GEORGE WALSH

George Walsh was an actor in movies from the 1910s to the 1930s. He was born in 1889 and broke into movies at the age of 16, and quickly became a top star, both because of his good looks and his acting talents (he was similar to Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in the type of movies he made). His older brother was director Raoul Walsh, who had started as an actor and director in 1913, and no doubt his brother helped him break into the movies, but he earned his success on his own. In 1916, he married actress Seena Owen. In 1921, he was one of William Fox's top stars, but he chose to not sign a new contract, because Pearl White was being paid over twice what he was paid, and his movies were more profitable than hers. But this proved to be a serious error, because he made far fewer movies, and not so many great ones. In 1924, he was divorced from Owen, and he got a huge break when he was cast to play the lead in the silent version of Ben-Hur. But the movie was filmed in Italy, and after a massive accident during the sea sequence, where lots of men were killed, filming was halted, and it was decided to film it in the U.S. instead, and Walsh was replaced by Ramon Novarro. Walsh's career never recovered, and in 1936, he quit acting altogether, managing his brother's race horse business, passing away in 1981 at the age of 92. Most people today have never heard of him, and part of that is because all of his best William Fox films were destroyed in the studio fire that also destroyed most of Theda Bara's films. That is a real shame, because in his day, he was one of the most popular leading men, alongside Fairbanks and Wallace Reid.