Rod La Rocque

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Rod La Rocque, 1924

Rod La Rocque , actually Roderick La Rocque de la Rou (born November 29, 1898 in Chicago , USA , † October 15, 1969 in Beverly Hills , Los Angeles , California , USA) was an American film actor , primarily in silent films .

Live and act

Rod La Roque was born to hotel manager Andrew Edward La Rocque de la Rou and his wife Anna Rice, the family was of French descent. He had a younger sister. He has been a child actor since he was seven years old. After appearances in various vaudevilles , his actual film career began at the age of 14 with the film The Snowman from 1912, in which he played an unnamed minor role. The Snowman was the prelude to other supporting roles that he played for various film companies in the period from 1912 to 1920. Major stars he starred with during this period included Billie Burke in Let's get a divorce (1918) and Mabel Normand in The Venus Model (1918).

In 1918, La Roque moved to New York , where he was signed by successful theater and film agent Edward Small. In the same year, three films for producer Samuel Goldwyn , who later co-founded MGM, followed . But La Rocque remained true to his principle and saw himself as an independent, freelance actor who offered his services to various film companies and usually hardly tied to a permanent company by contract. He experienced his breakthrough as an actor in 1923 under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille in the film The Ten Commandments , which made him a recognized and popular star in Hollywood in the 1920s. The dark-haired, tall actor embodied mostly amateur roles, for example alongside Pola Negri in Ernst Lubitsch's drama Forbidden Paradise from 1924.

In 1925 he met his future wife, the Hungarian silent film actress Vilma Bánky . In 1927 the couple celebrated their wedding with a big party, the marriage lasted until the death of Rod La Rocque in 1969. With the start of the sound film in the late 1920s, its popularity fell and he only played in B-films, although he was with the actually coped well with the new sound. In 1933, the year the National Socialists came to power, Rod La Rocque starred in his only German feature film, alongside Leni Riefenstahl in the English version of SOS Eisberg . During this time he also worked in the theater, albeit with rather mediocre success. He and his wife began a successful career as a real estate agent. In 1941 he retired from the film business with an appearance as the snobbish nephew of Edward Arnold in Frank Capras Here Is John Doe . In total, he had acted in around 104 films.

La Rocque had shot with a number of great directors and shot with great actors. The great directors included Cecil B. DeMille, Frank Capra and William Dieterle . The big stars with whom he shot as an actor included Billie Burke, Mabel Normand, Gary Cooper , Barbara Stanwyck , Harry Carey sr. , C. Aubrey Smith , Charles Laughton , Maureen O'Hara , Leni Riefenstahl, Norma Shearer , Joan Crawford , Lillian Gish , Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Lupe Vélez .

There is a star for the actor on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Rod La Rocque died, largely forgotten by Hollywood, in 1969 at the age of 70 in Beverly Hills.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1912: The Snowman
  • 1916: Destiny
  • 1917: The Rainbow Box
  • 1917: Filling his Own Shoes
  • 1917: The Dream Doll
  • 1918: Money Mad
  • 1919: The Trap
  • 1921: Paying the Piper
  • 1923: Jazzmania
  • 1923: The Ten Commandments (The Ten Commandments)
  • 1924: A Society Scandal
  • 1924: Until the Last Man (Code of the Sea)
  • 1924: triumph (triumph)
  • 1924: The Forbidden Paradise (Forbidden Paradise)
  • 1925: Night Life of New York
  • 1926: Red Dice
  • 1926: The Cruise of the Jasper B
  • 1927: The Fighting Eagle
  • 1927 resurrection (Resurrection)
  • 1928: Love Over Night
  • 1929: Landing in Paradise (The Man and the Moment)
  • 1929: Our Modern Maidens
  • 1930: Let Us Be Gay
  • 1930: One Romantic Night
  • 1933: SOS Iceberg (English version of SOS Eisberg )
  • 1936: Till We Meet Again
  • 1936: The Drag-Net
  • 1939: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
  • 1940: A Wonderful Christmas (Beyond Tomorrow)
  • 1941: This is John Doe (Meet John Doe)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME La Rocque, Rod
ALTERNATIVE NAMES La Rocque de la Rou, Roderick (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actor, primarily in silent films
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , USA
DATE OF DEATH 15th October 1969
Place of death Beverly Hills , Los Angeles , California , USA