King Baggot (actor)

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King Baggot (1916)

William King Baggot (born November 7, 1879 in St. Louis , Missouri , † July 11, 1948 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor , director and screenwriter .

life and career

King Baggot was the son of a real estate agent who immigrated from Ireland. After being considered a talented soccer and baseball player in high school, he began his professional life as an office worker in his uncle's firm in Chicago. He began his acting career at the turn of the century in his hometown of St. Louis, initially with an amateur group in his Catholic parish. After all, he became a full-time theater actor and appeared in many plays by William Shakespeare .

He made his film debut in 1909 in The Awakening of Bess on the side of Florence Lawrence . That was at a time when the names of the actors were otherwise unnamed in all film opening credits and thus anonymous - Baggot and Lawrence were the first whose names were mentioned in the film opening credits and thus made known to the public, which is why they are often referred to as the first “movie stars “To be called at all. Especially in the 1910s, Baggot was considered an internationally known silent film star . The press described him as "the king of the movie theater", "the most photographed man in the world" and "the man whose face is more famous than the man in the moon".

After directing his first film in 1911, Baggot also tried to direct a film from the 1920s. Perhaps the best-known work under his direction today is the Western Tumbleweeds , the last and, according to many critics, also the best film with western legend William S. Hart . Baggot's alcohol problem and arguments with studio bosses caused him increasing problems, however, which meant that after 1927 he could no longer make any films as a director. His acting star had also fallen, in the 1930s and 1940s he only received offers for small supporting roles or extras. Nevertheless, he remained loyal to the film business until a year before his death and thus played in over 300 film productions from 1909 to 1947.

King Baggot died of a stroke in July 1948 at the age of 68. In 1960 he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (6312 Hollywood Blvd.)

Filmography (selection)

King Baggot as Ivanhoe (1913)

As a director

  • 1911: The Lie
  • 1913: Ivanhoe (also actor)
  • 1922: The Kentucky Derby
  • 1923: The Darling of New York
  • 1925: Tumbleweeds
  • 1925: Raffles : The Amateur Cracksman
  • 1927: The Notorious Lady

As an actor

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the IMDb
personal data
SURNAME Baggot, King
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baggot, William King (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor, director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1948
Place of death Los Angeles , California