Earl O. Schenck (13 May 1889 – 1962) was an American film
actor
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...
. He appeared in 41 films between
1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...
and
1946
1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...
.
Career
After playing leading roles on
Broadway and in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood ...
during the
Silent era
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...
opposite such stars as
Mae Murray
Mae Murray (born Marie Adrienne Koenig; May 10, 1885 – March 23, 1965) was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "Th ...
,
Mae Marsh
Mae Marsh (born Mary Warne Marsh; November 9, 1894U.S. Census records for 1900, El Paso, Texas, Sheet No. 6 – February 13, 1968) was an American film actress whose career spanned over 50 years.
Early life
Mae Marsh was born Mary Warne Marsh i ...
,
Norma Talmadge
Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent film, silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among ...
,
Alia Nazimova and
Marion Davies, Schenck developed "
Klieg light eyes". Threatened with total
blindness
Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...
, he interrupted a distinguished stage career and went to
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
to rest.
In the South Seas he found a new career as an explorer and ethnologist. He secured a
roving commission from the
Bishop Museum
The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1 ...
in
Honolulu
Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
, the leading museum in the world in
Polynesian research, to make miniatures and gather artifacts of various Polynesian Islands and spent fourteen years traveling from island to island. During this time, Schenck also contributed to the
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
and other magazines.
Returning to his homeland after twenty years of wandering, Schenck won success in still another field as a lecturer on the South Seas and, during the war, served the U.S. Navy Department in planning bases in the Southwest Pacific. For nine months, he also worked with the U.S. Maritime Commission as a government speaker in shipyards and factories to speed up production.
He returned to his career as a motion picture actor with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
in 1943, on an "actor-writer" contract.
After suffering from several
stroke
Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
s, Schenck retired to
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...
where he died in 1962 at the age of 72.
Partial filmography
* ''
The Haunted Manor'' (1916)
* ''
The False Friend
''The False Friend'' is a 1917 American silent film, silent drama film directed by Harry Davenport (actor), Harry Davenport and starring Robert Warwick, Gail Kane and Jack Drumier.
Cast
* Robert Warwick as William Ramsdell
* Gail Kane as Virgi ...
'' (1917)
* ''
The Unbeliever'' (1918)
* ''
My Four Years in Germany'' (1918)
* ''
To Hell with the Kaiser!'' (1918)
* ''
Kaiser's Finish'' (1918)
* ''
The Trap'' (1919)
* ''
The Great Victory'' (1919)
* ''
The Harvest Moon
''The Harvest Moon'' is a 1920 American silent film, silent drama film directed by J. Searle Dawley and starring Doris Kenyon, Wilfred Lytell, and George Lessey.Koszarski p. 91 It was shot at the Fort Lee, New Jersey, Fort Lee studios in New Jer ...
'' (1920)
* ''
The Blue Pearl
is a 1951 Japanese film directed by Ishirō Honda, his first feature film. The story is based on ''Umi no haien'' (). It is about a pearl divers and is filmed in a semi-documentary style. The film was produced and distributed by Toho, Toho Co., L ...
'' (1920)
* ''
Buried Treasure'' (1921)
* ''
Beyond'' (1921)
* ''
No Woman Knows'' (1921)
* ''
Lucky Carson'' (1921)
* ''
Good Women'' (1921)
* ''
At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern
AT or at may refer to:
Geography Austria
* Austria (ISO 2-letter country code)
* .at, Internet country code top-level domain
United States
* Atchison County, Kansas (county code)
* The Appalachian Trail (A.T.), a 2,180+ mile long mountain ...
'' (1922)
* ''
Salomé'' (
1923
In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...
)
* ''
Ashes of Vengeance'' (1923)
* ''
The Song of Love'' (1923)
* ''
Yankee Madness'' (1924)
* ''
Dollar Down'' (1925)
* ''
Tides of Passion'' (1925)
* ''
The Hunted Woman'' (1925)
* ''
The Heavenly Body'' (1945)
Bibliography
* ''Come Unto These Yellow Sands'' - Boobs-Merril, 1940.
* ''Lean With the Wind'' - Whittlesey House, 1945.
* ''Weeds of Violence'' - Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1949
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schenck, Earl
1889 births
1962 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male silent film actors