Volume III: Biographies

ACKER, Norman J. * .

Actor (1916)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Norman Acker was employed at the Jacksonville studio in early 1916.

Biographical Notes: Norman Acker was born and educated in New York City. In his stage career he was in stock companies in the South, playing in The Little Millionaire, The Man on the Box, Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway, and other productions. He was a brother of stage actor Bert Leigh and in 1915 was before the footlights with his brother's stock company. At one time he was with the Hazel Burgess Players in Jacksonville.

His screen career included appearances in productions of Eagle, Regal, Thanhouser, Kalem (Grant, Police Reporter), Gaumont (The Dead Alive, February 1916), and Fairmount Film (Hate, June 1917). He was with Thanhouser's Jacksonville, Florida studio during the early months of 1916. For Thanhouser he played minor roles which for the most part were not credited in publicity. On March 21, 1916 he was one of three passengers in a car driven by Thanhouser actor Sully Guard. The vehicle hit a telephone pole, and Guard was killed. Acker and the two other passengers, who were not affiliated with Thanhouser, Harry A. Tipton and J.W. McKenzie, were severely injured.

Directories in 1917 and 1918 noted that Norman Acker was 5'11" tall, weighed 175 pounds, was dark complexioned, and had gray hair and blue eyes. At this time his home address was at 39 West Adams Street, Jacksonville, Florida, and he worked for the Garrick Studios in South Jacksonville.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1916: Paul's Political Pull (Falstaff 3-28-1916)

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