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Richard Bennett (actor)
Encyclopedia
Richard Bennett was an American actor
who became a stage
and silent screen
matinee idol
over the early decades of the twentieth century.
in 1870 (some sources state 1872), the son of George Washington Bennett and Eliza Huffman. His younger sister was Ina Blanche Bennett. For a time, he was a professional boxer, medicine showman, troubadour and night clerk in a hotel in Chicago
.
Bennett made his stage
debut in the play
The Limited Mail (1891) in Chicago. He went to New York
, where his Broadway
debut was in His Excellency the Governor (1899), which was produced
by Charles Frohman
. In his third Broadway production, he played the role as Father Anselem in Frohman's A Royal Family (1900). In 1905, Bennett won fame as the leading man, Hector Malone, Jr., in Shaw
's Man and Superman
. That was followed by his role as Jefferson Ryder in the stage hit The Lion and the Mouse (1905).
A series of spectacular roles followed. In 1908, he played the role as John Shand opposite Maude Adams
in Barrie
's What Every Woman Knows
. Frequent quarrels between the stars occurred during the run of the play, and when Adams opened in Peter Pan
, Bennett telegraphed his congratulations "on achieving your long ambition to be your own leading man."
Bennett is probably best-known for his role as Major Amberson in Welles
's motion picture
adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons
(1942
). He played the dying millionaire, John Glidden, in If I Had a Million
(1932
). Bennett is also known for adapting socially conscious works of Eugène Brieux
, such as Damaged Goods
and Maternity
.
In 1913, Bennett had a theatrical success starring as Georges Dupont in the social disease
stage drama Damaged Goods, which he also co-produced.
Bennett won a reputation for his curtain harangues, which friends—and critics—said were at least as good as his stage portrayals when, in 1913, he wound up an appearance in Damaged Goods by stepping in front of the curtain and castigatigating the police and courts for "narrow-mindedness." He developed this penchant until his ab-lib speeches won greater applause than many of the plays in which he acted.
His silent movie
debut was a reprisal of his stage role in Damaged Goods
(1914
), which co-starred his wife, Adrienne Morrison. He helped adapt the screenplay
and direct
the drama
. In the drama The Valley of Decision (1916), which he wrote, Bennett appeared on the screen with his wife, Morrison, and his three daughters.
In 1922, Bennett starred in Broadway's English-language version of Leonid Andreyev
's melodrama He Who Gets Slapped, playing the title role as He. The success of the play led to its being filmed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
, with the production starring Lon Chaney
in Bennett's role. With the advent of the talkies
the middleaged actor found a niche as a character actor
. In 1931 he appeared with Constance Bennett in Bought.
newspaper New York American, which later became the New York Journal American
.
On November 8, 1903, Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison
were married in Jersey City
. They had three daughters, Constance Bennett
(1904–1965); Barbara Bennett
(1906–1958); and Joan Bennett
(1910–1990). He and Morrison were divorced in April 1925. Their first and third daughters, Constance and Joan, became successful movie star
s. Their second daughter, Barbara, was also briefly an actress, but with less success.
The two appeared together on stage in the 1923 play The Dancers Barbara married the popular singer Morton Downey
. The controversial television talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr.
, was Richard Bennett's grandson.
In 1925, he became acquainted with Aimee Raisch in San Francisco, during the production of Creoles, in which she played a minor role. She was a young socialite and aspiring actress who was divorcing her millionaire clubman and polo player husband, Harry G. Hastings.
Bennett and Raisch were married July 11, 1927, in Chicago. He and Aimee, who later went by Angela, separated April 3, 1934, and were divorced in 1937. She died in San Francisco, in 1955.
His daughter Joan made her stage debut acting with him in Jarnegan (1928). This play, in which he played Jack Jarnegan, provided one of his favorite roles—that of a belligerent, drunken movie director given to acidulous and profane comments on Hollywood.
at Good Samaritan Hospital
in Los Angeles
. Episcopal funeral services were conducted on October 24, 1944, in Beverly Hills
. He is interred in Pleasant View Cemetery, Lyme, Connecticut
, beside his second wife and mother of his daughters.
Bennett was fond of saying that the movie industry was not a business, but a madhouse.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
who became a 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 screen
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...
matinee idol
Matinee idol
Matinée idol is a term used mainly to describe film or theatre stars who are adored to the point of adulation by their fans.The term almost exclusively refers to male actors. Invariably the adulation was fixated on the actor's looks rather than performance...
over the early decades of the twentieth century.
Early Life
He was born in Deacon's Mills, IndianaDeacon, Indiana
Deacon is an extinct town in Deer Creek Township, Cass County, Indiana.Early residents called it Deacon's Mills, Indiana....
in 1870 (some sources state 1872), the son of George Washington Bennett and Eliza Huffman. His younger sister was Ina Blanche Bennett. For a time, he was a professional boxer, medicine showman, troubadour and night clerk in a hotel in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Career
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...
debut in the play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
The Limited Mail (1891) in Chicago. He went to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut was in His Excellency the Governor (1899), which was produced
Theatrical producer
A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...
by Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. He discovered and promoted many stars of the American theatre....
. In his third Broadway production, he played the role as Father Anselem in Frohman's A Royal Family (1900). In 1905, Bennett won fame as the leading man, Hector Malone, Jr., in Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's Man and Superman
Man and Superman
Man and Superman is a four-act drama, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to calls for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905, but with the omission of the 3rd Act...
. That was followed by his role as Jefferson Ryder in the stage hit The Lion and the Mouse (1905).
A series of spectacular roles followed. In 1908, he played the role as John Shand opposite Maude Adams
Maude Adams
Maude Ewing Kiskadden , known professionally as Maude Adams, was an American stage actress who achieved her greatest success as Peter Pan. Adams's personality appealed to a large audience and helped her become the most successful and highest-paid performer of her day, with a yearly income of more...
in Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
's What Every Woman Knows
What Every Woman Knows
What Every Woman Knows is a four-act play written by J. M. Barrie. It was first presented by the impresario Charles Frohman at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 3 September 1908...
. Frequent quarrels between the stars occurred during the run of the play, and when Adams opened in Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
, Bennett telegraphed his congratulations "on achieving your long ambition to be your own leading man."
Bennett is probably best-known for his role as Major Amberson in Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
's motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons
The Magnificent Ambersons (film)
The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 American drama film written and directed by Orson Welles. His second feature film, it is based on the 1918 novel of the same name by Booth Tarkington and stars Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins...
(1942
1942 in film
The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...
). He played the dying millionaire, John Glidden, in If I Had a Million
If I Had A Million
If I Had a Million is a Paramount Studios anthology film. There were seven directors: Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Stephen Roberts, Norman Z. McLeod, James Cruze, William A. Seiter, and H. Bruce Humberstone...
(1932
1932 in film
-Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....
). Bennett is also known for adapting socially conscious works of Eugène Brieux
Eugène Brieux
Eugène Brieux , French dramatist, was born in Paris of poor parents.A one-act play, Bernard Palissy, written in collaboration with M...
, such as Damaged Goods
Damaged Goods (1914 film)
Damaged Goods was an American silent short film directed by Tom Ricketts and Richard Bennett, starring Richard Bennett. It was based on Eugène Brieux's play Les Avariés about a young couple who contract syphilis...
and Maternity
Maternity (play)
Maternity is a dramatic three act play that opened January 6, 1915, at the Princess Theatre on Broadway starring Richard Bennett.An English language version of Eugène Brieux's French play, Maternité , the work was translated by Benjamin F. Blanchard...
.
In 1913, Bennett had a theatrical success starring as Georges Dupont in the social disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
stage drama Damaged Goods, which he also co-produced.
Bennett won a reputation for his curtain harangues, which friends—and critics—said were at least as good as his stage portrayals when, in 1913, he wound up an appearance in Damaged Goods by stepping in front of the curtain and castigatigating the police and courts for "narrow-mindedness." He developed this penchant until his ab-lib speeches won greater applause than many of the plays in which he acted.
His silent movie
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...
debut was a reprisal of his stage role in Damaged Goods
Damaged Goods (1914 film)
Damaged Goods was an American silent short film directed by Tom Ricketts and Richard Bennett, starring Richard Bennett. It was based on Eugène Brieux's play Les Avariés about a young couple who contract syphilis...
(1914
1914 in film
The year 1914 in film involved some significant events, including the debut of Cecil B. DeMille as a director.-Events:*The 3,300-seat Mark Strand Theatre opens in New York City....
), which co-starred his wife, Adrienne Morrison. He helped adapt the screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
and direct
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:...
the drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
. In the drama The Valley of Decision (1916), which he wrote, Bennett appeared on the screen with his wife, Morrison, and his three daughters.
In 1922, Bennett starred in Broadway's English-language version of Leonid Andreyev
Leonid Andreyev
Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer. He is one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age period in Russian history...
's melodrama He Who Gets Slapped, playing the title role as He. The success of the play led to its being filmed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, with the production starring Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...
in Bennett's role. With the advent of the talkies
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
the middleaged actor found a niche as a character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
. In 1931 he appeared with Constance Bennett in Bought.
Marriage
He was married to Grena Heller in 1901 in San Francisco. They soon separated, and were divorced in 1903. Using her married name, she starred in a few plays on Broadway, and went on to a successful career as a music critic for the HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
newspaper New York American, which later became the New York Journal American
New York Journal American
The New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper...
.
On November 8, 1903, Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison
Adrienne Morrison
Mabel Adrienne Morrison was a semi-successful stage actress of the early 20th century. She married actor Richard Bennett, with whom she had three daughters who later would become actresses. She was the daughter of actress and actor Lewis Morrison. She appeared as Nat-u-ritch, the Indian squaw, in...
were married in Jersey City
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
. They had three daughters, Constance Bennett
Constance Bennett
-Early life:She was born in New York City, the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison , a wealthy performer of English and Spanish ancestry...
(1904–1965); Barbara Bennett
Barbara Bennett
Barbara Jane Bennett was an American silent film actress.Born into an acting family, she was the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison. Her sisters were actresses Constance and Joan Bennett.Bennett would never succeed to...
(1906–1958); and Joan Bennett
Joan Bennett
Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film and television actress. Besides acting on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent movies well into the sound era...
(1910–1990). He and Morrison were divorced in April 1925. Their first and third daughters, Constance and Joan, became successful movie star
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...
s. Their second daughter, Barbara, was also briefly an actress, but with less success.
The two appeared together on stage in the 1923 play The Dancers Barbara married the popular singer Morton Downey
Morton Downey
Morton Downey was a singer popular in the United States, enjoying his greatest success in the 1930s and 1940s. Downey was nicknamed "The Irish Nightingale".-Early years:...
. The controversial television talk-show host Morton Downey, Jr.
Morton Downey, Jr.
Morton Downey, Jr. was an American singer, songwriter and later a television talk show host of the 1980s who pioneered the "trash TV" format on his program The Morton Downey Jr. Show....
, was Richard Bennett's grandson.
In 1925, he became acquainted with Aimee Raisch in San Francisco, during the production of Creoles, in which she played a minor role. She was a young socialite and aspiring actress who was divorcing her millionaire clubman and polo player husband, Harry G. Hastings.
Bennett and Raisch were married July 11, 1927, in Chicago. He and Aimee, who later went by Angela, separated April 3, 1934, and were divorced in 1937. She died in San Francisco, in 1955.
His daughter Joan made her stage debut acting with him in Jarnegan (1928). This play, in which he played Jack Jarnegan, provided one of his favorite roles—that of a belligerent, drunken movie director given to acidulous and profane comments on Hollywood.
Death
Richard Bennett died at age 74 from a heart attackMyocardial 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...
at Good Samaritan Hospital
Good Samaritan Hospital (Los Angeles)
Good Samaritan Hospital is a hospital in Los Angeles, California, United States. The hospital has 408 beds.-History:Good Samaritan Hospital was founded in 1885, although the current hospital was built in 1976...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Episcopal funeral services were conducted on October 24, 1944, in Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
. He is interred in Pleasant View Cemetery, Lyme, Connecticut
Lyme, Connecticut
Lyme is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 2,016 at the 2000 census. Lyme and its neighboring town Old Lyme are the namesake for Lyme disease.-Geography:...
, beside his second wife and mother of his daughters.
Bennett was fond of saying that the movie industry was not a business, but a madhouse.