Volume III: Biographies

TRUEX, Ernest *

Actor (1914)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Ernest Truex appeared in Dope, a film by Direct-From-Broadway Features, a Thanhouser "special production" released circa April 1, 1914. He was not a regular Thanhouser actor.

Biographical Notes: Ernest Truex was born in Red Hill, Missouri on September 19, 1889 (some accounts say 1890) and was educated in public schools in Kansas City and at the Whittier School in Denver. His career began when at the age of five he was the ghost in Hamlet, performed at the opera house in the town of his birth. His formal education for the stage was accomplished by the hand of an actor, Edwin Melvin, who performed his services in exchange for an medical bill for rheumatism care which was due young Ernest's father, Dr. J.L. Truex. After his father died, Ernest toured the Western United States in a troupe known as The Child Entertainers and was seen in such productions as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello. He then worked with several stock companies and was seen in juvenile roles in Quo Vadis? and Little Lord Fauntleroy, with Mary Shaw in Alice Sit-by-the-Fire, and with Ezra Kendall in Land Dollars.

In 1908 Ernest Truex made his New York City debut in Wildfire, with Lillian Russell, after which he was in vaudeville with Ned Russell, followed by a return to the legitimate stage, in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Dr. DeLuxe. Among his many other stage appearances over a long span of years were roles in The Dummy, George Washington Slept Here, Best Sellers, Lysistrata, The Third Little Show, Venus at Large, Whistling in the Dark, Very Good Eddie, and, his final appearance, in 1965, in the short-lived A Very Rich Woman.

On the Screen: It was said that Ernest Truex started his screen career in 1914, when Adolph Zukor hired him as a cashier in a penny arcade, where he was spotted and signed for a role in A Good Little Devil, with Mary Pickford. His motion picture work included acting with Famous Players (A Good Little Devil, An American Citizen, etc.), Vitagraph (Artie, the Millionaire Kid), and Pathé (The Bomb Boy). In 1914 he was seen in Dope, made as a Thanhouser "special production" at the New Rochelle studios and released under the Direct-From-Broadway Features label. The October 1916 edition of the Motion Picture News Studio Directory noted that he enjoyed riding and other outdoor sports, was 5'4" tall, weighed 120 pounds, had blonde hair and blue eyes, and was a member of the Screen Club in New York City. At the time his home was in Great Neck, Long Island, New York. Ernest Truex appeared in numerous other films through the 1960s for various studios. Later in his life he was a television actor. His wives included Julia Mills, Mary Jane Barrett, and Sylvia Field. Ernest Truex died of a heart attack at his home in Fallbrook, California on June 27, 1973. He was survived by his wife, Sylvia; three sons, James, Philip, and Barry; and a stepdaughter, Sally (Mrs. Michael Kellin).

Thanhouser Filmography:

1914: Dope (Direct-From-Broadway Features c. 4-1-1914)

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