Vintage

Richard Barthelmess: A Life in Pictures

Richard's struggle to survive against all odds took place in real life as well as on motion picture screens. No one will ever forget how he rescued Lillian Gish from certain death on an ice floe as it was about to plummet over a waterfall in Way Down East, a stunt that went terribly wrong and nearly cost both actors their lives when it was captured on film, but his effort to fight back and live on became more than the stuff of Hollywood legend. Richard went on to be nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor for The Noose and won an Oscar for one of the last silent films, The Patent Leather Kid. His signature roles are in many of D. W. Griffith's silent films including Way Down East and Broken Blossoms, but few people are aware that he nearly fell victim to the chaos of Hollywood's transition from silent to talking pictures when he used a voice double to sing for him in Weary River. Despite the minor setback, his later work in The Dawn Patrol, Cabin in the Cotton, and Only Angel's Have Wings secured his position in talking films, and they have proven to be popular favorites to this day. For the first time, the story is fully told how Alla Nazimova, a famous Russian star, plucked him from obscurity to play in her first film, and how his worldwide fame was nearly snuffed out when he followed America's call to arms and gave up his movie career to fight Nazi aggression in World War Two. By the time the honored veteran returned, his career had taken a nearly tragic turn, but his determination to succeed against all odds regained his status as one of Warner Bros. top stars and proved that his appeal was enduring. Richard appeared in more than 80 films, and this book reveals them witha richly researched biography, an extensive Filmography, and hundreds of rare portraits, posters, and lobby cards that capture the glamour of Hollywood's Golden Era. Click to order!