
Melbourne MacDowell
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia He was born Willet Melbourne MacDowell in Little Washington, New Jersey (now South River, New Jersey). MacDowell began appearing in silent films in 1917 by which time he was long a stage veteran. His co-stars were such actors as William S. Hart, Lon Chaney, Charles Ray, Enid Bennett and numerous others. Though he lived until the early 1940s, his film career ended in 1928 with the end of silent films. He returned for one sound film short in 1932, A Fool About Women with Andy Clyde and Vernon Dent. Several films that Melbourne MacDowell appeared in survive today and can be found on DVD, particularly two of his outing with Lon Chaney, Nomads of the North and Outside the Law.
Known For

When wealthy Wall Street stockbroker Stephen Duane neglects his wife Julia for business, she consorts with philanderer Bert Brockwell. Finding them in an embrace forced by Brockwell, Stephen denounces Julia and leaves. After losing his fortune in the market, Stephen refuses Julia's offer to sell her jewels, and stays away for one year
Modern Husbands

A raft carrying a little girl and a dead woman drifts in from a shipwreck to Devil's Island. There, a band of thieves and smugglers name the girl Rose Marie, though she grows up as "nobody's girl."
Miss Nobody

The City is a lost 1926 silent film produced and released by the Fox Film Corporation. It was directed by Roy William Neill and is based on Clyde Fitch's 1909 Broadway play. A previous film on Fitch's play appeared in 1916. This version has been updated to contemporary 1926
The City

On the night before his wedding, a young man plays poker with friends. When the game is raided by the police, he escapes into a Turkish bath on ladies night, ending up disguised in drag and with difficult explanations to make.
What Happened to Jones?

Silent Madden and his daughter Molly have left the criminal underworld of San Francisco thanks to the wise teachings of Chang Low, a Confucian master. But the evil Black Mike Sylva is determined to frame Madden to avenge a mistake from the past…
Outside the Law

Lola Daintry (MacDonald) is an actress who's mad at the world, and especially ministers, one of whom -- her father -- was so cruel that he drove her mother out of the house. When Bully Haynes (Melbourne MacDonald) wants her help in showing up a group of South Seas missionaries, she's more than happy to assist. But Lola doesn't realize she's being used so that Haynes can gain control over the copra trade from his rival, Cyrus Flint (Robert Ellis).
The Infidel

Nancy, a naive young girl who works backstage at a musical-comedy theatre, learns from the chorus girls the notion of winning a man by the seductive method of "vamping" him. She tries the method on the shy minister she loves, and it works.
The Vamp

Sgt. Philip Raine of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police is sent to the mountains to capture killer Bram Johnson.
The Golden Snare

Bill Sanford (William Fairbanks), a daredevil race-car driver, is abducted by his main competitor Alan Lawson (Lloyd Whitlock) and his henchmen, on the eve of a race he hopes will win him $5,000. But he escapes his captors and arrives ate the race track just in time to drive his speedster to victory. With the prize money, he saves the father, Charles Hampton (Charles K. French) of his sweetheart Betty Hampton (Edith Roberts) from losing the family.
Speed Mad
Richard Kingsley, son of a financier, trying to aid Marjorie Crenshaw and her sister during a raid on a New York roadhouse, is arrested. His father, enraged by the bad publicity, threatens to disinherit him if he doesn't go to Colorado in search of a mine....
Fighting Courage

The story of a racetrack tout whose prayers could bring a dry or muddy racetrack, and how he learned to capitalize on those powers. Until the day he lost the power and bet the wrong way.
The Rainmaker

A rich but hypochondriac heiress inherits a sanitarium. What she doesn't know is that it is a front for bootleggers, and a hideout for criminals on the run from the law.
Feel My Pulse

While James Fordham is away prospecting in Alaska, his wife runs off with Truman Breese. She manages to make her way back to her husband, but dies shortly thereafter.
Beyond the Crossroads
"Hero is son of owner of taxicab company. Learning of injustice toward independents, he becomes independent driver. Heroine inherits half interest in company, and desiring to learn truth, goes to work as telephone operator in independent garage. Together they force a consolidation with the independents, and find happiness in their love."
Geared to Go

When stern Judge McClure gets into an argument with his younger brother John, a physical fight ensues in which the judge apparently kills John. In fear of the consequences, he runs off to the West and hires guide Cal Nelson to take him far into the desert. Along the way they meet Mary Jackson, and the judge, overcome by heat prostration, babbles out his secret.
Bond of Fear

Civil engineer Robert Clay is commissioned by wealthy New Yorker Mr. Langham to open iron deposits in the tiny South American republic of Olancho. General Mendoza, the unscrupulous head of the army, unsuccessfully tries to persuade President Alvarez, and then Clay, to divide the spoils of the contract.
Soldiers of Fortune

During World War I a young man joins the army and winds up befriending another young recruit, not knowing that it's the same pickpocket who stole his watch. After finishing basic training, the two are sent to the front lines in France, where they wind up in trouble with the MPs, getting involved with some cute French girls and "volunteering" for a dangerous front-line mission, and their antics result in their endangering the armistice.
Behind the Front

Lizbeth Palmer is known as "The March Hare" among her friends, and the daughter of a Los Angeles millionaire, comes to New York with a chaperon to visit her aunt. After betting the chaperon that she can live on 75c for an entire week, she assumes the part of a flower girl in a restaurant and there makes a hit with young millionaire Tod Rollins, who invites her to his home.
The March Hare

An American munitions manufacturer and his son become ensnarled with enemy agents from Germany during the First World War.
The Claws of the Hun

A Canadian Mountie allows an innocent fugitive to escape with the women he loves.