# Looking for bio-info on obscure silent film actors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972 "2004-02-24T20:39:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/1 "2004-02-24T20:39:23Z")
Can anybody recommend a good source? (The actors I’m looking for aren’t in the league of the sisters Gish or Chaplin or even of the H.B. Warners, but on some who appeared in a few silent films and never became stars; one, for example, is [J.S. Stembridge](http://imdb.com/name/nm0826438/), who the imdb credits with two appearances, though I know for a fact he made several appearances in films no longer believed to be in existence). ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/2 "2004-02-25T01:12:40Z")
**Walloon** is a film student/historian; he contacted me about a semi-famous relative of mine once. Maybe a vanity search will pull him in here, since I’m sure he’d have suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/3 "2004-02-25T06:10:21Z")
Take a look at _Golden Images: 41 Essays on Silent Film Stars_ by Eve Golden. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/4 "2004-02-25T11:14:46Z")
Hello, **jackelope** , and thanks for the compliment. I tip my hat to Eve Golden, too, but it looks like the film folk you’re interested in are of the more obscure type. The reference works I recommend: **Variety Obituaries**. A ten-volume work reprinting obituaries from the weekly show business trade journal _Variety_, 1905-1986. Volume 11 is the index. Bienniel supplements have been published continuously since then. **Biography and Genealogy Master Index**. Gale Research. A multivolume work in hard copy, also available on-line at most libraries. The indispensable first stop when researching biographies. Mel Schuster, **Motion Picture Performers: A Bibliography of Magazine and Periodical Articles, 1900-1969.** Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1971. (Indexed in the BGMI above.) Mel Schuster, **Motion Picture Performers: A Bibliography of Magazine and Periodical Articles : supplement no. 1, 1970-1974.** Metuchen, N.J. : The Scarecrow Press, 1976. (Indexed in the BGMI above.) Byron A. Falk, and Valerie R. Falk, **Personal Name Index to “The New York Times Index,” 1851-1974.** 22 volumes. **Personal Name Index to “The New York Times Index”. Supplement, 1975-1993.** Five volumes. [The California Death Index, 1940-1997.](http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi) [The Social Security Death Index, 1962-2003.](http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/5 "2004-02-25T11:43:21Z")
Film credit reference works, besides the [Internet Movie Database](http://imdb.com/): **The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures.** [ul] [li]Vol. A: Film beginnings, 1893-1910[/li][li]Vol. F1: Feature films, 1911-1920[/li][li]Vol. F2: Feature films, 1921-1930[/li][li]Vol. F3: Feature films, 1931-1940[/li][li]Vol. F4: Feature films, 1941-1950[/li][li]Vol. F5: Feature Films, 1951-1960 (to be published in 2004)[/li][li]Vol. F6: Feature films, 1961-1970[/li][/ul]Also available [on-line](http://afi.com/members/catalog/) to members of the American Film Institute. Most of those volumes are about feature films. You’ll want another work that covers the credits of short films of the silent era: Einar Lauritzen & Gunnar Lundquist, **American Film-Index 1908-1915: Motion Pictures, July 1908—December 1915.** Stockholm: Film-Index, 1976. Einar Lauritzen & Gunnar Lundquist, **American Film-Index, 1916-1920: Motion Pictures, January 1916—December 1920.** Stockholm: Film-Index, 1984. Paul C. Spehr with Gunnar Lundquist, **American Film Personnel and Company credits, 1908-1920: Filmographies Reordered by Authoritative Organizational and Personal Names from Lauritzen and Lundquist’s American Film-Index.** Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Company, Inc., 1996. That still leaves the gap of silent short films released 1921-1930. Not to mention sound era short films: Leonard Maltin, **Selected Short Subjects: From Spanky to the Three Stooges.** New York, N.Y. : Da Capo Press, 1983. Earlier edition published in 1972 as **Great Movie Shorts**. For television credits: James Robert Parish and Vincent Terrace, **The Complete Actors’ Television Credits, 1948-1988.** Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1989-1990. David M. Inman, **Performers’ Television Credits, 1948-2000.** Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 2001. More extensive than Parish-Terrace, but omits exact broadcast dates. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/6 "2004-02-25T11:45:31Z")
Wouldn’t it be easier to just ask **Eve**? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/7 "2004-02-25T15:20:37Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > Wouldn’t it be easier to just ask **Eve**? Yeah; she wrote the book on it. Oh, wait, rjik already mentioned her book. Well, as a satisfied owner of _Golden Images,_ let me second the recommendation. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2004, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/8 "2004-02-26T14:19:51Z")
Thanks, all, but my book contains bios of 41 people who—while mostly obscure now—were pretty famous in their day. There _is_ no book on _all_ silent film performers; I would recommend Anthony Slide’s fairly inclusive paperback [Silent Portraits](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0911572783/qid=1077804844/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-9780978-9683954?v=glance&s=books), though. Slide is one mean sonofabitch, but an excellent researcher and writer. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/9 "2004-02-26T17:26:38Z")
Thanks to everybody. I look forward to flipping through these sources to see if I can find my folks. (I’m writing an article about the coming of cinema to the town where I live and how it affected the locals [one of whom was Oliver Hardy], and I have a list of others from here who appeared in silent films who I wanted to research.) Interesting tidbit about the actor J.S. Stembridge: his nephew, Marion Stembridge, was a violent psychotic bastard whose life was fictionalized (but barely) in the novel_Paris Trout_ (the film of which starred Dennis Hopper). According to [The Oracle of Bacon](http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/star_links.html) Stembridge connects to Hopper in three links: Dennis Hopper was in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) with Ethan Laidlaw Ethan Laidlaw was in Outlaw, The (1943) with Edward Brady Edward Brady was in Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The (1923) with J.S. Stembridge ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-bio-info-on-obscure-silent-film-actors/230972/10 "2004-02-26T18:20:58Z")
I see in the 1930 U.S. census that J.S. Stembridge’s brother Louis and their young niece Zoe Munson were living with J.S. at his home in Los Angeles. All were single. J.S.'s occupation is listed as “fire” something, “technician”; Louis was retired. The census also reports that J.S. and Louis were veterans of the Spanish-American War. I have on-line access to the _Biography and Genealogy Master Index_, and it has the following listings for J.S. Stembridge: _Who’s Who in Hollywood: The largest cast of international film personalities ever assembled._ Two volumes. By David Ragan. New York: Facts on File, 1992. _Who Was Who on Screen._ Third edition. By Evelyn Mack Truitt. New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1983.