Richard Barthelmess - A Life in Pictures - Softcover

Menefee, David W

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1593933282 ISBN 13: 9781593933289

Publisher: BearManor Media, 2009

Synopsis

No one will ever forget the scene in D. W. Griffith's Way Down East where Richard Barthelmess as David rescued Anna Moore from certain death on an ice floe as it was about to plummet over a waterfall. The actor risked his life for that stunt, and the exciting sequence still thrills audiences to this day. His effort to fight back and live on became more than the stuff of Hollywood legend. Richard went on to be nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor for The Noose and The Patent Leather Kid. His signature roles are in many of D. W. Griffith's silent films including Broken Blossoms, Scarlet Days, The Love Flower, and The Idol Dancer. Few people are aware that he was nearly felled by the chaos of Hollywood's transition from silent to talking pictures when he used a voice double to sing for him in Weary River. Despite the setback, his transition to talking pictures and work in The Dawn Patrol, Cabin in the Cotton, and Only Angel's Have Wings proved that his talent was enduring. For the first time, the story is fully told how Alla Nazimova, a famous Russian star, plucked him from obscurity to play in her first film, and how his worldwide fame was nearly snuffed out when he followed America's call to arms and gave up his movie career to assist in the fight against Nazi aggression in World War Two. By the time he returned to civilian life, a new generation had grown up never seeing his work, but his determination to succeed against all odds regained a foothold in films, and he continued to work until retiring to a happy life as a senior citizen. Richard appeared in more than 80 films, and this book reveals them with a richly researched biography, an extensive Filmography, and hundreds of rare portraits, posters, and lobby cards that capture the glamour of Hollywood's Golden Era.

About this title

About the Author

David W. Menefee is an American author. His writing career began as a writer and marketing representative for the Dallas Times Herald and the Dallas Morning News. His latest releases include the popular The Final Journey to the Center of the Earth, and EPIC. David's first hits included Sarah Bernhardt: In the Theater, Film and Sound Recordings, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era, and The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era. As an esteemed film historian, his Richard Barthelmess: A Life in Pictures was named one of the Top 10 Books of the Year by the San Francisco Examiner. In 2011 his Wally: The True Wallace Reid Story was nominated for a 2011 Pulitzer Prize and was a winner of "Best Silent Film Book of 2011" by Thomas Gladysz in the San Francisco Examiner). David's other popular works include The Remarkable Mr. Messing, Brothers of the Storm, Charlie O'Doone's Second Chance and Other Stories, and the Margot Cranston mystery series. Visit the author's web site: davemenefee.wixsite.com/mysite

About this edition

• Publisher: BearManor Media
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1593933282
• ISBN 13: 9781593933289
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 468