Broncho Billy Anderson (March 21, 1880—January 20, 1971) was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, as Maxwell Henry Aronson to Henry Aronson and his wife Esther Ash. His Jewish grandparents on both sides of his family had immigrated to the U.S. from Europe, and his sister, Leona Anderson, was an actress who appeared with Charlie Chaplin in the 1915 comedy In the Park, and with Stan Laurel in the spoof Mud and Sand.
As a boy, Anderson lived with his family in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and St. Louis, Missouri. When he turned 18, he appeared in vaudeville and theater. He appeared as several characters in the 1903 movie The Great Train Robbery, including the dancing tenderfoot. He changed his name to Gilbert M. Anderson.
In 1907 with George Kirke Spoor, he founded Essanay Studios (eg, S&A), and was the director of Mr. Flip, best remembered as one of the earliest, if not the very first, movie with a pie in the face gag. He acted in over 300 short films, 148 of which he played the first cowboy movie star, Broncho Billy. Many were filmed in Niles, a small town in Alameda County, California. Today, Niles is part of Fremont, California, where there is an annual silent film festival in his honor.
Anderson sold his ownership of Essanay in 1916, retiring from acting for the first time. When a venture as a theatre producer didn’t work out, he made a series of shorts, including A Lucky Dog with the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy. He retired again in 1920. Thirty eight years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him as a motion picture pioneer. In 1965 he accepted a cameo role in The Bounty Killer. He lived the last few years of his life at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. He died of a heart attack in a sanitarium at the age of 90.
Tomorrow, March 22: William Shatner
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SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article.
Wow! What an interesting story. I love reading about people I never knew about.