William Elmer Booth was an US-American actor. He was born in Los Angeles, California and was the elder brother of film editor Margaret Booth

Margaret Booth

Margaret Booth was an American film editor.Born in Los Angeles, California, she started her Hollywood career as a 'patcher', editing films by D. W. Griffith, around 1915. Later she worked for Louis B...

.

Elmer began acting in touring stock companies as a teenager. Between 1910 and 1915 he starred in 40 movies; one of those was D. W. Griffith's

D. W. Griffith

David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...

 The Musketeers of Pig Alley

The Musketeers of Pig Alley

The Musketeers of Pig Alley is a 1912 American short drama film credited as the first gangster film in history. It is directed by D. W. Griffith and written by Griffith and Anita Loos. It is also credited for its early use of follow focus, a fundamental tool in cinematography.The film was released...

(1912), cited by many film experts as the first gangster movie. Playing The Snapper Kid, a Manhattan street tough engaged in a turf war on the Lower East Side

Lower East Side

The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

, Booth interpreted the gangster as a cocky, enterprising antihero, far different from the standard teeth-gnashing movie bad guys of the time. His groundbreaking performance created a new character type and paved the way "for all the Cagneys

James Cagney

James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...

, Bogarts

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

, and Robinsons

Edward G. Robinson

Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...

 who later shot their way across the screen."

Booth died at the age of 32 in a car crash in Los Angeles, caused by actor and director Tod Browning

Tod Browning

Tod Browning was an American motion picture actor, director and screenwriter.Browning's career spanned the silent and talkie eras...

. D.W. Griffith, who planned to give Booth an important role in Intolerance

Intolerance (film)

Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...

, delivered the actor's graveside eulogy.

Selected filmography

• An Unseen Enemy
  An Unseen Enemy
  An Unseen Enemy is a 1912 Biograph short silent film directed by D. W. Griffith, and was the first movie to be made starring the actresses Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish. A critic of the time stated that "the Gish sisters gave charming performances in this one-reel film"...
  
  (1910)
• The Musketeers of Pig Alley
  The Musketeers of Pig Alley
  The Musketeers of Pig Alley is a 1912 American short drama film credited as the first gangster film in history. It is directed by D. W. Griffith and written by Griffith and Anita Loos. It is also credited for its early use of follow focus, a fundamental tool in cinematography.The film was released...
  
  (1912)
• Gold and Glitter
  Gold and Glitter
  Gold and Glitter is a 1912 drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and Frank Powell. Lillian Gish's role as the principal female was praised for its variety of emotion, in comparison to her previous roles.-Cast:* Elmer Booth - The Husband...
  
  (1912)
• The Adopted Brother (1913)
• Mrs. Black is Back (1914)
• Gasoline Gus (1915)
• A Chase by Moonlight (1915)