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Harry Benham

Harry Benham

Acting

Biography

From Wikipedia Harry Benham (February 26, 1884 – July 17, 1969) was an American silent film actor. Born in Valparaiso, Indiana, as a child Benham and his family moved to Chicago, where he was raised and attended school. Benham had a talent for singing and sang in his local church choir. In 1904, the production Peggy From Paris came to Chicago and, at age 20, Benham became a member of the chorus while earning a living in the wholesale paper business. Benham was soon selected to play the leading role in the production and remained in that role throughout the production's three-year run. He was subsequently able to garner more roles in other plays, such as The Sultan of Sulu, Woodland, Marrying Mary, The Gay Musician, H.M.S. Pinafore, Florodora, The Mayoress, and Madame Sherry. In 1910 Benham joined the Thanhouser Company in New Rochelle, New York, for whom he played the leading role in many of the company's films through 1915. He married actress Ethyle Cooke, and together they had two children, Dorothy and Leland, who also became prominent Thanhouser personalities. Benham died on July 17, 1969 in Sarasota, Florida, aged 85.

Known For

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
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
Polly with a Past
6.0

Polly Shannon takes a job as a maid to earn money to go to Paris and study opera. She becomes embroiled in a scheme by her two employers to help their friend in the love of a woman who does not fancy him: She will pretend to be interested in their friend instead. The film has been lost.

Polly with a Past

1920
Nicholas Nickleby
6.2

With The Old Curiosity Shop and David Copperfield, both released in 1911, and Nicholas Nickleby in 1912, Thanhouser established itself as producer of the best Dickens adaptations in American film.

Nicholas Nickleby

1912
Cinderella
6.4

Elaborately produced version of the well known George O. Nichols fairy tale interrupted by just a few summarizing intertitles, with Florence LaBadie and Harry Benham.

Cinderella

1911
When You and I Were Young
9.0

Farm girl Dorothy, clashes with her traditional father over her ambition to become a writer and eventually leaves to pursue her dreams after meeting an artist.

When You and I Were Young

1917
A Romance of the U.S.N.
8.0

A foolish quarrel with his sweetheart and a desire for adventure caused a young man to enlist in the United States Navy. Soon after his departure his fiancée learned that she had treated him unjustly, but was unable to get any trace of him.

A Romance of the U.S.N.

1912
The Old Curiosity Shop
8.0

A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.

The Old Curiosity Shop

1911
The Forest Rose
N/A

Forester and Maywood, two wealthy neighbor planters, volunteered their services to defend their country when the war of the Revolution broke out. Forester was made colonel of his regiment, while Maywood became a captain. The men mortgaged their plantations and gave the benefits to the government, which was hard pressed for funds. Colonel Forester was mortally wounded at the battle of Cowpens, but before he passed away, Captain Maywood promised that he would care for Forester's motherless little girl.

The Forest Rose

1912
Zudora
N/A

Zudora, not knowing she's an heiress to a $20 million fortune, lives with her uncle, a mystic and detective, who covets her inheritance. She wants to marry John Storm but her uncle is against it. However, the uncle makes a bargain; if Zudora can solve the next twenty mysteries brought to him, she can marry as she chooses. Episodes 1,2 and 8, plus another unidentified chapter, survive. The rest is believed to be lost.

Zudora

1914
Pamela Congreve
8.0

The story of country girl Pamela Congreve who driven by revenge rises through London society to seek justice against the villain who caused her father's death.

Pamela Congreve

1914
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9.0

No description available.

His Two Patients

1915
Cecilia of the Pink Roses
N/A

Cecilia is a spunky Irish girl from a struggling family, faced with the imminent death of her mother.

Cecilia of the Pink Roses

1918
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
5.9

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

1912
The Prey
7.0

Having misused funds held in his trust by investing them with his friend, Henry Lowe, Robert Reardon appeals to his future son-in-law, James Calvin, a candidate for the position of district attorney, for help. When Calvin threatens to indict Lowe for fraud if he is elected, Reardon's anger becomes so great that the engagement between Calvin and Reardon's daughter Helen is broken, resulting in Reardon's suicide. After Lowe comes into possession of a check forged by Helen's brother Jack, he uses the document to force a marriage with Helen. Treated brutally by her husband, Helen seeks Calvin's aid, but Lowe frames Calvin, now the district attorney, in a compromising situation with his ex-fiancée. Calvin is about to resign when Helen traps her husband with some marked money, causing his suicide through disgrace. Thus freed, Helen and Calvin find happiness together.

The Prey

1920
No image
N/A

Comte Paul De Valreas is attracted to Frou Frou, the frivolous wife of Henri De Sartorys and the indifferent mother of their young son Georges. Paul persuades Frou Frou to bring her somber sister Louise, who secretly loves Henri, into the household, thus freeing her from any domestic duties.

Frou Frou

1914
No image
N/A

Sisters Phyllis and Alithea are kept in the countryside until they reach the age of eighteen when their guardian, the Squire, takes them to London. Planning to marry them off to rich older men for mercenary reason he is thwarted when the girls both fall in love with more suitable men. When the Squire works to split the couples, the girls resort to subterfuge to gain their happiness.

The Country Girl

1915
The Dancer's Peril
N/A

The Grand Duke Alexis has been happy with his wife, Lola, formerly the queen of the St. Petersburg ballet, and their baby daughter, Vasta. But the lowering cloud that has always hung over them through the refusal of the Russian Court to recognize their marriage breaks when the Duke learns there is an intrigue against his wife's life.

The Dancer's Peril

1917
Hush Money
9.0

The only daughter of wealthy Wall Street banker, Evelyn Murray, while with her aristocratic fiancé, Bert Van Vliet, runs down and injures newsboy Terry McGuire. To avoid an embarrassing outcome, Bert persuades her to flee the scene of the accident. Evelyn is conscience-stricken and informs her father; he is then forced to pay "hush money" to a garage attendant who has witnessed the accident.

Hush Money

1921
Star of Bethlehem
5.0

Following a bright wandering star, three magi from the East travel to Bethlehem of Judea to meet a very special newborn baby. Meanwhile, King Herod, driven by a hideous prophecy, orders him to be found and murdered.

Star of Bethlehem

1912