John Bowers (actor)

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John Bowers

John Bowers (born John E. Bowersox ; born December 25, 1885 in Garrett , Indiana , † November 17, 1936 in Santa Monica , California ) was an American film and stage actor .

Life

John Bowers, the son of George and Ida Bowersox, grew up in DeKalb County, Indiana. Since his father was employed as an engineer for the railroad, he was often on the assembly line for months, so that young John had to help his mother out at an early age. As a young adult, Bowers moved to Huntington where he began studying business administration at a local college . It was here that he came into contact with amateur theater for the first time and quickly broke off his studies to join an acting company. With this he came to New York City in 1912 , where he got his first engagement on Broadway in August of the same year . Two more productions, which were performed until November 1916, followed.

Bowers also made his debut as a film actor in the 1914 silent film The Baited Trap . The western In the Days of the Thundering Herd - also produced in 1914 - cemented Bowers' reputation as a serious character actor, who impressed as an actor in dozens of other films over the next few years. He made eleven feature films in 1918 alone and 34 more between 1919 and 1923. There was soon a whole team of writers in Hollywood , including Rex Beach and Gertrude Atherton , who were writing scripts exclusively for John Bowers.

In 1923 he met actress Marguerite De La Motte while filming the drama Desire , whom he married a short time later. Both were also a couple in front of the camera and made twelve films together between 1923 and 1927.

Bowers career ended abruptly when Hollywood the sound film introduced. Of the total of 94 films in which Bowers appeared, only three films were produced with sound. In 1931 he was in the western Mounted Fury directed by Stuart Paton in the role of an alcoholic for the last time in front of the camera. The crash also followed privately when Marguerite De La Motte divorced Bowers in the early 1930s. The marriage had remained childless.

John Bowers (1921)

Bowers briefly moved back to Indiana and helped his mother through her final years. She died in 1936. Then Bowers moved to Santa Catalina Island (California), from where he tried in vain to establish contacts with film producers and to get film offers. It was probably a rejection of one of his friends, the director Henry Hathaway , that drove Bowers deeper into depression and self-abandonment.

On the morning of November 17, 1936, fishermen found a body of water washed up on the beach in Malibu . A sheriff identified the body as that of John Bowers. Later investigation revealed that Bowers had rented a boat two days earlier, which was also propelled later. Whether it was an accident or whether Bowers committed suicide by drowning , no one can say today, as there are no witnesses to the events. His professional crash and, in particular, his death by drowning provided the scriptwriters of A Star Is Born (1937) with a lot of inspiration.

Today a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame commemorates John Bowers.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1914: The Baited Trap (short film)
  • 1914: In the Days of the Thundering Herd
  • 1917: Betsy Ross
  • 1920: Godless Man
  • 1921: The Ace of Hearts
  • 1921: The Sky Pilot
  • 1922: Lorna Doone
  • 1924: You Boy (So ​​Big)
  • 1924: The White Sin
  • 1925: Confessions of a Queen
  • 1929: Say It with Songs
  • 1929: Skin Deep
  • 1931: Mounted Fury

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Bowers. Retrieved February 28, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Bowers, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bowersox, John E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film and stage actor
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Garrett , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1936
Place of death Santa Monica , California