Harvard Theatre Collection - Thurlow Bergen TCS 1

Thurlow Weed Bergen (1875–1954) was an American actor of stage and silent film. Bergen was born on January 14, 1875,

East Saginaw, Michigan East Saginaw was a city in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is now part of the city of Saginaw. History Much of the area that later became East Saginaw was granted by treaty to James Reilly, the Métis son of fur trader Stephen V. ...

to Issarella (Ella) Winner and the lawyer George B. Bergen. Bergen went to study law in Washington D.C., but at the age of 19 decided to become an actor instead. As a kid he had written and composed ''Esther's Lullaby'', which around the turn of the century was a well-known song. He played and sang it at the White House for

President Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Dem ...

, who gave him permission to dedicate the song to his daughter

Esther Esther (; ), originally Hadassah (; ), is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and ma ...

.Motography's Gallery of Picture Players
Motography Vol XII, No. 25, December 19, 1914, p. 847/ Bergen moved to

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...

, where he married Clara Beatrice Farquhar in 1899, the daughter of the wealthy Boston financier Samuel Farquhar.Thurlow Bergen
at lordheath.com He started a successful touring company, and dabbled in composition and writing as well (he wrote many children's stories). Up to 1914 he performed on stage only, but then made the switch to the movies, first starring in the

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

movie The Stain. By that time Farquhar and he had divorced, and in May 1914 Bergen married fellow Broadway performer Elsie Esmond née Sturkow. They were the leading man and lady in most of the early Whartons Studio movies (shot in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

), including ''The Boundary Rider '', ''The Kiss of Death'', ''A Prince of India'', ''The Fireman and the Girl'' and ''The Stolen Birthright '' (all still in 1914) and The Lottery Man of 1916. After 1920, he returned to the stage and performed on Broadway as late as 1940, when he appears in the census as a single theater actor living in an apartment in

Manhattan, New York Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

.Thurlow Bergen, theater actor
in the ''United States Census, 1940'' He died May 1, 1954.Pete Jones
Mini Biography
at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Selected filmography

*'' The Stain'' (1914) *''

The Running Fight ''The Running Fight'' is a 1915 silent film drama, directed by James Durkin and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on a novel by William Hamilton Osborne, and stars Violet Heming. Preservation status The film is preserved tod ...

'' (1915) *''

The Little Gypsy ''The Little Gypsy'' is a lost 1915 silent film drama directed by Oscar Apfel and starring Dorothy Bernard. It was produced by William Fox and released through Fox Film Corporation. Cast *Dorothy Bernard - Babbie *Thurlow Bergen - Gavin *Raymo ...

'' (1915) *'' The City'' (1916) *'' The Lottery Man'' (1916) *'' Lure of Ambition'' (1919)

References

External links

*
Thurlow Bergen
with

Florence Roberts Florence Roberts (March 16, 1861/1864 – June 6, 1940(photo included) was an American actress of the stage and in motion pictures. Stock company actress Born in New York City, she began acting onstage there. Her career began at the Brooklyn ...

, 1911 (Univ. of Washington Sayre collection) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergen, Thurlow 1875 births 1954 deaths 20th-century American male actors American male silent film actors American male stage actors People from Saginaw, Michigan