Spottiswoode Aitken

Frank Spottiswoode Aitken

Frank Spottiswoode Aitken (born April 16, 1868 in Edinburgh , † February 26, 1933 in Los Angeles , California ) was a British - American silent film actor and author, who was mostly used in dignified character roles.

Life

Frank Spottiswoode Aitken was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1868 and made his stage debut as an actor at the age of 13. He toured the United States with traveling theaters for almost 20 years. During a production of Pocahontas in 1907 he met the actor and later director David Wark Griffith know. He appeared on Broadway in 1909 with the comedy Billy . He made his debut as a film actor in 1911 with the film Her Humble Ministry . He was one of the first actors to work in Hollywood , although the film industry was even stronger on the east coast of the United States at the time.

As a freelance actor he worked for several film companies, where he was often cast as a dignified authority figure or as the father of the main character. Aitken has appeared with the Biograph Company ensemble , for example in The Battle (1911) and Home, Sweet Home (1914). His most famous role today is that of the Southern family patriach Dr. Cameron in Griffiths The Birth of a Nation (1915). Aitken also starred in the Bartholomew Night episode in Intolerance (1916), also directed by Griffith. In 1920 he appeared alongside Lon Chaney and Lewis Stone in Nomads of the North . As a writer, he also wrote the original story for the silent film God's Great Wilderness (1927) with Russell Simpson .

In 1922 he divorced his wife, Marion Dana Jones, with whom he had three children. After more than 100 film appearances, Spottiswoode Aitken withdrew from the film business in 1928 due to increasing health problems. Five years later he died in Los Angeles at the age of 65.

Filmography (selection)

1911: Her Humble Ministry
1911: An Actor in a New Role
1911: The Battle
1911: The Cook
1912: Just Married
1915: The Birth of a Nation (The Birth of a Nation)
1916 intolerance (Intolerance)
1920: The White Circle (after Robert Louis Stevenson : The Pavillon on the Links )
1922: The Young Rajah
1924: triumph (triumph)
1925: The Eagle (The Eagle)
1925: The Goose Woman
1925: The Coast Patrol
1926: The Two-Gun Man
1926: The Power of the Weak
1927: Roaring Fires
1928: The Power of the Press

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Aitken, Spottiswoode
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Aitken, Frank Spottiswoode (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British-American silent film actor and author
DATE OF BIRTH	April 16, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH	Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH	February 26, 1933
Place of death	Los Angeles , California