Tom Forman was a motion picture 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...

, writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, 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...

 of the early 1920s.

Life and career

Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

-born Forman made his first film for Jesse L. Lasky

Jesse L. Lasky

Jesse Louis Lasky, Sr. was a pioneer Hollywood film producer. He was a key founder of Paramount Pictures with Adolph Zukor, and father of screenwriter Jesse L...

's production company in 1914. With the exception of service at the front 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...

, he had a successful career as both an actor and director. Forman directed 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...

's Shadows

Shadows (1922 film)

Shadows is a 1922 silent drama film starring Lon Chaney, Sr., Marguerite De La Motte, Harrison Ford, and John St. Polis. Shadows is a tale of deception, sacrifice and humility by a gentle Chinese immigrant in a small New England town directed by Tom Forman.-Plot:A boastful and proud yet abusive...

(1922), but his biggest achievement was realised directing the second screen version of Owen Wister

Owen Wister

Owen Wister was an American writer and "father" of western fiction.-Early life:Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a well-known neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of...

's The Virginian

The Virginian (1923 film)

The Virginian is a 1923 silent film based upon the Owen Wister novel, with Kenneth Harlan as the Virginian and Russell Simpson as Trampas. The film was directed by Tom Forman and has been overshadowed by the 1929 movie with Gary Cooper and Walter Huston. There have been several versions of the...

(1923). After which his career faltered, he was reduced to working on cheap poverty row melodramas. Forman is also known for his work with Edith Taliaferro

Edith Taliaferro

Edith Taliaferro was a popular Broadway actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was active on the stage until 1935 and she had roles in three silent films. She is best known for her 1913 performance in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm...

 in Young Romance.

Forman was set to direct the Columbia

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 film The Wreck, which was to start shooting on November 8, 1926, however on the evening of November 7, Forman committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 by shooting himself through the heart at his parents' home in Venice, California

Venice, Los Angeles, California

Venice is a beachfront district on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk, a two-and-a-half mile pedestrian-only promenade that features performers, fortune-tellers, artists, and vendors...

.

Adela Rogers St. Johns

Adela Rogers St. Johns

Adela Rogers St. Johns was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies and, late in life, appeared with other early twentieth-century figures as one of the 'witnesses' in Warren Beatty's Reds, but she is best remembered for her...

 loosely based the character of Maximillan Carey in What Price Hollywood?

What Price Hollywood?

What Price Hollywood? is a 1932 American drama film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Gene Fowler, Rowland Brown, Ben Markson, and Jane Murfin is based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns.-Plot:...

(1932) on Forman.

Actor

• Devil's Dice (1926)
• Hoboken to Hollywood (1926)
• Kosher Kitty Kelly (1926)
• White Shoulders (1922)
• The Round-Up (1920)
• The Sea Wolf (1920)
• The Tree of Knowledge (1920)
• Told in the Hills (1919)
• The Heart of Youth (1919)
• Louisiana (1919)
• For Better, for Worse (1919)
• Hashimura Togo (1917)
• A Kiss for Susie (1917)
• Forbidden Paths (1917)
• Her Strange Wedding (1917)
• The Jaguar's Claws (1917)
• The Tides of Barnegat (1917)
• The Cost of Hatred (1917)
• Those Without Sin (1917)
• On Record (1917)
• The American Consul (1917)
• The Evil Eye (1917)
• The Yellow Pawn (1916)
• Unprotected (1916)
• Public Opinion (1916)
• The Clown (1916)
• The Thousand-Dollar Husband (1916)
• Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1916)
• To Have and to Hold (1916)
• The Ragamuffin (1916)
• The Unknown (1915)
• Chimmie Fadden Out West
  Chimmie Fadden Out West
  Chimmie Fadden Out West is a 1915 comedy-Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille.-Plot:Chimmie is sent out west as part of a scam by a railroad company. He is to pretend to find gold, then retreat as the company takes advantage. Things do not go as planned.-Cast:* Victor Moore - Chimmie Fadden*...
  
   (1915)
• The Explorer (1915)
• Out of the Darkness (1915)
• The Marriage of Kitty (1915)
• The Puppet Crown (1915)
• The Fighting Hope (1915)
• Kindling
  Kindling (film)
  Kindling is a 1915 drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Charlotte Walker, in her film debut. The film is based on a 1911 Broadway play by Charles A...
  
   (1915)
• Chimmie Fadden
  Chimmie Fadden
  Chimmie Fadden is a 1915 comedy film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film is now considered to be lost.-Cast:* Victor Moore - Chimmie Fadden* Raymond Hatton - Larry, His Brother* Mrs. Lewis McCord - Mrs...
  
   (1915)
• The Wild Goose Chase (1915)
• Stolen Goods (1915)
• The Woman (1915/II)
• The Governor's Lady (1915)
• A Gentleman of Leisure (1915)
• Young Romance
  Young Romance
  Young Romance is a comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for the Crestwood Publications imprint Prize Comics in 1947. Generally considered the first romance comic, the series ran for 124 consecutive issues under Prize imprint, and a further 84 published by DC Comics after Crestwood...
  
   (1915)
• Lights and Shadows
  Lights and Shadows
  Lights and Shadows is a 1914 silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and featuring Lon Chaney, Sr. The film is now considered to be lost.-Cast:* Lon Chaney, Sr. - Bentley* Pauline Bush - Mother / Daughter* Tom Forman* Laura Oakley* Betty Schade...
  
   (1914)
• Virtue Is Its Own Reward
  Virtue Is Its Own Reward
  Virtue Is Its Own Reward is a 1914 silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and featuring Lon Chaney, Sr. The film is now considered to be lost.-Cast:* Pauline Bush - Annie Partlan* Gertrude Bambrick - Alice* Tom Forman - Seadley Swaine...
  
   (1914)
• The Alibi (1913)
• Baffled, But Not Beaten (1913)
• John, the Wagoner (1913)
• The Treachery of a Scar (1913)

Director

• Devil's wife (1926)
• Whispering Canyon (1926)
• The Midnight Flyer (1925)
• The People vs. Nancy Preston (1925)
• Off the Highway (1925)
• The Crimson Runner (1925)
• Flattery (1925)
• The Flaming Forties
  The Flaming Forties
  The Flaming Forties is an American Western silent film, the sixth of seven features which short-lived motion picture company Stellar Productions released in 1924–25 as Producers Distributing Corporation vehicles for Harry Carey. Carey was primarily known as a star of Westerns and only one of the...
  
   (1924)
• Roaring Rails
  Roaring Rails
  Roaring Rails is a 1924 action film featuring Harry Carey.-Cast:* Harry Carey - Big Bill Benson* Frankie Darro - Little Bill* Edith Roberts - Nora Burke* Wallace MacDonald - Malcolm Gregory* Frank Hagney - Red Burley...
  
   (1924)
• The Fighting American (1924)
• April Showers (1923)
• The Virginian
  The Virginian (1923 film)
  The Virginian is a 1923 silent film based upon the Owen Wister novel, with Kenneth Harlan as the Virginian and Russell Simpson as Trampas. The film was directed by Tom Forman and has been overshadowed by the 1929 movie with Gary Cooper and Walter Huston. There have been several versions of the...
  
   (1923)
• The Broken Wing (1923)
• Are You a Failure? (1923)
• The Girl Who Came Back (1923)
• Money! Money! Money! (1923)
• The Woman Conquers
  The Woman Conquers
  The Woman Conquers is a 1922 drama film directed by Tom Forman and featuring Boris Karloff.-Cast:* Katherine MacDonald - Ninon Le Compte* Bryant Washburn - Frederick Van Court, III* Mitchell Lewis - Lazar* June Elvidge - Flora O'Hare...
  
   (1922)
• Shadows (1922)
• White Shoulders (1922)
• If You Believe It, It's So (1922)
• A Prince There Was (1921)
• Cappy Ricks (1921)
• White and Unmarried (1921)
• The City of Silent Men (1921)
• The Easy Road (1921)
• The Sins of Rosanne (1920)
• The Ladder of Lies (1920)

Writer

• The Broken Wing (1923)
• The Round-Up (1920)
• The Trouble Buster (1917)
• Sins of Her Parent (1916)
• The Desert Breed
  The Desert Breed
  The Desert Breed is a 1915 silent Western film directed by Joe De Grasse and featuring Lon Chaney, Sr. The film is now considered to be lost.-Cast:* Pauline Bush - Jessie* Lon Chaney, Sr. - Fred* William C. Dowlan - Jack - Fred's partner...
  
   (1915)
• The Threads of Fate
  The Threads of Fate
  The Threads of Fate is a 1915 silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and featuring Lon Chaney, Sr. The film is now considered to be lost.-Cast:* Pauline Bush - The Wife* William C. Dowlan - The Lover* Lon Chaney, Sr. - The Count...
  
   (1915)
• The Measure of a Man
  The Measure of a Man (1915 film)
  The Measure of a Man is a 1915 silent drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and featuring Lon Chaney, Sr. The film is now considered to be lost.-Cast:* Pauline Bush - Helen MacDermott* William C. Dowlan - Bob Brandt* Lon Chaney, Sr. - Lt. Jim Stuart...
  
  (1915)

External links