I am pleased to present this article on the life and career of the very underappreciated Bobby Harron, an actor of rare talent who left his mark on some of the greatest films of the silent era–and the film industry in general. It’s a long one, so I’ve added a list of contents for your convenience!
Early Life
The Beginnings of a Career
Developing as an Actor
Major Roles
An Established Leading Man
The Close of a Promising Career
“The Boy Whom Everyone Liked”
Introduction
One of the earliest and most overlooked film stars is Robert “Bobby” Harron. The slender, unassuming young man acted in dozens of films, including the largest milestones of all time: The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916).
And yet, perhaps because of the attention given to Griffith’s actresses, Bobby is constantly, and consistently, overlooked. It’s common to see articles merely mention him as a costar to Mae Marsh or Lillian Gish before delving into the details of the women’s performances. Gish and Marsh were some of the finest actresses of the silent era, to say nothing of other talented Griffith players like Miriam Cooper or Blanche Sweet. But Bobby was a massively talented actor in his own right. Take a moment to turn your concentration from Gish or Marsh to the dark-haired Irish lad just to their side, and you’ll realize what you’ve been missing.
To cameraman Billy Bitzer, Bobby represented a “thread of unity” for the Griffith studio. That studio having given us some of the most influential films ever made, this “thread of unity” is worth a closer look–and deserves a flood of fresh appreciation.
Early life
Robert Emmett Harron (he liked the nickname “Bobbie,” but the media tended to spell it “Bobby”), was an Irish Catholic native of New York City. He born on April 12, 1893 to parents John and Mary Harron. He was the second oldest in their large family, with six sisters (Frances, Tessie, Mary, Agnes, Madeline, and Edna) and two brothers (Charles and Johnnie).
The lower class Harrons lived in Greenwich Village, which by the turn of the 20th century had evolved beyond the gilded “Age of Innocence” captured by Edith Wharton and was drawing numbers of German, French, Italian, and Irish immigrants hoping for opportunity. The Greenwich Village that Bobby knew was a quaint, ethnically diverse area of low rent that was already starting to attract the bohemian artists, small presses, and theater groups that would one day define it.
The family home, as the building appears today (thanks to the Remembering Robert “Bobbie” Harron Facebook group for posting this).
Young Bobby attended St. Joseph’s Parochial School, run by the Sisters of Charity and the Christian Brothers. It was a much-praised school with high academic standards, in its heyday teaching up to 1,500 students. The Harrons may have gone to Mass at the Church of St. Joseph, a Greenwich Village landmark since the 1830s and the oldest Roman Catholic church building in New York City. Or they could’ve gone to any one of the eight churches and chapels in the then-very Catholic Village (and half of them had predominantly Irish congregations). Bobby would’ve grown up hearing the words of the old Latin Mass, singing familiar hymns with the other parishioners, and reflecting on Christ’s Passion during Lent. He would remain a devout Catholic throughout his life.
The Church of St. Joseph circa 1914.
In 1907, fourteen-year-old Bobby, like many other young lads at the time, was looking for work to help support his family. One of the Brothers at his school supportively sent him and friend James Smith to a place that was hiring: the American Mutoscope and Biograph Studio at 11 East 14th Street, not far from Bobby’s home. The boys were quickly put to work as “go’fers,” Jacks-of-all-trades. For $5 a week quiet, hardworking Bobby kept busy working in the cutting room, sweeping floors, helping put together sets, picking up lunch orders, and shuttling completed films to various theaters throughout the city. He would later recall delivering films “to a man named Loew running a little place over on Second Avenue.” This man would turn out to be Marcus Loew, the theater magnate who would found MGM.
The Beginnings of a Career
Early film studios were a thrifty, democratic bunch, sometimes pulling crew members onto the set as extras or to play tiny roles. Not long after coming to Biograph Bobby was recruited to play a small part in the 10-minute short Dr. Skinum (1907), directed by Wallace “Old Man” McCutcheon–one of the very earliest film directors (he began his career in 1899).
The Biograph studio at 11 East 14th Street.
Bobby must’ve done a good job with that little part in Dr. Skinum, because McCutcheon gave him the lead in a comic short, Bobby’s Kodak (1908)–even though he had no previous acting experience. In the film, young Bobby is given a Kodak camera and quickly gets the hang of using it…and then begins secretly photographing everything he sees, including family members in compromising situations (such as his father kissing his secretary). A Variety ad stated, “Photographically this film is perfect, and the situations are sure to elicit a succession of laughs terminating in a yell.” (While often assumed lost, a print of Bobby’s Kodak does survive in the Library of Congress.)
Variety, February 1908
In 1918, when he was a star, Bobby spoke fondly of that early film:
This picture gave me my first big joy in life, because it gave me the chance to be the kind of kid I had wanted to be in my dreams, but had never had the chance to be in real life. My oldest brother and I had it in us to be little devils, but we lacked the teamwork of the Katzenjammers…For instance, I’d come to him and propose that I play hookey and fix up a nice little story for him to tell the Brother, but he’s say, ‘Well, I don’t see why I can’t play hookey and you tell the story to the Brother,’ and so it would end by neither of us playing hookey.
That lead role in Bobby’s Kodak was a bit of a fluke. Throughout the next few years Bobby would mainly play bit parts in dozens–and dozens–of Biograph shorts. Light comedies, morality tales, quaint rural dramas, classic literature adaptations, Civil War stories, familial tragedies, crime stories, Westerns, all neatly tied up in ten to thirty minutes–Bobby pops up in them all. His roles varied from “Messenger boy” to “Stagehand” to “Boy passing handbills.” Whenever there was a crowd scene he could be counted on to quietly fill in behind the main actors like Arthur Johnson, Mary Pickford and James Kirkwood. You can spot him in his earliest surviving film, The Boy Detective, or The Abductors Foiled (1908), where he’s the friend of the aforementioned detective, shooting marbles on the sidewalk and walking off with the gait of a New York boy used to hustling along those city streets.
A blurry scene from The Boy Detective.
It was an unassuming but absurdly lucky beginning to Bobby’s acting career. Working at one of the very first movie studios in the very young “picture business,” under some of the earliest film directors, the working class lad would grow up along with the movies and be a firsthand witness to their quick evolution. He was very much in the right place at the right time.
And he was doubly lucky that a certain 33-year-old struggling playwright and actor joined the Biograph fold in 1908. David Wark Griffith was hired on as an actor, but when Wallace McCutcheon fell ill one thing lead to another and “D.W.” became Biograph’s new lead director. Bobby got along with him famously; Griffith felt like a father to him. Blanche Sweet would later remark, “Bobby Harron would have gotten down and let Griffith jump up and down on him if that had been necessary.” Other Biograph personnel would carefully address the director as “Mr. Griffith,” but Bobby alone could get away with the cheerful greeting of “Hey, Griff!”
On the set sometime in the mid-Teens.
Developing as an Actor
Fighting Blood (1911) was probably Bobby’s first big role under Griffith’s direction. In this surviving film he plays the oldest son of a strict Civil War veteran. The two have a fight and the son leaves on horseback, but then discovers that American Indians are planning an attack. Bobby shows an eye-opening glimpse of intensity in his acting (and also surprisingly good horsemanship). Griffith must’ve been pleased, because he was then given the official lead in Bobby, the Coward (1911), playing opposite Florence LaBadie.
Fighting Blood (from The Motion Picture Story Magazine, 1911).
Gradually Griffith gave him more lead roles in addition to the bit parts. Lillian Gish would recall:
Bobby was young and serious, and something about him caught the heart. He was sensitive and poetic-looking…when Mr. Griffith finally decided that he was ready to play leads, they had to add a mustache to his upper lip or lengthen his sideburns or have him wear a romantic cape–anything to give him age and dignity…Bobby could play any role that Mr. Griffith gave him.
It was clear that he had a natural onscreen charisma, and his acting style was refreshingly free of the stage’s influence–something that hampered many professional actors trying to get used to “playing to the camera.” He also had incredible range, playing roles ranging from mature men to gangsters to innocent youths. In short, Bobby was a Discovery.
His unique touch of boyish innocence soon endeared him to audiences. Even his darkest characters seemed like they were merely lead astray, through coercion or their own naivete, still capable of redemption. A recurring role for him was the “falsely accused victim.” And more and more he came to be defined by roles simply described as “The Boy.” By about 1913 viewers were writing to movie magazines to find out the name of the slim Biograph actor (onscreen credits weren’t the norm). Griffith seemed to have realized Bobby’s growing fanbase–a May 1913 issue of Variety mentioned “Robert Harron–the ever popular Bobby–has had several leading roles with Biograph recently.”
Trade info on the short The Tender-Hearted Boy (Cinema News and Property Gazette, 1913).
It helped that a year earlier another natural talent had joined the Biograph Studio: the spunky Mae Marsh, who also had no previous acting experience. Her specialty was bubbly girlish innocence, and she excelled at dramatic scenes. She would later recall having a crush on shy Bobby for a time during those early studio days–the kind of crush that was being shared by many young gals at the movies back then:
I thought Bobby Harron was the most wonderful being in the world. He had such beautiful eyes. I didn’t know how to get acquainted with him, but I did so want to attract his attention.
So, when I’d see him hurrying around rustling props between scenes–he was property boy as well as actor in those days–I’d gather together a pile of pebbles, stones, rocks of all sizes, and shyly throw them at him. The better I liked him, the bigger the rocks.
Mae circa 1915.
The two were paired for the first time in Man’s Genesis (1912), and their talents were well-matched. If Bobby was The Boy, the youthful Mae was certainly The Girl. They acted together in film after film throughout the 1910s–from shorts like The Sands of Dee (1912) to features like Home, Sweet Home (1914). In all, they co-starred 27 times. Audiences were delighted by them and critics raved about their “exceptional” abilities and the way they appeared to “feel” their roles. “I did my best work with Bobby…” Mae once said, “I think it is the best work I shall ever do.”
In lost film The Great God Fear (Reel Life, 1914).
Bobby would also co-star with Lillian and Dorothy Gish and Blanche Sweet, although less often than with Mae. But offscreen he spent the most time with the funny, mischievous Dorothy. Lillian spoke of their romance with a touch of warm amusement:
Bobby and Dorothy had been in love from the time that he was fifteen and she was thirteen. They would hold hands shyly. He never let her use any makeup, although it seemed to us that he always liked the girls who wore the most makeup…It was a childlike love affair, but I think they had unspoken dreams of marrying.
As early as 1915 fan magazines were already reporting rumors that Dorothy and Bobby “had eloped” or “were engaged,” although they never quite made that leap.
With Dorothy in An Unseen Enemy (1912).
He was being given more and more important roles. He was in Griffith’s first feature, Judith of Bethulia (1914), and in the following The Battle of the Sexes. Bobby and Mae then had a feature built around them, the Reliance film The Great Leap (1914). This Hatfields-and-McCoys type story climaxed with a horseback chase that featured an exciting–and dangerous–stunt. The two main characters, riding on one horse, end up plunging the horse over a 50-foot cliff into a river (some sources say it was 80 feet). Since the film is lost, one can only pray that stunt doubles were used.
An ad from Reel Life, 1914.
He also had a daring part in the lost film The Escape (1914), a lurid tale of a dysfunctional family. He played the kind young son who goes mad after his father beats him. Disturbingly, the character’s madness is illustrated by having him strangle a kitten (fortunately the kitten wasn’t harmed in real life).
Major Roles
In 1914 Griffith, now filming in Los Angeles, began work on a major feature–a huge feature–the most ambitious project he would do at that point: The Birth of a Nation. Today the sensation it made in 1915 is well known. As the son Tod Stoneman Bobby’s part was modest but still memorable–viewers found the scene where he and his pal Duke Cameron kidded around to be warmly human. According to Photoplay, “‘Everyone’ says of this scene that it doesn’t look a bit like acting.” The friends’ death scene on the battlefield was also deeply affecting to many.
Following The Birth, Griffith began work on another Bobby and Mae feature, The Mother and the Law, about a young gangster who marries and decides to reform, angering his “Musketeer” boss. Somehow, this small drama inspired Griffith. He would weave it into the massive spectacle that would be Intolerance. It is interesting that The Mother and the Law in particular, where Bobby played such an essential role, would be the stimulus of that filmmaking milestone.
There had been other epics, other spectacles before Intolerance, but nothing would quite reach its scope or come close to touching its ambition. It was epic in every sense of the word, trying hard to apply its message of “intolerance” to humanity as a whole. And Bobby had one of its most prominent roles, as “The Boy” to Mae Marsh’s “Dear One.”
It would arguably be his greatest performance, as stunning today as it was back in 1916. Writer Anthony Slide would call it “the finest male performance in silent films.” Intolerance is sometimes criticized for its imbalance between the four stories, its ambitious subject matter, etc., but in my opinion its biggest flaw is that the sheer length and spectacle might distract a first-time viewer from realizing the power of Bobby’s acting.
This is established in an early scene where the Boy’s father dies during a workers’ strike. Bobby gazes straight into the camera with a long look of sorrow, shock, and grimness. Then and there we realize that his acting will be something special. He, who so often played farmboys and pure-hearted youths, is completely convincing as the hardened “musketeer” who masterfully woos the Girl by caressing her hand. You believe him when he resolves to be through with “the old life,” and fear for him when he’s framed by his gangster boss.
The most powerful scene is probably when “The Boy,” awaiting the death penalty, receives his last rites. His quiet confession in the ear of the priest, his glowing eyes lifted up to heaven as the words of absolution are spoken (in a remarkable closeup), and his collapse after receiving the Eucharist have a sublimity to them. They draw on something very deep. Bobby is not merely going through the motions of a man receiving the last rites–he’s portraying a soul being transformed, being cleansed of the “old life” through grace. As a practicing Roman Catholic myself, I am positive that only someone who had also gone to confession, had also received the Eucharist, and had familiarity with Catholicism’s many centuries’ worth of saints, ancient prayers, Biblical readings, sacred art, and hymns could have played that scene with such power.
Another standout is where the Boy and the Dear One are reunited after having come so close to death. Their sincere emotion never fails to draw a tear from me. Everyone who wells up at the ending of City Lights will find much to move them about the end of the modern story in Intolerance.
An Established Leading Man
Following the great heights of Intolerance, Bobby and Mae starred in a few more minor films until she departed to work for Sam Goldwyn in 1917. At this time, World War I was raging and the motion picture industry was reflecting it with a stream of propaganda films. Griffith, then one of the world’s most famous directors, was asked by the British War Office Cinematograph Committee to create such a film. Griffith agreed, chose Bobby, Lillian, and Dorothy for his leads, and took them across to the ocean right to war-torn England and France to begin filming Hearts of the World in that most realistic of locations.
Looking very dashing in his cape alongside the Gish sisters.
Bobby had previously been drafted, and Griffith had signed Richard Barthelmess in case his star had to go “over there.” Fortunately he was exempt from service due to being in Hearts of the World.
A detail of his passport application.
Bobby found himself a part of history right away when he happened to cross the Atlantic on the same boat as General Pershing. Although this was supposed to be a complete secret Bobby told his mother about it, hoping it would ease her anxiety to know that Pershing himself was on board. But as he recalled,
I knew she wouldn’t say anything about it, but nevertheless my conscience troubled me a little until, just as we were going aboard, with a lot of dock hands within easy hearing distance, someone yelled at the top of his voice to a friend at the foot of the gangplank, ‘Hey, who do you think’s onboard–General Pershing!’ Yes; it was quite some secret!
Hearts of the World, while little-watched today and surviving in a sadly battered condition, was a huge deal in its time. People spoke of it in the same breath as Intolerance and The Birth of a Nation. The three leads were highly praised, and you could argue that their work helped many viewers grasp the human cost of the war. Few films have matched the poetic quality of the scene where Lillian, gone mad after her village is destroyed, wanders through the battlegrounds in the moonlight. She finds her lover (Bobby) lying wounded, and spends the night at his side.
Photo from a keepsake booklet that was given out at showings of the film.
Following that epic war picture Griffith made The Greatest Thing in Life (1918), a lost film (which I really hope will be found one day). It had glowing reviews, and Bobby was singled out for his excellent performance as a spoiled rich youth, especially in one thought-provoking scene. According to a Picture-Play Magazine review:
Harron’s playing of the snob appears to-day as the best thing he has ever done. Perhaps to-morrow we will be forced to change our minds because of some subsequent appearance. But Harron has never done such an excellent piece of acting as when he learns that race prejudice has no place on the battlefield–when he kisses the cheek of a dying negro calling for his mammy!
Griffith then teamed Bobby with Lillian Gish in a series of charming rural dramas: A Romance of Happy Valley (1919), True Heart Susie (1919), and The Greatest Question (1919). To see Bobby as a slim farm boy in Happy Valley, or as the grinning school kid in the beginning of True Heart Susie, is startling when you consider that these films were made years after his manly gangster in Intolerance. He and Lillian made a charming pair, well-suited for the nostalgic settings and storylines. Their naive love scenes had a sweetness that felt sincere rather than cloying.
He also had one of his more off-beat roles in The Girl Who Stayed At Home (1918), a film which starred Richard Barthelmess and Carol Dempster but was stolen by Bobby and the newly-signed proto-flapper Clarine Seymour. Bobby’s party-loving character, nicknamed the “Oily Peril,” chases after girls and affects a fashionable “slouch.” He had a definite flair for light comedy.
With Clarine in a promo picture for The Girl Who Stayed Home.
The Close of a Promising Career
By 1920, Bobby had been working mainly for D.W. Griffith for twelve years. He had been a firsthand witness to the film industry’s advance from simple 10-minute shorts to sprawling multi-hour features. And it seemed that Griffith felt he was now ready for a new project.
A dramatic magazine portrait, circa the late 1910s.
In the summer of 1920 it was announced that Bobby was given his own company and would star in a series of films. These would be released under Metro and filmed at Griffith’s new studio at Mamaroneck, New York, where Way Down East was in production. The endeavor had Griffith’s emotional and financial support. Bobby would now be an official, “name in lights” star.
The first film under the arrangement was called Coincidence, starring Bobby as the rube Billy Jenks who looks for work in New York City and falls in love. Some of it was filmed on location in the city, including scenes “on the Fifth Avenue buses.”
A color ad for Coincidence (Wid’s Daily, 1920).
When it was completed Bobby visited his family in Los Angeles and then returned to New York to attend a preview of Coincidence on September 1, 1920, as well as the premiere of Way Down East on September 3. His longtime friend Victor Heerman, a screenwriter and director, went with him to the preview.
On the night of Sept. 1, Bobby, alone in his hotel room, called the front desk gasping that he had “shot himself.” The bullet had pierced his left lung. He was taken to the hospital where he lingered for several days, visited by Heerman, Griffith, and others. He died suddenly the morning of September 5. He was only 27.
New York Tribune, Sept. 6, 1920.
Newspapers across the country reported the tragedy. Lillian Gish herself had to break the sad news to Bobby’s mother, who arrived from L.A. too late to see her son in his final days. He was interred in the Calvary Cemetery in New York, alongside siblings Frances (who passed away in 1909 at age 2), Charles (died in a car accident in 1915), and Tessie (victim of the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918). Griffith himself reportedly paid the funeral expenses.
On the day of the funeral, studios back in Hollywood observed a moment of silence. The whole Griffith company was so grieved over Bobby’s death that the Mamaroneck studio was reportedly closed for several weeks. Dorothy Gish was so distraught that she went out of town for a time.
Photoplay‘s “remembrance” portrait, 1920.
It was such a tragic end for this beloved young actor. What had happened? The official story, released as soon as the shooting reached the presses on September 2, was that he had been unpacking his trunk when a handgun bundled in his clothes fell to the floor and discharged accidentally. The handgun was said to have been bought from a man who needed money. Friends and colleagues like Lillian Gish and Billy Bitzer would always maintain that it was an accident, and that Bobby would not have committed suicide because of his devotion to his family and his strict Catholicism. And yet, the story seems a little suspect. Were it not called accidental, Bobby’s death would almost certainly have been the very first Hollywood scandal, beating out Olive Thomas’s death by only a few days.
Was the gunshot wound, after all, self-inflicted? For Bobby’s birth centenniel in 1993, the official autopsy report was procured and the descriptions of the bullet’s angle seemed to prove that it was. The mystery remains: why would’ve caused Bobby to despair that much? Why on that night in particular? His career was solid, and his future bright, but after all despair does horrible things to a human mind. Reports that he was upset over being “replaced” by Barthelmess have been around for a long time, but are speculative at best. If anything is certain it’s that we’ll simply never know for sure what went through his mind that one night in the Hotel Seymour.
“The Boy Whom Everyone Liked”
By all accounts, Bobby Harron was a kind and sincerely modest individual who was loved by everyone around him. Coworkers like Lillian Gish and Blanche Sweet remembered him fondly; even Miriam Cooper, who was none too charitable toward some of her former colleagues, called him “a darling boy.” He was also principled–Victor Heerman would recall their double-dates with Constance Talmadge and Dorothy Gish with some wryness: “He’d go out to the drunkenest parties, and he would laugh and have a good time with just a glass of ginger ale.” He was described as “a regular boy” who would “go to a football or a baseball game and have just as keen an interest about it as about a scene at the studio.”
Being very shy off camera, Bobby didn’t give too many interviews and always seemed a little embarrassed by attention. He would downplay his talent, insisting: “I watched the best screen stars at work, and saw how they made up, how they acted. I was always around, and you know that every one is a born mimic. I would have been stupid indeed if I hadn’t absorbed some of this atmosphere.” One interviewer in 1920 was so charmed by him that the resulting New York Tribune article was titled “Famous, Young and Handsome, Robert Harron Turns Out To Be Modesty Personified.” The interviewer stated, “Getting him to talk about his work was like putting him unwillingly on the witness stand. He would have summed it all up in a sentence if we hadn’t kept on worrying him with questions. And the sentence would have been something like this: ‘It wasn’t I. It was Mr. Griffith.'”
Indeed, Bobby’s loyalty to Griffith was total and heartfelt. If he had lived, it’s not hard to imagine him being one of Griffith’s staunch defenders, alongside Lillian Gish.
A page from Photoplay article “Griffith’s Boy,” 1918.
When I watch his films, I often feel moved, sensing that behind his calm exterior there is a deep intensity. His coworkers felt the same way. Blanche Sweet remembered: “He was restrained but I think he was very intense also. Bobby felt. He had sensibilities. He was quite sensitive, but I’ve never known him to carry on in any way nervously.” His acting, particularly in Intolerance, certainly bears her out.
Bobby was not only a singularly brilliant actor, but is deeply important to film history. He was of the new generation of “picture actors,” completely free from conventions of the stage, relying on a naturalistic acting style and inborn talent. He was one of the finest actors–perhaps the finest–that Griffith ever directed, thereby enhancing some of the milestones of film history.
After the young man’s sudden death, Billy Bitzer said it was the end of an era at the Griffith studio, “a falling away and a breaking up of our former trust and friendship–it was never the same again.” And no wonder. Bobby Harron was irreplaceable–a rare talent and a rarer soul.
—
Recommended Bobby films:
Fighting Blood (1911)
An Unseen Enemy (1912)
Man’s Genesis (1912)
The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
The Burglar’s Dilemma (1912)
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1913)
Home, Sweet Home (1914)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Hoodoo Ann (1916)
Intolerance (1916)
Hearts of the World (1918)
A Romance of Happy Valley (1919)
The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919)
True Heart Susie (1919)
Sources:
Gish, Lillian. The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me. With Anne Pinchot. San Francisco: Mercury House, 1988
Golden, Eve. Golden Images: 41 Essays on Silent Film Stars. North Carolina: McFarland, 2001.
Schickel, Richard., D.W. Griffith: An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.
Shelley, Thomas J. Greenwich Village Catholics: St. Joseph’s Church and the Evolution of an Urban Faith Community, 1829-2002. CUA Press, 2003.
Slide, Anthony. Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2002.
“Two Mutual Features of Unusual Merit.” The Motion Picture News, Vol. IX, No. 3, January 24, 1914.
“Bobby the Wonder Boy.” Photo-Play Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, August 1916.
Peltret, Elizabeth. “Griffith’s Boy–Bobby.” Photoplay, Vol. XIII, No. 5, April, 1918.
“Famous, Young and Handsome, Robert Harron Turns Out To Be Modesty Personified.” New York Tribune, Sunday, Feb. 15, 1920.
“Robert Harron Dies After Accidentally Shooting Self.” Exhibitor’s Herald, Volume XI, September 18, 1920.
North, Jean. “Digging Up the Acorn.” Photoplay, Vol. XVIII, No. 5, October, 1920.
“Metro’s Latest Is Pleasing Light Comedy Offering.” Wid’s Daily, Vol. XVI, No. 38, Sunday, May 8, 1921.
“Mae and the Early Days.” Motion Picture Magazine, Vol. XXVII, No. 2, March 1924.
http://lantern.mediahist.org/
http://newspapers.com/
https://www.facebook.com/robertharronactor/timeline
http://ladailymirror.com/2012/09/24/eve-golden-queen-of-the-dead-robert-harron-clarine-seymour/
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.movies.silent/jP4IXzL-GE0
Note: I keep hearing rumors that a biography or two on Bobby is in the works. If you or anyone you know is researching his life, let me know if I can help in any way! Let’s make things happen.
If you have any info on the documentation concerning his death, or even if you just want to chat about Bobby, please contact me!
Silent-ology 
This is a fascinating story! Lots of research and a wonderful writing style. Thanks for writing about Bobby, Lea!
It was a pleasure. 🙂 He deserved a detailed article, that’s for sure!
A great piece about someone I wasn’t familiar with at all! I love the idea of him graduating from delivery boy to leading man, a reminder of a simpler (more open?) time. Makes you wonder if all those comedy plots (Daydreams comes to mind) where the character bumbles along from being a stockbroker one day and a policeman the next weren’t (at least a bit) possible back then.
A real kicker though with how his life seems to have ended. A reminder (of which there have been far too many) that an objectively successful life doesn’t insulate against whatever demons may have driven him to that point.
Movie studios back then really did seem to be a more close-knit bunch than they were when the studio system was taking over. I agree that it was, indeed, a simpler time. Want to become a famous film director? Why not get started by joining the studio as a carpenter or the guy who got everyone sandwiches? You can work your way up! 😉
It’s so very sad that his life ended the way it did, accident or no accident. We’ll never know exactly what happened (I’d like to write some more about that at some point), but I’m very glad to know that in real life he seemed to be a genuinely good soul.
My 1997 screenplay about Biograph writer, S.E.V. Taylor, includes a scene in 1909 when the company was shooting country romances in Cuddbackville, NY and Taylor and a few others were target shooting and invited the teenage Bobby Harron to participate. Later, in the ’20s, when Taylor had lost popularity and gone broke (there’s letters at MOMA between Taylor and Griffith about money) in desperation he sold his gun to Bobby…the one which accidentally killed him.
Ok, sure, it’s speculative. But suppose you did buy a gun from someone who desperately needed money, it would most likely be from an old friend who you at one time respected. You wouldn’t buy a gun you didn’t need from a stranger (the fact that he “forgot” it was in his suitcase demonstrates a lack of purposefulness in buying it, or at least that’s my Occam’s razor).
Thanks for the tribute. Bobby was a bright light indeed.
Glad you enjoyed the article! An intriguing idea–that the gun could’ve come from someone Bobby knew (all fictional scenarios aside!). You never know, that could have been the case. Ultimately this is all speculative, of course.
A “bright light” is a good description for Bobby. He deserves to be as well known as Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh, without question.
Thank you for this article. Came across Bobby Harron in looking to learn more about Florence LaBadie, also a forgotten silent star. It’s heartbreaking these wonder actors are forgotten. Truly, such wonderful art should never be forgotten. Am definitely going to see if I can find some of his movies on line. Again, thank you so much for the work you do.
You’re so welcome, Mercedes! I hope you enjoy his work as much as I do.
Lea,
I was going through the old Kemp Niver volume of the Paper Print Collection and happened to note that “Bobby’s Kodak” is indeed listed there; 210 ft, copyright H105983 registered February 7, 1908. Preservation copies are listed as FLA 4999 (print) and FRA 0276 (negative). I don’t know how it could be “lost” if these materials were made, though they might not be great quality and the original paper print may have withered away in the meantime, as several have. But at least in 1985, this was around, or at least its presence was documented by LoC. David N. Lewis
! Wow! How could we go about checking to see if it’s still there? If it’s survived, that would be wonderful. All the sources I’ve seen, like silentera.com, list it as “lost.” It would be great to prove them wrong.
On a similar note, I’ve heard that The Greatest Thing in Life survives, even though it was presumed lost for a long time (hopefully it won’t end up just withering on a shelf).
Are you connected on facebook to Geo. Willeman? I think there may be a protocol for making requests of this sort but he’s at LoC and may be able to look it up with the shelf locations provided.
Brilliant article. Robert Harron is one of the best, subtle, expressive, actors ever. There are too many prejuices about acting in the silent era and even a lot of “experts” never take a single minute to appreciate the great art of some of the best players. Harron was one of them, with a sad premature end. Thank you for all your articles.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂 I very much agree that many people–even historians–don’t realize how talented some of these early actors were. People hear that a film is old, and they automatically assume the acting will be over the top–simply not true. It’s like a type of “ageism,” if you will.
Wonderful and comprehensive post – thanks for drawing attention to such an over-looked talent. I look forward to working my way through some of the films and sources you listed (any film you recommend starting with?)
PS – appreciated the organisational links too as I did read this over several days! 😉
I thought those jump links would come in handy! 😉 Let’s see, An Unseen Enemy might be a good film to start with–Bobby’s part is small, but frankly pretty adorable. I would follow that up with A Burglar’s Dilemma, where he has a pivotal role and gets to show his talent for drama. The Battle at Elderbush Gulch and Hoodoo Ann are good chasers (the former is a surprisingly intense Western), and then I might recommend one of the best “rural dramas,” True Heart Susie. His role in Intolerance is an absolute must, but since it’s so good I would save it until you’re starting to be a bit more familiar with him.
Feel free to let me know what you think! 🙂
Thank you for the terrific article that spotlights such an under-appreciated silent star!
Recently I’ve been doing some research on Thomas Meighan and came across an interesting bit of information regarding Robert Harron in the process. In 1925, while Meighan was filming the now-lost film “Old Home Week” (directed by Harron’s good friend, Victor Heerman) in Ocala, Florida, he was approached by locals to contribute funds towards the construction of a new building for the town’s hospital. Meighan discovered that there were some issues surrounding whether a children’s ward and nursery would be created, so he instead suggested a fundraiser to raise money exclusively for that cause. The event, a dance held at the local Women’s Club, was a huge success, in large part to the fact that Meighan and some of his co-stars auctioned off dances with the highest bidders. In return, the only request Meighan made regarding his assistance was that the children’s ward be named after Robert Harron.
The hospital, which was finally opened in 1927/8, was named Munroe Memorial. Apparently it used to have a picture of Thomas Meighan in the building as tribute, as well as a small memorial plaque bearing Robert Harron’s name by the pediatric department. That building is now an administrative office space for the current incarnation of the hospital (currently known as Munroe Regional Medical Center). However, it appears that the once-prominent image of Thomas Meighan and the placard that bore Robert Harron’s name are long-gone.
Hello Maureen! Thank you so much for commenting, what a wonderful piece of information. A touching story, although it’s unfortunate that Meighan’s image and the placard seem to be gone. You’d think that such things would be kept in place no matter how many decades went by–after all, places like colleges are careful to hold onto memorials to donors and the names of various halls and wings.
It reminds me of something I stumbled across in a movie magazine from 1925. It was a small filler article where Meighan was, I think, talking about current actors he admired or something like that (why oh why didn’t I save that clip?). At the end, he mentioned Bobby, saying he was one of the finest people he had ever known. Again, this was in 1925, several years after Bobby’s death. Meighan didn’t HAVE to bring up his name, but he made the point of doing so. Very touching.
Both of your comments just blew my mind and I’m such a Thomas Meighan fan, as well as Bobby, and to think that he said that about Harron just made my day. And the hospital. Wow. And I never knew (until now!) how hard it hit Griffith……and how it was never the same again for his “troupe”….of course it wasn’t.
I lived right around the corner from Calvary Cemetery (and still live very close); I’ve always meant to go find his gravesite……for some reason, I think I read somewhere that no one knows exactly where the plot is or something like that? Am I wrong? But your information is amazing! That he’s buried with his siblings (of course!). I’ll try again to find it, and if possible, take a photo for posterity, on top of leaving my respects. Every time I walk by it, I say “Hi Bobby” or sometimes, “Oh Bobby…why did you do it?” Or “Bobby, I’m so sorry”….but usually I just say “Thanks, Bobby…we’re still watching you!”
“True Heart Susie” is one of my all-time favorites. What a great performance (in a fantastic movie). An article like this has been way overdue, and boy oh boy, did you do a fantastic job or what!
Thank you!! Bobby needs more detailed, in-depth articles about him and a lot of love and effort was put into this one. Many old movie fans have no clue what they’re missing!
I’ve seen photos of his gravestone, which I think is a pretty good size standing stone with a statue of Jesus on the size. How awesome that you live so close to it!! If you visit him anytime soon, say “hello” to him for me. One day, if I can make a trip to NY work, I’ll have to make a mini-pilgrimage there.
Getting to this 2 years late – but YES, the grave is still there and I have visited it previously during my prep work for his Birth Centennial at MoMA. A picture of the tombstone is available via Google Image using the terms “NYC” “Harron Grave”
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Great research, very informative article! I want to read the rest of that interview, please can you tell me exactly where to find it?
I’m thrilled that you enjoyed the article! Bobby is one of my most favorite silent film actors and I tried very hard to do him justice. Let’s see, I used several different interviews for this piece, and the one that available (without a site subscription) is this one, which is fascinating: http://archive.org/stream/pho1314chic#page/n27/mode/1up
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In terms of Harron’s suicide, I am the person who firmly determined it as such for my lecture at MoMA for his 1993 Birth Centennial Festival. Yes, it was ‘officially’ an accident but that was due to Griffith’s input to spare the Catholic Harron family from having their relative not having a service and burial sanctified by the Church. Also, I deeply believe he was embarrassed and guilty over the event. Due to that matter, he actually set up a monthly payment fund to be given to the mother and two sisters which even was continued to be paid following his own 1948 death as well. To repeat, I am the person who actually located the documents. I actually had a number of medical people review the papers. Though they could not *absolutely* legally declare it self-inflicted (the body was obviously not physically there) no one doubted it as such. That was due to the listings of position of the wound, size of the powder burn, etc. The documents, and my commentary of the event were given to the Museum. Thus, they should be available for any and all interested in researching the topic. Also, yes, while both Lillian and Blanche (I was acquainted with both over the years) were less than affirmative about the matter; from the tone and manner of their replies, I fervently felt it was an attempt to ‘keep family secrets.’ To me it was obvious from the numerous others ways they had spoken with me on other topics, that this was not to be told to an outsider. Both of their tones were quite different on this on and only subject from all others. Furthermore, my e-Mail address is obvious on the topic, but the MoMA records will indicate that Joseph P. Fanning, me, is the one who spoke.
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Lea, you blew me away with this wonderful post on “Bobbie” Unfortunately, I never heard of him before now. Such a sad story at the end for someone so young and talented. You don’t hear of lovely people like him today in Hollywood. He was very well like by all who knew him. He certainly didn’t sound depressed…I still don’t know why he felt he had to take his own life. I look forward to reading more about him in a future post😊
I could not be happier to have introduced you to Bobby! He had such a “bittersweet” story, and if you ask me he absolutely deserves a new generation of fans.
His death is certainly a puzzler, and probably will never be fully explained. Lately I’ve felt that we should, in all fairness, acknowledge that rare freak accidents do happen and are a possibility. The timing of it was odd, in my opinion.
It is very odd…I think a lot of people loved him so much that the idea of suicide was unthinkable and too painful to deal with…either way, his death is a huge loss. I think your article was beautifully written.
Yes, but I have stated, THE DEATH WAS SUICIDE. As medical people I consulted with viewings of the autopsy report; all felt that the bullet hole BEING DIRECTLY ON THE LUNG’S LEFT LOBE, was so precise that the odds of it ‘accidentally’ happening were too slim. They all professionally and personally felt it was suicide. As one said, “A person could more easily win the lottery than making a bet about a gun dropping to the floor and its bullet directly hitting the left side of the chest. The odds are too great for that to happen other than on purpose.”
To reiterate the aspect of Suicide – My thesis is that Harron was disappointed that Griffith, his substitute father, had passed him over for the upcoming BIG picture – Broken Blossoms. Hence, the reason and the date, evening of the premiere, for that deadly sad action.
Hi there Joseph! Looking back on your last two comments, here are my thoughts: while suicide is certainly a strong possibility, freak accidents do happen and are not fully out of the question. Since we cannot declare Bobby’s death to absolutely, without a doubt, be suicide, I feel it’s more fair to him and better for our objectivity as historians not to declare it *must* be such. I know someone who’s also had Harron’s death certificate examined quite recently, who can confirm that it presents very little information to draw a hard and fast conclusion either way (they weren’t as detailed back in those days, as you know).
Having experienced some terrible tragedies myself, I can also confirm that it’s not unusual for surviving family members and friends to feel a sense of guilt over a loved one’s sudden death–this is a natural human reaction, but doesn’t necessarily *prove* anything about the circumstances of a sudden death.
I’ve also always been leery of the theory that Bobby was despondent over being passed over for Broken Blossoms (or Way Down East)–he had just recently been made an official “star,” and had a bright future ahead of him.
So while suicide seems to be the strongest possibility, since we don’t–and likely never will–have all the facts, it’s best to acknowledge that there’s room for doubt.
However, Research does uncover truth to events that have been ‘covered over.’ I literally got copies of the autopsy and death certificate (they were sent forth to MoMA for their Archives). My reasoning for my thesis about suicide has been explained via comments above. Even had medical people review the documents. Yes, Harron was being set-up for self focused starring pictures, BUT they were going to be small pix and Griffith, the Father Figure, had passed him over for “Way Down East” the BIG picture for ‘another son.’ The irony of the death at the premiere? Just a bit too odd to be passed over. Being just about the first ever such event, it was quite a bit easily turned around unlike the other scandalous things happening a few years later in the ‘real’ Hollywood gossip settings. Thus, there is no way I will ever ‘believe’ it was NOT suicide as I did the research, got the documents, and feel so from a solid rational aspect rather than merely following a scandal focusing viewpoint.
Joseph, I really starting to think you believe Harron committed suicide 😉 If I may expand a little on what I said earlier, I know a historian (whom I trust) who also has copies of the autopsy/certificate for a research project, who has had them examined by experts quite recently (both medical and forensic experts, if memory serves me correctly). Their conclusions were that it’s impossible to say 100% if the wound was self-inflicted or not, especially since several days passed from the time the gun went off and the time Bobby died. He would’ve been cleaned up in that time, leaving less hard evidence for the eventual autopsy. The location of the wound is definitely suspicious, they agreed, but apparently the angle of it is odd and strange things can and do happen with firearms.
I trust this researcher, and thus, I will continue to stand by my belief that while suicide seems like the strongest possibility there’s still some room for doubt. Reasonable enough, don’t you think? And I’m still a little leery of reported depression over Way Down East being the root cause of his purported despair–Bobby had been in Hollywood for many years, he had seen actors come and go, he knew how the business worked, and he certainly would’ve grasped the possibilities of being a featured star in his own films even if they weren’t as fancy as Way Down East (smaller pictures were popular, too!).
I will also say that whether the gunshot was accidental or not, Bobby’s incredible talent and legacy as an actor is what’s most important, and arguably more worthy of continued discussion.
Lea:
As a retired REFERENCE Librarian, I also have deep respect for gathering ‘true’ information. I had medical people look over the autopsy as well and, they all agreed with my theory of the wound. Furthermore, my hypothesis was presented during the 1993 Harron Birth Centennial at MoMa in NYC. As mentioned, my presentation and other details are stored in the Museum’s Archives. Unfortunately, Charles Silver, former Film Studies Director, my contact there has since died and with me now living 5 states away, my connections with that fine institution is less than nil. However, as a researcher, I would be really pleased to ‘speak’ with the one you know who has a different viewpoint. We Librarians enjoy gathering new info and love opposing details. Perhaps he/she could give me a better idea and/or i might be able to foster a change upon that person’s position of this situation as well. Afterall, knowledge ends to be checked and re-checked. Furthermore, other than gravity, everything else i open to changes. also wondering about getting the documents as when I went looking for them ‘back then’ with NO exaggeration it was, as per the personnel in NYC, the first ever request for those items. Thus, it would be ‘fun’ to speak about the searching aspects as well (another Librarian pleasure). So, PLEASE, give him/her my connection information as I would truly enjoy sharing/comparing the details. Please give forth my a-o-l connection via SilentFilms101 so dear ole’ Bobby can get people talking about him again. THANKS
I’ll see what I can do!
I have always found it interesting that Bobbie Harron died on September 5th, the same day that Olive Thomas swallowed the fatal dose of poison in Paris. Mary Pickford in her autobiography “Sunshine and Shadows” mistakenly wrote that Bobbie Harron was among the group that accompanied Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas on their European jaunt.
Sad that these two young film actors died so tragically at the height of their careers. And, we will never know the truth of what really happened in both instances.
It’s true, we’ll simply never, ever know 100%. Although in Olive’s case, interestingly, every serious historian and hardcore fan I’ve seen who’s taken the time to research the case thoroughly has agreed that swallowing poison was most likely an accident. Again, we can probably never prove it, but I for one think their arguments are darn convincing.
Thanks for visiting, Jim–stop by any time!
Today, September 6th, I am thinking of both Bobbie Harron and Olive Thomas– yesterday,the 97th anniversary of two tragic accidents. May they both rest in peace.
Think of this event very often and particularly on this date. Harron’s suicide was such a blow of sadness for the family, obviously, as well as for the deep and caring dear ole’ Biograph folks. As a matter of fact, as I type, the personally autographed photos of both Blanche and Lillian are looking over my shoulder with a smiling Bobby between them! During the Spring I will be doing a mini-course on Silents at the local college. Needless to say, Harron will surely be shown and I will definitely be telling, those in attendance, about the events leading up to the his untimely death. May he rest in peace. AMEN
I’ll bet they’re both happy to know that they’re still remembered. 🙂
Which begs the question that if these two tragedies had not happened, would they be remembered?
Think of such long forgotten names such as Mary Fuller, Bobbie Vernon, Florence Lawrence, Ford Sterling, Marie Doro, Marguerite Clark , Nita Naldi. The list goes on and on.
I’d say they would, by silent fans that is. After all, Bobby was fortunate enough to be in both Intolerance and The Birth of a Nation, two landmark films. They might’ve been less discussed, however–even by silent fans.
A very valid and good point indeed. Being associated with a great film (s), does in fact ensure that your name and performance will be preserved for future generations to view and remember.
That’s the greatest thing about film. Unlike the stage, it preserves an actors work indefinitely.
Hi, Lea!
I’m a big fan from Bobby too^^ He was indeed a wonderful actor and I really like his ‘flow’ in his play.To me he is playing very natural, which makes him so unique, in my eyes. All the others are having this theatrical play. Which isn’t bad but that’s the different to Bobby.
I really like him in The greatest question. There happens a mistake to him, which wasn’t planned but it fits perfect to the scene. He is falling over a tree stub because he jumps for happines as they found about the oil on their farm. The cutest scene to me is, where Lillian and Bobby are playing with water. So lovely.
And in Hearts of the world he is just a very handsome guy^^
I found some rarley pictures of him. Two of him you can find here:
https://picclick.com/?q=robert+harron
I have another one, which I can’t find again in the Internet. I like to send it to you, if you want.
And I want to say: You are a very cool writer. I like to read your articles. They are easy to read,and they make fun. Thank you so much, that you care so deeply about silent movies. I like to watch them too but can’t find someone who shares the same passion for them.
I hope you can understand me, my english isn’t my first language.
Have a nice day!
Hi Christin! Thanks so much for the comment, I love connecting with fellow Bobby fans (we’re out there!). Those two portraits on picclick are INCREDIBLE btw, never seen those before! I’ll gladly see what else you have–you can contact me on my About page.
I agree that Bobby was such a natural actor, remarkably so for someone who had no acting experience! He had a “presence” both on camera and in photos, I feel–even in group photos you’ve can tell he’s somebody!
His role in INTOLERANCE is my favorite, I love him in those rural Griffith dramas too. And of course it’s fun to see him pop up in, well, almost every Biograph short ever. It’s great to see him get to be a dashing hero in HEARTS OF THE WORLD–his female fans must’ve sure appreciated that! 😀
Even though it’s an offbeat role, I get a big kick out of his “lazy flirt” in THE GIRL WHO STAYED AT HOME. He had a cute sense of humor and nice comic timing.
And thank you so much Christin for the kind words about Silent-ology, they’re appreciated more than you know! I can sympathize with having a hard time finding fellow silent film fans–thank heavens for the Internet!
OK, I want to sent you an E-Mail. Please, let me know, if you get the mail or not^^
Yes, I start to search him in some of ‘his’ early movies, where he is just standing around somewhere. I can’t find him in Mary Pickfords movie ‘The New York Hat’. He must be around the church but I can only find Lillian Gish. Anyways, I found him in the movie ‘A Drunkard’s Reformation’, with Mack Sennett. He is just a little theatre usher but he plays if there is no camera (and he is so young there^^)
You have group photos which includes him? I only see him alone and in portrait.
Yes, in ‘Intolerance’ he is very amazing! So gentle but still tough.
He must be a lot of female fans. You’ve wrote a quote from Lillian Gish, a part of it: ‘…something about him caught the heart.’ So true! I must read her book again^^
In ‘The girl who stayed at home’ I like him too^^ The funny part suits him very well. I’ve read that his last movie ‘Coincidence’ was a funny movie also.
What happen to that movie? Is he lost?
There is something, I don’t understand: Had Bobby already his own company or not? Or should he get it later?
Maybe you can help me about his death. I don’t know which is true. Some magazines are saying, the gun was in a jacket. But Bobby himself said, the gun was rolled in some pants. Does the magazines use the jacket that it becomes more plausible? What do you think? .
You are very welcome! I hope to read a lot more here…but first I must read some of your older posts. It’s a lot but it makes fun^^
Got your email! 😉
Let’s see, the group photo is of Bobby with other Biograph actors, including Lillian and Dorothy, and I think it’s in one of my books. I feel like it’s online but don’t have it saved anywhere, unfortunately.
COINCIDENCE does appear to be lost, sadly. It was the first film he was releasing with his own company–it supposedly didn’t screen very well, but I wish I could judge it for myself. 😉
Yes, his death is a puzzler, isn’t it? There’s a strong case to be made for his wound being self-inflicted, but reports (and the autopsy itself apparently) are too vague to draw any solid conclusions. I think the most common report was that the gun was bundled in “some clothes” in his trunk, and that he forgot it was there when he was going to change.
Hope you’re enjoying my posts, Christin!
Hello. As always, pleased to ‘see’ someone interested in Mr. Harron. I firmly believe and researched that the death was a suicide. The cover-up was done for a number of reasons – Griffith’s personal embarrassment, the *very* 1st time such a tragedy had happened in the then close knit ‘film world,’ and the fact that, as a Catholic, suicide would not allow for a church burial. Hence, DW covered it all up, professionally for his status, personally due to guilt for passing Bobby up on the film’s starring role, and to ease Mother Harron’s sadness and possibly having her son buried outside the Church’s place. Also, over the years, I personally knew and spoke with both Lillian Gish and Blanche Sweet on the topic prior to my presentations on the topic at MoMA (Harron’s Birth Centennial in ’93). Their comments were in opposition but I also definitely believed their ‘tone’ was done to keep ‘family secrets’ within. Furthermore, the autopsy report (I was, according to the NY Office, the very 1st one of ‘record’ to request such papers) shows that the angle and location of the wound are too ‘perfect’ to have merely been an accident. The doctors and nurses presented with the papers all agreed, as far as they could determine, death was self-inflicted, due to the angle and location of the wound. AMEN
Do you have any interviews from him? It’s not so easy to find some.
Thanks for explain^^
Many films at that time get some bad critics but today a lot of them are be found for good. I guess, the same would be for Coincidence. Time has changed^^
Oh yes, it is. There are some strange things. Maybe the press made it so complicated with their rumours. It was the same like today. The press wants some scorchers. It could be that it is just simple and everyting happened like Bobby said. He is the first source we should believe.but I guess, everything happens so fast (no matter if it was an accident or not) that even his mind was confused. Or he just lied…
I know about his tragic death some years ago. As I read about it the first time, my first intuition was, it was suicide. I don’t know why, maybe because of all these strange and different statements. Especially the thing with the gun, I can’t believe. A gun can’t dicharged so easily.
Even he was a Catholic but still, he was just a human. Even he made mistakes and one of them brought him to despair. But I really hope, I’m wrong and it was just an accident.
Of course I do!^^ Always fun to read and simple to understand. I like how you explain silent movies in different perspectives. Even it’s about the Titel Cards, or the slang or that everyting is real in there. No computer tricks…OK, a little bit but it’s more for fun^^
Thanks for answer me, Lea. You are a very kind person^^
Why thank you, Christin!
For your reading pleasure, here’s one story/interview with Bobby from Photoplay: http://archive.org/stream/photoplay1819chic#page/n443/mode/2up
And another one, also from Photoplay: http://archive.org/stream/pho1314chic#page/n27/mode/2up
Enjoy!
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This is a great article! I confess I have not paid as much attention to Bobby Harron as I should. When it comes to the great Griffith performances, I think the women definitely receive the lion’s share of critical attention.
I also appreciate your open-mindedness on the circumstances of his death. Even if it was a suicide attempt, if he called the front desk for help, he might have been having second thoughts. We really just don’t know what was in his heart– or if it could have been a freak accident as you said! For all the strong opinions on this one, the best any can be are educated guesses, not facts.
That’s the best way to look at it, I agree. And yes, there’s so much attention to the actresses Harron worked with, but not Harron himself. Maybe part of this is because the actor himself seemed to be very modest, the first to try and deflect attention from himself– that’s the impression I get anyways.
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