Lester H. Cuneo was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 stage

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 and silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 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...

. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he began acting in live theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 while still in his teens.

Career

Lester then embarked on a film career in 1912 with the Chicago-based Selig Polyscope Company

Selig Polyscope Company

The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. Selig Polyscope is noted for establishing Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles...

 then joined Essanay Studios

Essanay Studios

The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture studio. It is best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies of 1915.-Founding:...

 in 1914. Working in early Hollywood, his popularity increased after he switched from comedic roles to the increasingly popular western film genre. However, his career was temporarily interrupted when he served with the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 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...

.

At war's end, Lester Cuneo returned to film and in the early 1920s set up his own production company making primarily western films.

Personal life

He married actress Francelia Billington

Francelia Billington

Francelia Billington was an early American silent-screen actress, and an accomplished camera operator.-Early life:...

 in 1920 and the two made fourteen films together until their divorce in October 1925.

Death

Despondent over the breakdown of his marriage and the downhill slide of his film career, Lester Cuneo took his own life with a gunshot to the head in 1925. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California

Glendale, California

Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

.

Filmography

• Sons of the North Woods (1912)
• According to Law (1912)
• The Double Cross (1912)
• The Peculiar Nature of the White Man's Burden (1912)
• An Unexpected Fortune (1912)
• The Boob (1912)
• A Cowboy's Mother (1912)
• The Whiskey Runners (1912)
• An Equine Hero (1912) - Pete (half-breed)
• Circumstantial Evidence (1912) - Hort Ingles
• The Fighting Instinct (1912)
• The Brand Blotter (1912)
• The Cattle Rustlers (1912)
• Why Jim Reformed (1912)
• A Motorcycle Adventure (1912)
• The Opium Smugglers (1912)
• So-Jun-Wah and the Tribal Law (1912)
• Jim's Vindication (1912)
• The Dynamiters (1912) - Joe Thompson
• Between Love and the Law (1912)
• Roped In (1912) - The Cowboy
• The Ranger and His Horse (1912) - Pete Rogers
• Buck's Romance (1912) - Squaw's Father
• A Rough Rider With Nitroglycerine (1912)
• The Gunfighter's Son (1913)
• The Cowboy Editor (1913)
• Bud's Heiress (1913)
• A Canine Matchmaker; or, Leave It to a Dog (1913)
• How It Happened (1913)
• Bill's Birthday Present (1913)
• The Range Law (1913)
• The Bank's Messenger (1913)
• The Deputy's Sweetheart (1913)
• Juggling With Fate (1913) - Wallace
• The Sheriff of Yavapai County (1913) - The Frisco Kid (Apache Frank's partner)
• The Life Timer (1913) - Tom
• The Mail Order Suit (1913) - Steve
• His Father's Deputy (1913) - Sam Marvin (a crook)
• Religion and Gun Practice (1913) - Finely Overmeyer
• The Law and the Outlaw (1913) - Monty Ray
• An Embarrassed Bridegroom (1913)
• The Jealousy of Miguel and Isabella (1913)
• The Only Chance (1913) - Train Dispatcher
• Taming a Tenderfoot (1913) - Willie B. Clever (the tenderfoot)
• The Marshal's Capture (1913) - The marshal's wife's brother
• Sallie's Sure Shot (1913) - Coyote Jim
• Made A Coward (1913) - Tom Jones
• The Señorita's Repentance (1913)
• The Stolen Moccasins (1913) - Harden
• The Galloping Romeo (1913)
• How Betty Made Good (1913) - Jim
• The Rejected Lover's Luck (1913) Ben
• The Capture of Bad Brown (1913)
• The Cattle Thief's Escape (1913) - Charley Pointer
• The Silver Grindstone (1913) - Harry Custer
• Dishwash Dick's Counterfeit (1913) - Dick Mason
• Two Sacks of Potatoes (1913)
• The Schoolmarm's Shooting Match (1913) - Brown
• The Sheriff and the Rustler (1913) - The Sheriff
• The Child of the Prairies (1913) - Ed Dillon
• The Escape of Jim Dolan (1913) - Ed Jones
• Cupid in the Cow Camp (1913) - Arizona Bob
• The Rustler's Reformation (1913)
• Physical Culture on the Quarter Circle V Bar (1913) - Pete
• Buster's Little Game (1913) - Robins
• Mother Love Vs Gold (1913) - Jim Sykes
• By Unseen Hand (1914) - Warrington
• A Friend In Need (1914) - Girl's Father
• The Little Sister (1914) - First Badman
• A Mix-Up on the Plains (1914)
• A Romance of the Forest Reserve (1914)
• Marrying Gretchen (1914)
• Marian, the Holy Terror (1914)
• Algie's Sister (1914)
• Under Royal Patronage (1914) - Baron Spitzhausen
• The Plum Tree (1914) - Norris Griggs
• A Splendid Dishonor (1914) - Dr. Appledance
• The Moving Picture Cowboy (1914) - Director
• The Fable of the Author and the Dear Public and the Plate of Mush (1914)
• The Other Man (1914)
• In the Glare of the Lights (1914) - Joe Brandigan
• The Private Officer (1914) - Capt. Osborne
• His Dearest Foes (1914)
• The Prince Party (1914) - James Atteridge
• The Place, the Time and the Man (1914)
• Every Inch A King (1914) - King Livian
• The Loose Change of Chance (1914)
• The Way of the Woman (1914)
• The Shanty at Trembling Hill (1914)
• The Gallantry of Jimmy Rodgers (1915) - Ralph Morrison
• The Lieutenant Governor (1915) - Dennis McGrath
• The Ambition of the Baron
  The Ambition of the Baron
  The Ambition of the Baron is a 1915 silent drama film. Gloria Swanson had a bit-part role.-Cast:* Francis X. Bushman - Count Jean de Lugnan* Beverly Bayne - Annetta* Thomas Commerford* Lester Cuneo* Joseph Byron Totten -...
  
  (1915)
• Thirteen Down (1915) - Baron Schoman
• The Accounting (1915) - Sargall
• The Amateur Prodigal (1915)
• The Surprise of My Life (1915)
• The Strength of the Weak (1915)
• The Other Woman's Picture (1915)
• A Night In Kentucky (1915)
• Graustark (1915) - Prince Gabriel
• The Mystery of the Silent Death (1915)
• The Conspiracy at the Chateau (1915)
• On the Dawn Road (1915) - Granger
• The Slim Princess (1915) - The Only Koldo
• The Second in Command (1915) - Lt. Sir Walter Mannering
• The Silent Voice (1915) - Bobbie Delorme
• Pennington's Choice (1915) - Jean
• A Corner In Cotton (1916) - Willis Jackson
• The Come-Back (1916) - Mac Heberton
• The Masked Rider (1916) - Squid Archer
• The River of Romance (1916) - Reginald Williams
• A Virginia Romance (1916)
• Mister 44 (1916) - Eagle Eye
• Big Tremaine (1916) - Redmond Malvern
• Pidgin Island (1916) - Donald Smead
• The Promise (1917) - Buck Moncrossen
• The Hidden Children (1917) - Lt. Boyd
• The Haunted Pajamas (1917) - Judge Billings
• The Hidden Spring (1917) - Bill Wheeler
• Under Handicap (1917) - Brayley
• Paradise Garden (1917) - Jack Ballard
• Desert Love (1920) - The Whelp
• The Terror (1920) - 'Con' Norton
• Food For Scandal (1920) - Jack Horner
• Lone Hand Wilson
  Lone Hand Wilson
  Lone Hand Wilson is a 1920 Western silent film. It stars Lester Cuneo in the title role. His romance with Madge Walker is complicated when he is falsely accused of murdering her father . Other actors include Annette DeFoe and Thomas Randall....
  
  (1920) - Lone Hand Wilson
• Are All Men Alike? (1920) - Raoul Uhlan
• The Ranger and the Law (1921) - Dick Dawson
• Blue Blazes (1922) - Jerry Connors
• The Masked Avenger (1922) - Austin Patterson
• Silver Spurs (1922)
• Trapped in the Air (1922)
• In the Days of Buffalo Bill
  In the Days of Buffalo Bill
  In the Days of Buffalo Bill is a 1922 Western film serial directed by Edward Laemmle. The film is considered to be lost.-Cast:* Art Acord - Art Taylor* Duke R. Lee - Buffalo Bill Cody* George A. Williams - Calvert Carter* Jay Morley - Lambert Ashley...
  
  (1922)
• Blazing Arrows (1922) - Sky Fire
• The Devil's Ghost (1922)
• The Vengeance of Pierre (1923)
• The Zero Hour (1923)
• The Eagle's Feather (1923) - Jeff Carey
• Fighting Jim Grant (1923) - Jim Grant
• Western Grit (1924) - Walt Powers
• Ridin' Fool (1924)
• The Lone Hand Texan (1924)
• Hearts of the West (1925)
• Two Fisted Thompson (1925)
• Western Promise (1925)
• Range Vultures (1925)

External links

Retrieved on 2008-01-25