John Tansey
John "Johnny" Foster Tansey (born October 8, 1901 in New York , New York ; died April 28, 1971 in Hollywood , California ) was an American actor of the silent film era . He starred in more than 20 films between 1908 and 1932, mostly as a child star for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company .
Career
John Tansey was born in New York City, the second son of the actor couple Harry Tansey and Emma Purcell Tansey , the father died on March 12, 1910 at home of pneumonia. John's older brother Robert Emmett Tansey was also an actor and from 1930 worked as a screenwriter , film director , producer and in various other functions with the production of a variety of B-Westerns , with two films John was his co-director. The younger brother James Sheridan Tansey also became an actor; throughout his life he was almost exclusively the actor in supporting roles in westerns, mostly under the direction of Robert.
Like his mother Emma, John Tansey was already on the stage at the age of two. From 1908 to 1910 he played on various stages on New York's Broadway . His first film role was in David Wark Griffith 's The Red Man and the Child , produced by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1908 . At that time, the names of the actors were not published by the film producers. This was also in the interests of actors with theater engagements, as they feared a drastic reduction in their reputation. The film producers, on the other hand, wanted their own names to be associated with the films, and not the names of their employees. The Biograph Company is one of the societies that held on to the anonymity of their actors for a particularly long time. Nevertheless, the actors were of course recognized by the audience, Florence Lawrence , Marion Leonard and Mary Pickford became the Biograph Girls one after the other , then there was the Kalem Girl , the Vitagraph Girl and others. The child stars were also identified with their employers. John Tansey became the Biograph Company's third child star after Gladys Egan and Adele DeGarde .
In 1910 Tansey left the biographer and made some films for other companies from 1915 to 1918, with his title role in the 1917 pirate film Barnabee Lee being outstanding. With the end of his childhood, Tansey's acting career came to an end, from 1924 to 1932 only a few small roles followed, mostly without a name. During the same period he worked, mostly with his brother Robert, as a screenwriter, director and producer on five films. The establishment of the Congress Pictures Corporation in Hollywood, with his brother Robert and other business partners, was unsuccessful in early 1932. In connection with the first production, Barbara Bedford and other actors were suing the company for unpaid wages.
Not much is known about John Tansey's later life. In 1930 he was married to his wife Faith, from the marriage the son Dave Tansey emerged. Dave Tansey later became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley . Tansey joined the United States Army on October 7, 1942 , at which time his marriage was divorced. Tansey worked as a technician in a Technicolor laboratory .
Filmography (selection)
- 1908: The Red Man and the Child
- 1908: And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
- 1909: A Trap for Santa Claus
- 1915: Black Fear
- 1916: Broken Chains
- 1917: Barnaby Lee
- 1924: Wild and Wooly (director, screenwriter)
- 1927: Mine Your Business! (Screenwriter)
- 1930: Romance of the West (director, screenwriter, with brother Robert Emmett Tansey)
- 1930: Riders of the Rio (producer, with brother Robert Emmett Tansey)
Theater roles (Broadway)
- The Traveling Salesman by James Forbes ( Liberty Theater , Broadway , August 1908; Gaiety Theater , Broadway, September 1908 to April 1909, 280 performances)
- This Woman and This Man by Avery Hopwood ( Maxine Elliott's Theater , Broadway, February to March 1909, 24 performances)
- Strife by John Galsworthy ( New Theater , Broadway, from November 1909 for an indefinite period)
- Liz the Mother by Frederick Fenn and Richard Pryce (New Theater, Broadway, January 1910)
- Sister Beatrice ( Sister Beatrix ) by Maurice Maeterlinck (New Theater, Broadway, from March 1910 for an indefinite period)
- The Winter's Tale ( The Winter's Tale ) by William Shakespeare (New Theater, Broadway, from March 1910 for an indefinite period)
- The Merry Wives of Windsor ( The Merry Wives of Windsor ) by William Shakespeare (New Theater, Broadway, from November 1910 for an indefinite period)
- The Piper by Josephine Preston Peabody , an adaptation of the saga of the Pied Piper in four acts (New Theater, Broadway, from January 1911 for an indefinite period)
Web links
- John Tansey in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Chuck Anderson: Bob, Sherry, John and Emma ... The Tansey Family in Hollywood . The Old Corral website , accessed January 23, 2019.
- ^ John Tansey in the Internet Movie Database , accessed January 23, 2019.
- ↑ John Tansey in the All Movie Guide , accessed January 23, 2019.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tansey, John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tansey, John Foster (full name); Tansey, Johnny (child star name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American actor of the silent film era |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 8, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 28, 1971 |
| Place of death | Hollywood , California |