Tom Wilson (actor)

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Tom Wilson as a cop in The Kid (1921)

Tom Wilson (* 27. August 1880 in Helena , Montana as Thomas H. Wilson , † 19th February 1965 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor.

life and career

Tom Wilson, dressed as an African American, with Owen Moore in Reported Missing (1922)

Before starting his acting career, Wilson worked in the military and as a boxer. His beefy and tall boxing stature later ensured that Wilson often embodied police officers, henchmen and strong men. He got into the acting business with appearances in vaudeville shows and other plays. In the fall of 1907 he made an appearance on Broadway in the comedy Artie . Wilson made his film debut in 1914 and in the following years played minor supporting roles in The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance , the landmark films by David Wark Griffith . In his early film career, the actually fair-skinned Wilson specialized in playing African American on screen, for which he had to use black make-up . He was used several times during the silent film era on the side of star comedians Buster Keaton and Charles Chaplin . In Chaplin's The Kid , he played his best-known role as a grim policeman who had a long-term feud with Chaplin's Tramp.

In the 1920s, Wilson's career reached its peak, and he even received leading roles in a number of comedies. With the dawn of talkies at the end of the 1920s, this changed suddenly: He only played small, insignificant supporting roles or worked as an extra . Over the next three decades he played in important films such as Unter Piratenflagge (1935), Im Taumel der Weltstadt (1940), Here is John Doe (1941) and A New Star in the Sky (1954), but is often barely identifiable in these. At Monsieur Verdoux , Wilson worked again with Chaplin in 1947. In total, he starred in almost 300 films.

In 1963, Wilson ended his acting career. He died two years later at the age of 84. Nothing is known about his private life. He is buried in the Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Tom Wilson  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Internet Broadway Database
personal data
SURNAME Wilson, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilson, Thomas H.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Helena , Montana
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1965
Place of death Los Angeles , California