King Baggot
1879 - 1948William King Baggot (November 7, 1879 – July 11, 1948) was an American actor, film director and screenwriter. He was an internationally famous movie star of the silent film era. The first individually publicized leading man in America, Baggot was referred to as "King of the Movies", "The Most Photographed Man in the World", and "The Man Whose Face Is As Familiar As The Man In The Moon".
Baggot appeared in over 300 motion pictures from 1909 to 1947, wrote 18 screenplays, and directed 45 movies from 1912 to 1928, including The Lie (1912), Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (1925), and The House of Scandal (1928). He also directed William S. Hart in his most famous western, Tumbleweeds (1925).
Among his film appearances, Baggot was best known for The Scarlet Letter (1911), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913), and Ivanhoe (1913).
Baggot began his career on the stage, in a Shakespearean stock company, and toured throughout the U.S.
While acting in stock in St. Louis in 1909, he was cast as supporting player in the Schubert touring production of The Wishing Ring. When The Wishing Ring closed in Chicago, Baggot returned to New York to join another company. Upon a chance meeting with Harry Solter, who was directing movies for Carl Laemmle at Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), he was persuaded to go with Solter to the studio. Baggot became interested in the fledgling industry and decided to turn picture player.
His first film was the romance short The Awakening of Bess (1909) opposite Florence Lawrence. It was directed by Harry Solter, her husband, at IMP in Fort Lee, New Jersey. At a time when screen actors worked anonymously, Baggot and Lawrence became the first "movie stars" to be given billing, a marquee, and promotion in advertising.
Baggot starred in at least 42 movies opposite Lawrence from 1909 to 1911. In the latter year, he starred in at least 16 movies with Mary Pickford.
He also began writing screenplays and directing, all the while becoming a major star internationally. When he appeared "in person" at theatres he was mobbed at stage doors.
By 1912, he was so famous that when he took the leading part in forming the prestigious Screen Club in New York, the first organization of its kind strictly for movie people, he was the natural choice for its first president.
King Baggot died in Los Angeles, California in 1948, age 68.
For his contributions to the film industry, Baggot received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. His star is located at 6312 Hollywood Boulevard.
For the Queen's Honor
Thomas H. Ince
Mary Pickford, King Baggot
A lost film. The king is good-natured and doesn't suspect that the queen is plainly beginning to think too much of one of the courtiers. The queen's sister is aware of the situation and saves the queen by taking her place. This deceives the king, but he requires that the villain and the queen's sister be married which complicates the situation as the sister is in love with another courtier entirely.
For the Queen's Honor
The Whispered Name
King Baggot
Ruth Clifford, Charles Clary
Anne Gray (Ruth Clifford) runs off with Robert Gordon (William E. Lawrence), believing that he is going to marry her. When they arrive at a hotel, another guest, Langdon Van Kreel (Charles Clary), sees though Gordon's ploy and chases him away.
The Whispered Name
The Man from Nowhere
Henry Otto
King Baggot, Irene Hunt
Although Dorenzo murders Betty Herron, a jury convicts her brother James, and sentences him to life imprisonment. Then, after James saves the governor's life during a prison revolt, he is made a trustee and falls in love with the governor's daughter Ruth, even though he has yet to meet her.
The Man from Nowhere
The Love Letter
King Baggot
Gladys Walton, Fontaine La Rue
While working in an overall factory Mary Ann McKee sends mash notes in the overalls prepared for shipment. She is involved in a robbery perpetrated by her boyfriend, Red Mike, but escapes and goes to the town from which she has received an answer to one of her notes.
The Love Letter
The Awakening of Bess
Harry Solter
Florence Lawrence, King Baggot
The Awakening of Bess is a silent short film of 1909 directed by Harry Solter . The protagonists of the film are Florence Lawrence (wife of the director) and King Baggot , a well-known theatrical actor, here in his cinematographic debut.
The Awakening of Bess
Second Sight
Joseph W. Smiley, Thomas H. Ince
King Baggot, Mary Pickford
A lost film. Gertrude Edgar is loved by Tom Moreland and Owen Jackson, and Gertrude, being a woman, is inclined to a mild flirtation with Jackson, while loving Moreland devotedly. Very soon Moreland is invited to join a party to discover the headwaters of the Amazon River. After reading reports of Tom's supposed death Gertrude promises Owen that she will marry him he if he can find and bring back Tom safely to her.
Second Sight
In the Sultan's Garden
William H. Clifford, Thomas H. Ince
King Baggot, Mary Pickford
Lieutenant Robbins, a young naval officer, sees Haydee the favored inmate of the sultan's harem and is smitten by her charms. She is also interested in the handsome young American. She manages to write him a note that is delivered to him on the deck of his warship lying at anchor in a harbor and implores him to effect her rescue,
In the Sultan's Garden
The Rose's Story
Joseph W. Smiley, George Loane Tucker
King Baggot, Lucille Young
A lost film. Gerald Kinney is a man with plenty of money and wild excesses. one day he leaves his club and motors out into the country. In a pretty wooded dell he meets pretty Myrtle Edgar, a simple country maiden. She is a revelation to him, unlike any woman he has ever seen. Endeavoring to take liberties with her, he is repulsed, kindly but firmly. This is a new experience for him, seeing in her only the pure and holy. Roses grow in profusion in the pretty spot and she plucks one and fastens it on his lapel. The rose acts as a talisman. Whenever he is tempted to do wrong, he regards the flower. His friends rail at him and wish to learn his secret, but he guards it jealously.
The Rose's Story
The Mirror
Thomas H. Ince
King Baggot, Mary Pickford
A love story filled with amusing complications, but the contest is won by Dick because he believes that all is fair in love and manages to circumvent the fates which often decree otherwise. The fortune teller prescribed the mirror test for the girl saw to it that the test was in his favor.
The Mirror
Science
Mary Pickford, King Baggot
A lost film. Dr. Crawford and his wife with their little daughter, Elsie, are at home amusing themselves with the Scotch collie puppy, Imp, when another doctor is announced and he is shown an article in a newspaper which describes the providential rescue from drowning of the doctor's child by Lassie, the mother of Imp. Two more physician's arrive and announce that they have come to try an experiment with a newly discovered anesthetic. Dr. Crawford has a guinea pig, on which the experiment is to be tried, but it is discovered the animal has died, and the men of medicine are in a quandary. It is finally decided to use Imp, the puppy, for the experiment, despite the mild protest of Elsie.
Science
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Baby Peggy, Heather Linville
Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
The Temptress
Joseph W. Smiley
King Baggot, Mary Pickford
Gilbert Irving and Bertie Erroll have been inseparable companions since boyhood. At a house party Mrs. Allen announces the engagement of her daughter, Lucille, to Gilbert and the pair are congratulated. At the reception Madam Eloise and her companion, a count, are introduced. Gilbert is at once infatuated by her charms, and neglects Lucille.
The Temptress
