and made the transition from silent into sound film, however he retired from acting in 1935, and in 1937 went to work as a movie producer in England. At the end of the 1940s he returned to America and went on to produce drama series for television. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Collier & Catherine Calvert in The Heart of Maryland (1921) (photo from contemporary newspaper)

Selected filmography as an actor

• The Bugle Call (1916)
• Never Again (1916)
• Back Stage (1919)
• The Soul of Youth (1920)
• Everybody's Sweetheart (1920)
• The Heart of Maryland (1921)
• At the Stage Door (1921)
• Cardigan (1922)
• Enemies of Women (1923)
• The Age of Desire (1923)
• Fools Highway (1924)
• The Sea Hawk (1924)
• Wine of Youth (1924)
• The Mine with the Iron Door (1924)
• The Lighthouse by the Sea (1924)
• The Devil's Cargo (1925)
• Eve's Secret (1925)
• The Wanderer (1925)
• The Lucky Lady (1926)
• Just Another Blonde (1926)
• The Broken Gate (1927)
• Convoy (1927)
• The Sunset Derby (1927)
• Dearie (1927)
• The College Widow (1927)
• Stranded (1927)
• A Night of Mystery (1928)
• Women They Talk About (1928)
• Beware of Bachelors (1928)
• Tide of Empire (1929)
• Hardboiled Rose (1929)
• The Donovan Affair (1929)
• Two Men and a Maid (1929)
• New Orleans (1929)
• The Show of Shows (1929)
• The Melody Man (1930)
• A Royal Romance (1930)
• Lummox (1930)
• Rain or Shine (1930)
• New Movietone Follies of 1930 (1930)
• Little Caesar (1931)
• Cimarron (1931)
• Reducing (1931)
• Street Scene (1931)
• The Secret Witness (1931)
• Soul of the Slums (1931)
• The Phantom Express (1932)
• Dancers in the Dark (1932)
• The County Fair (1932)
• Speed Demon (1932)
• Public Stenographer (1933)

Death

Collier died one week before his 85th birthday on February 5, 1987, in San Francisco.

Bibliography

• John Holmstrom, The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 16.

External links

• William Collier Jr. at IMDb
• William Collier Jr. at the Internet Broadway Database
• William Collier Jr. at Find a Grave
• William Collier at Virtual History