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William Russell

William Russell

Acting

Biography

From Wikipedia William Russell (April 12, 1884 – February 18, 1929), born William Francis Lerche, was an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He appeared in over two hundred silent era motion pictures between 1910 and 1929, directing five of them in 1916 and producing two through his own production company in 1918 and 1925. Russell began his screen career in New York with the Biograph Company, where he worked for nine months before signing with the Thanhouser Company. He was also part of the company of players for the American Film Manufacturing Company and their Flying "A" Studios in Santa Barbara. In 1917, he and actress Charlotte Burton were married. They divorced in 1921. He and actress Helen Ferguson were married on June 21, 1925, at the Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church, after a six-year romance. William Russell died at age 44 from pneumonia at Hollywood Hospital in Los Angeles.

Known For

Spearhead
7.5

Spearhead is a British television drama produced by Southern Television for the ITV network. With a total of three series and 19 episodes from 1978 to 1981, the series follows the daily lives of a group of soldiers in 'B' Company, 1st Battalion Royal Wessex Rangers, a fictional British Army infantry regiment, during The Troubles.

Spearhead

1978
Tannhäuser
5.0

Dramatic three-reel film based on Wagner's opera of chivalry and spiritual struggle. Wandering minstrel Tannhauser wins the heart of Elizabeth, niece of the powerful Landgrave. Later, under the spell of Venus and her nymphs, Tannhauser passes into Venusberg, a netherworld of earthly pleasures. Returning to the Landgrave's court, he praises Venus in song and sparks the righteous anger of all present. His own prayers and those of Elizabeth free him from enchantment and he takes up the habit of a monk, devoting himself to God. He sets off to seek absolution in Rome while Elizabeth waits at court, ever weakening in his absence.

Tannhäuser

1913
Big Pal
8.0

A judge's daughter spurns his wealthy lifestyle and goes to do social work in poorer neighborhoods. There she meets a boxer contending for a championship.

Big Pal

1925
David Copperfield
8.0

Thanhouser Company three-reel silent film based on Charles Dickens’s story of an English lad's tribulation-filled journey to adulthood, Thanhouser released the three films over the course of three weeks beginning on October 17, 1911, one 1,000 foot reel per week.

David Copperfield

1911
Anna Christie
6.3

A troubled young woman comes to live with her estranged father on the New York waterfront. A tough sailor falls in love with her, sparking conflict between her father and her suitor. What neither knows is that she has a secret that could cause her to lose both of them.

Anna Christie

1923
The Crusader
10.0

Veteran action hero William Russell starred opposite his offscreen wife Helen Ferguson in this typical Fox oater about a miner who finds himself up against a master swindler (George Webb).

The Crusader

1922
Six Feet Four
6.3

A cowboy matches the description of the man who robbed the local hotel--both are 6'4". When a young woman is robbed, suspicion falls on the cowboy again. However, he discovers that the actual culprits are a local gang headed by the sheriff. He sets out to capture the robbers and clear his name.

Six Feet Four

1919
Dora Thorne
N/A

Ronald, heir to Lord Earle in Earlescourt, England, secretly loves Dora Thorne, a desirable but working-class woman. When Lord Earle hears of the relationship, he brings Valentine Charteris to the estate to distract his lovesick son. True to his love, however, Ronald refuses Valentine and marries Dora. After emigrating to Italy, Ronald earns a modest living as a painter, and Dora gives birth to twins. When Ronald receives a generous commission to paint a portrait, he asks Dora to pose for him, but overly preoccupied with the children, she refuses. Wounded by the rejection, Ronald calls on Valentine Charteris and quickly becomes infatuated with her, forcing Dora to return to Earlescourt with the twins.

Dora Thorne

1915
Mixed Faces
8.0

Judge Granger, a candidate for mayor, attempts to persuade Mary Allen Sayre to marry him. She meets his double, a young traveling salesman named Jimmy Gallop, mistaking him for the judge. Granger’s opponents bribe Jimmy to impersonate the judge in public while they kidnap the magistrate almost wrecking his chances of election and nearly getting Gallop murdered. Jimmy saves himself, helps in the judge's campaign, and finds that Mary is in love with him. The judge realizes he is in love with his devoted secretary.

Mixed Faces

1922
The Cheater Reformed
7.0

Thomas Edinburgh is secretly in love with Carol, wife of the Reverend Luther McCall, and produces evidence that her husband was once an embezzler. Leaving for Cleveland, the minister meets his twin brother, Jordan, the real embezzler, who is evading the law. Luther is killed in a train wreck, and Jordan, assumes his brother's identity....

The Cheater Reformed

1921
The Midnight Taxi
6.5

The Midnight Taxi is a 1928 early part-talkie thriller picture from Warner Bros. directed by John G. Adolfi and starring Antonio Moreno, Helen Costello, and Myrna Loy. It is unknown whether a sound copy survives, but a silent copy with no talking is in the care of the British Film Institute. The silent print runs just under 50 minutes. According to the Library of Congress, the film survives in British Film Institute's National Film and Television Archive.

The Midnight Taxi

1928
The Marble Heart
6.5

Outside the door of the home of a sculptor and his mother, fell a poor, friendless young girl. They took the girl in and cared for her, and as time went on the mother began to regard her as her daughter. The son regarded the affectionate advances of the girl with only brotherly love. But there came a time when the misgivings of the son changed, for he began to pay scant attentions to a young beauty he met at a reception and who was characterized as a woman with a heart "cold as marble." This piqued the beauty, who was accustomed to abject adulation. She determined to bring him to her feet and in this she succeeded. She offered to pose for him, and, spurred on by such a splendid model and her praises, he produced a figure which was acclaimed by all the critics as a masterpiece.

The Marble Heart

1913
Woman Wise
8.0

In Jedda, Persia, American consul George Gage, known as a woman hater, is shocked when his newly arrived assistant, "Billie Baxter," whom he assumes will be a man, turns out to be an attractive woman. Despite his formerly anti-female leanings, George finds himself falling in love with Billie and is jealous when his womanizing friend, Brad Wilson, arrives in Jedda and makes a play for her. At the same time, when the ruling Pasha, Abdul Mustapha, meets Billie, he also becomes smitten and tries to have her brought to his harem. Despite their rivalry, George and Brad join forces and save Billie from the Pasha, after which she decides that George is the man she loves and wants to marry. Considered a lost film.

Woman Wise

1928
The Blue Eagle
5.4

Waterfront rivals George Darcy and Big Tim Ryan are both in love with Rose Kelly, and continue their feud when they join the Navy. After the war, they call a temporary truce to take on dope peddlers who are destroying their neighborhood.

The Blue Eagle

1926
The Desired Woman
10.0

The beautiful and cultured Lady Diana Whitney marries Captain Maxwell of the British Army. When he is transferred to the Sahara, life at his remote post becomes one trial after another for Diana. Then Larry Trent, a young lieutenant, arrives to provide a pleasant reminder of days past, but Maxwell, in a jealous rage over their innocent companionship, sends Trent to a distant village.

The Desired Woman

1927
Robin Hood
6.0

Robin Hood and his followers aid the poor and oppressed from their hideout in Sherwood Forest, pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Robin Hood

1913
On Thin Ice
7.0

A crook and his gang plan to con a young woman out of a cache of stolen loot they, and the police, believe she's hiding. The situation changes, however, when he falls in love with her and he sets out to save her from being imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit.

On Thin Ice

1925
Times Have Changed
9.0

Mark O'Rell is sent to New York by his wife's Aunt Cordelia to recover a valuable quilt. In the city he finds the quilt, discovers that it conceals stolen jewels, and in consequence is pursued by both police and thieves. Police catch the thieves, Mark gets the quilt, and he returns home safely.

Times Have Changed

1923
State Street Sadie
8.0

Unassuming clerk Tom Blake is framed for the murder of a policeman in the midst of a violent bank robbery. Considered a lost film.

State Street Sadie

1928
The Girl from Chicago
7.0

Mary Carlton, who lives with her invalid father on a cotton plantation, receives a letter from Bob, her brother, in New York, stating that he faces death in the electric chair for a crime of which he claims to be innocent. Determined to save him, she goes there, learns of his association with an underworld gang, and begins to suspect Handsome Joe of a connection with the crime.

The Girl from Chicago

1927