James Rennie was a Canadian film actor who appeared in several Hollywood films during the 1920s and 1930s.

Early life

He was born James Malachi Rennie on April 18, 1890 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada the son of a Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 minister. As a youth he starred in a number of stage productions including roles in such Shakesperan plays as Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

, and A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

. It wasn't before long until he was bit by the acting bug. In June 1917, during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Rennie enrolled in the Canadian Expeditionary Force

Canadian Expeditionary Force

The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the designation of the field force created by Canada for service overseas in the First World War. Units of the C.E.F. were divided into field formation in France, where they were organized first into separate divisions and later joined together into a single...

 and became a part of the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

's Officers Training Company; while involved in this he and other officers would put on their own productions to show to the general public. After the war ended in November 1918 Rennie decided to leave Canada for California to begin a career in American films. In the 1920s Rennie divided his time between the Broadway stage and making silent films.

Film career

His first film role came in Remodeling Her Husband

Remodeling Her Husband

Remodeling Her Husband is a 1920 silent film comedy that marked the only time Lillian Gish directed a film. D.W. Griffith is stated in some sources as co-director or perhaps had limited input as the production was filmed at his Long Island, New York production facilities, Mamaroneck...

which was the only film that Lillian Gish

Lillian Gish

Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....

 would ever direct. It was while doing this film that Rennie met Lillian's younger sister Dorothy and they began a romantic relationship. On December 26, 1920 Rennie and Gish were married in a double wedding ceremony alongside actress Constance Talmadge

Constance Talmadge

Constance Talmadge was a silent movie star born in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and was the sister of fellow actresses Norma Talmadge and Natalie Talmadge.-Early life:...

 who was a good friend of Gish's. Now that Rennie was married and had Lillian Gish as a sister-in-law

Sister-in-law

A sister-in-law is the sister of one's spouse, the wife of one's sibling, or sometimes the wife of one's spouse's sibling...

 many doors began to open for him. His next film role was as Robert Van Nuys in Flying Pat opposite his sister-in-law in the role of her husband.

During the 1920s he made ten other appearances in silent films between 1922 and 1926; his other silent film credits included roles in Dust Flower (1922), The Bad Man (1923), The Moral Sinner (1924), Restless Wives (1924), Clothes Make the Pirate

Clothes Make the Pirate

Clothes Make the Pirate is a 1925 silent film starring Leon Errol and Dorothy Gish. The 90-minute silent adventure movie was written by Marion Fairfax from the novel by Holman Francis Day and directed by Maurice Tourneur...

(1925), and the 1926 version of Camille

Camille (Barton film)

Camille is a short film by Ralph Barton, the creation of which is described in Bruce Kellner's The Last Dandy, a biography of Barton....

with Anita Loos

Anita Loos

Anita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author.-Early life:Born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California , where her father, R. Beers Loos, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher...

 in the title role. After the release of Camille Rennie took four years away from film making to take more time in his marriage to Dorothy. During his hiatus talking films revolutionized the film industry.

Career in sound films

In 1930, Rennie made his return to the American screen in his talking debut in a sound remake of The Bad Man originating the role he played in the original version. He would make six other sound films between 1932 and 1933; during this time he began co-starring with some of Hollywood's other silent film stars making the transition to sound films as well as up-and-coming actors who would gain their popularity by decade's end; they including the likes of Ann Harding

Ann Harding

Ann Harding was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress.-Early years:Born Dorothy Walton Gatley at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to George G. Gatley and Elizabeth "Bessie" Crabb. The daughter of a career army officer, she traveled often during her early life...

 in Girl of the Golden West (1930), Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...

 in Illicit (1931), Richard Barthelmess

Richard Barthelmess

Richard Semler "Dick" Barthelmess was an Oscar-nominated silent film star.-Early life:Barthelmess was educated at Hudson River Military Academy at Nyack and Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut...

, 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...

, and Marian Nixon

Marian Nixon

-Career:Born Marian Nissinen in Superior, Wisconsin, Nixon began her career as a teen working as a chorus dancer on the vaudeville circuit. She began appearing in bit part in films in 1922 and landed her first substantial role in the 1923 film Cupid's Fireman, opposite Buck Jones. The following...

 in The Lash (1931), Dorothy Mackaill

Dorothy Mackaill

Dorothy Mackaill was an English-born American actress, most notably of the silent film era and into the early 1930s.-Early life:...

 and Donald Cook

Donald Cook (actor)

Donald Cook was an American stage and film actor.Born in Portland, Oregon, he originally studied farming but later started business with a lumber company. He joined the Kansas Community Players and through this received an offer of stage work...

 in Party Husband (1931), and Olive Borden

Olive Borden

Olive Borden was an American actress in silent and early talkies. Nicknamed "The Joy Girl", Borden was known for her jet-black hair and overall beauty.-Early life:Olive Borden was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1906...

 in The Divorce Racket (1932). In 1933, he made one more film entitled The Little Damozel opposite Anna Neagle

Anna Neagle

Forming a professional alliance with Wilcox, Neagle played her first starring film role in the musical Goodnight Vienna , again with Jack Buchanan. With this film Neagle became an overnight favourite...

 and upon the film's completion he did not return to the screen for seven years.

Later life, retirement, and death

By 1934, Rennie's union with Dorothy Gish was falling to pieces and on October 11, 1935 he and Gish divorced and the following year, 1936, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1939, he married a Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 dress extra named Sara Eldon McConnell who had been a divorcee herself a few years prior to their marriage. In 1941, he returned to the screen in the role of Ned Franklyn in Skylark

Skylark

The Skylark is a small passerine bird species. This lark breeds across most of Europe and Asia and in the mountains of north Africa. It is mainly resident in the west of its range, but eastern populations are more migratory, moving further south in winter. Even in the milder west of its range,...

opposite such acclaimed performers as Claudette Colbert

Claudette Colbert

Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...

, Ray Milland

Ray Milland

Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...

, Brian Aherne

Brian Aherne

Brian Aherne was a British actor of both stage and screen, who found success in Hollywood.-Early life and stage career:...

, and Grant Mitchell

Grant Mitchell (actor)

Grant Mitchell was an American stage actor on Broadway and character actor in many Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s...

. After his screen return Rennie found that he enjoyed being back to the art of screen acting however like with the case of Ona Munson

Ona Munson

Ona Munson was an American actress perhaps best known for her portrayal of prostitute Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind .- Career :...

 Hollywood wasn't kind to the actors who abandoned the film industry during the mid-point of the early sound era and decent roles were difficult to find.

For the next years to follow Rennie would appear in small, bit parts in such films as Now, Voyager

Now, Voyager

Now, Voyager is a 1942 American drama film starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains, and directed by Irving Rapper. The screenplay by Casey Robinson is based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty....

with Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

 and the star studded Tales of Manhattan

Tales of Manhattan

Tales of Manhattan is a 1942 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier. Thirteen writers, including Ben Hecht, Alan Campbell, Ferenc Molnár, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Donald Ogden Stewart worked on the six stories in this film.-Cast:...

(1942) whose grand cast consisted of such talents as Charles Boyer

Charles Boyer

Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...

, Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

, Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...

, Edward G. Robinson

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...

, Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda

Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...

, Charles Laughton

Charles Laughton

Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...

, and Cesar Romero

Cesar Romero

Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...

. In 1945, Rennie made his last screen appearance in A Bell for Adano and upon the film's completion he retired from films. Moving to New York City he and his wife would live comfortably thanks to all the fortunes Rennie had earned and saved from his acting days. During his retirement Rennie devoted his time to his wife and was active in his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

On July 31, 1965 Rennie died due to heart failure in his New York apartment.

Filmography

• A Bell for Adano (1945)
• Wilson (1944)
• Now, Voyager (1942)
• Tales of Manhattan (1942)
• Crossroads (1942)
• Skylark (1941)
• The Little Damozel (1933)
• The Divorce Racket (1932)
• Party Husband (1931)
• Illicit (1931)
• The Lash (1930)
• The Girl of the Golden West (1930)
• The Bad Man (1930)

• Camille (1926)
• Share and Share Alike (1925)
• Clothes Make the Pirate (1925)
• Argentine Love (1924)
• The Moral Sinner (1924)
• Restless Wives (1924)
• His Children's Children (1923)
• The Bad Man (1923)
• Mighty Lak' a Rose (1923)
• Dust Flower (1922)
• Stardust (1922)
• Flying Pat (1920)
• Remodeling Her Husband (1920)

External links