William Thomas Courtleigh Jr. (March 8, 1892 – March 13, 1918) was an American silent film actor who starred in many films during the 1910s and notably died early into his career as a result of the
Spanish flu
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...
.
Early years
William Thomas Courtleigh Jr. was born in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
was the son of
William Courtleigh
William Louis Courtleigh (28 June 1867 – 27 December 1930) was a Canadian-American stage and film actor who appeared in Broadway productions, vaudeville theatre, and silent films.
Courtleigh was born June 28, 1867, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada t ...
,
[Death Notices-The New York Times March 15, 1918; pg. 13] a Canadian-born American stage and screen actor. Two of his four half-brothers (Stephen and
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...
) also became actors. They had careers on stage and later in television. His half-brothers were the product of his father's second marriage and considerably younger than him.
Career
Like his father, Courtleigh began in stock. His film career began the year before playing Rev. Mark Stebbing in the
Vitagraph
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907 ...
film ''The Better Man'', based on the novel by
Cyrus Townsend Brady. Courtleigh appeared in at least 14 films over his brief career and was probably best remembered for playing Neal Hardin in the 1915 serial ''
Neal of the Navy'' with
Lillian Lorraine
Lillian Lorraine (née Jacques; 1892/1894 – April 17, 1955) was an American stage and screen actress of the 1910s and 1920s, and a prominent Ziegfeld Girl in the Broadway revues Ziegfeld Follies during the 1910s.
Early years
Lorraine w ...
. Courtleigh played opposite
Ann Pennington in her first two films, ''
Susie Snowflake'' and ''
The Rainbow Princess,'' both released in 1916. His last film, ''Children of Destiny'', another Brady story, was released in 1920 by Weber Productions.
[The Fort Wayne News and Sentinel 4 May 1918 pg. 4; Ancestry.com scan]
Personal life
In July 1915, Courtleigh married actress
Ethel Fleming, whom he met when they were working for different companies at a studio in
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
.
Death
Courtleigh died in Philadelphia on March 13, 1918, an early casualty of the
worldwide flu pandemic at age 26.
[William Courtleigh 1920 US Census, Ancestry.com scan]
Partial filmography
* ''
Neal of the Navy'' (1915)
* ''
Out of the Drifts'' (1916)
* ''
Susie Snowflake'' (1916)
* ''
The Rainbow Princess'' (1916)
* ''
The Heart of a Lion'' (1917)
* ''
By Right of Purchase'' (1918)
Sources
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Courtleigh, William Jr.
1892 births
1918 deaths
Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in Pennsylvania
American male silent film actors
20th-century American male actors
American people of Canadian descent
Members of The Lambs Club