Henry Lehrman
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
.
Born in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, Lehrman emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
at a young age and although he is best remembered as a film director, he began his career as an actor in a 1909 Biograph Studios
Biograph Studios
Biograph Studios was a studio facility and film laboratory complex built in 1912 by the Biograph Company, formerly American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, at 807 E. 175th Street, in the Bronx, New York....
production directed by D.W. Griffith. He gained the nickname "Pathé," reportedly because he told Biograph he had been sent there from Europe to have a job by France's
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Pathé Frères
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
. While the executive at Biograph may not have believed him, they nevertheless gave him his first acting work in film, appearing as one of many in a mob scene with another aspiring actor named Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
. A few years later Lehrman was a successful actor and would make his directorial debut, co-directing a 1911 Biograph production with Sennett. When Sennett left to create his own Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Edendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company...
, Henry Lehrman would join him, working as an actor, a screenwriter, and as the first director of Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
.
In 1915, Lehrman established his own film company called the L-KO Kompany
L-KO Kompany
The L-KO Kompany, or L-KO Komedies, was an American motion picture company founded by Henry Lehrman that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919...
to make two-reel comedies for Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. Lehrman was notorious for his low regard toward actors, and his willingness to place his actors in dangerous situations earned him the nickname "Mr. Suicide." Author Kalton C. Lahue noted that bit players and extras actually refused calls from L-KO.
In 1916 Lehrman gave up acting to devote himself fully to directing and producing. In 1917 Lehrman left the L-KO Kompany
L-KO Kompany
The L-KO Kompany, or L-KO Komedies, was an American motion picture company founded by Henry Lehrman that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919...
and moved to Fox Film Corporation as producer of their "Sunshine Comedies" unit. In 1920 Lehrman met a young actress named Virginia Rappe
Virginia Rappe
Virginia Rappe was an American model and silent film actress.-Early life and career:Rappe was born to unwed mother Mabel Rapp in New York City. Mabel died when Virginia was 11, and Virginia was then raised by her grandmother in Chicago. At age 14 she began working as a commercial and art model in...
and a personal relationship ensued that resulted in their engagement. However, in September 1921, Rappe died after attending a private party hosted by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle at a hotel in San Francisco. Arbuckle would be accused of raping
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
her and was charged with her murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
; Lehrman used the trial for his own personal publicity. Eventually Arbuckle was found not guilty.
For the two years following his fiancée's death, Henry Lehrman was virtually inactive in the film business. He went through a short-lived marriage in 1922 to Jocelyn Leigh. In 1924 he accepted an offer from the Fox Film Corporation to return to directing their "Sunshine Comedies" unit. Lehrman continued as a successful director until the introduction of talkies at the end of the 1920s. He directed two sound films for Fox in 1929, one a short comedy, the other a feature-length production titled "New Year's Eve" starring Mary Astor
Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
. The films demonstrated Lehrman's difficulty adapting to directing with sound and he was dropped by Fox. Two years later he made his final attempt at sound films, writing and directing a comedy short for Universal Studios.
Henry Lehrman died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Hollywood in 1946 and was interred in the Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
next to Virginia Rappe.