Anthony O'Sullivan
Anthony "Tony" O'Sullivan (born in Ireland in 1855 ; died on July 5, 1920 in New York , New York ) was an American actor and film director during the silent film era . He starred in more than 170 films between 1906 and 1918 and directed more than 50 films from 1912 to 1915.
Career
Anthony O'Sullivan came to film as a star in The Black Hand in 1906 after having worked as a stage actor for many years. In the following years, O'Sullivan occasionally starred in other films by Wallace McCutcheon sr. for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company . From 1908 he was used frequently and until 1911 most of his films were made, after his entry into the Biograph Company mostly under the direction of David Wark Griffith . For Griffith he also played Charlie Lee in That Chink at Golden Gulch , a melodrama set in a fictional California gold rush town . Griffith developed the racist stereotype of the Chinese immigrant in comical supporting roles, the origin of which was the distorted portrayal of Chinese immigrants and unskilled workers in railway construction and the gold rush of the 19th century, into a very positively portrayed leading role. Anthony O'Sullivan largely but not completely dispensed with the comic and caricaturing elements known from vaudeville and film comedies when depicting Chinese.
In late 1910, Anthony O'Sullivan, like many of his colleagues, left the Biograph Company and went to the Reliance Film Company . He developed the role of Bedelia , an Irish cook, whom he portrayed in a number of comedies. At the end of 1912 he temporarily returned to the biographer without ever reaching the large number of his films from 1909 and 1910 again. He played his last film roles in 1917 and 1918 for the Mack Sennett Comedies .
From the summer of 1912, O'Sullivan directed several short films for the Reliance Company. From 1913 he worked as a director for the Biograph Company, where The Wrong Bottle was his first directorial work. In later years he was the studio manager of the Mack Sennett Comedies in Hollywood until his state of health prevented work. Anthony O'Sullivan died on July 5, 1920 in his home in the Bronx . He left behind his wife, Ida Cavannah O'Sullivan.
Filmography (selection)
- 1906: The Black Hand
- 1907: Yale Laundry
- 1908: At the Crossroads of Life
- 1908: The Black Viper
- 1909: The Wheat King ( A Corner in Wheat )
- 1909: The Gibson Goddess
- 1909: Lines of White on a Sullen Sea
- 1909: Lucky Jim
- 1909: Leather Stocking
- 1909: The Lonely Villa
- 1909: Nursing a Viper
- 1909: A Trap for Santa Claus
- 1910: As It Is in Life
- 1910: In Old California
- 1910: Ramona
- 1910: That Chink at Golden Gulch
- 1910: The Englishman and the Girl
- 1913: The Law and His Son (Director)
- 1913: The Wrong Bottle (Director)
- 1915: As it Happened (Director)
- 1917: The Pullman Bride
- 1917: Are Waitresses Safe?
- 1917: The Kitchen Lady
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Mayer: Stagestruck filmmaker. DW Griffith and the American theater . University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 2009, ISBN 978-1-58729-790-8 , pp. 107-109.
- ↑ a b c Anthony O'Sullivan in the Internet Movie Database (English) , accessed on January 25 of 2019.
- ↑ a b Author unknown: Tony O'Sullivan Dies . In: The Moving Picture World , July 24, 1920, Volume 45, No. 4, p. 472, digitized .
- ^ Author unknown: O'Sullivan Again Producing "Bedelia" . In: The Moving Picture World , October 12, 1912, Volume 14, No. 2, p. 154, digitized .
- ↑ a b Unknown author: Tony O'Sullivan Returns to Biograph " . In: The Moving Picture World , November 16, 1912, Volume 14, No. 7, p. 653, digitized .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | O'Sullivan, Anthony |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | O'Sullivan, Tony (informal name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American actor of the silent film era |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1855 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ireland |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th July 1920 |
| Place of death | New York , New York |