Dennis King — Another Fairbanks (1929) 🇺🇸

He can do Fairbanks’ “stuff,” too, sword play and all. Even his voice has that same dramatic quality. Doug has always been a romantic figure. So has King.

by Phillip Merton

Dennis King makes you think of Fairbanks (Douglas Fairbanks Sr.). King is not tall, yet he is so active that you never notice his height. His carriage is erect, and he has Doug’s slim grace.

There is a glamor to King that I have felt in few people. That is why I believe he is destined for greatness on the screen. He was a tremendous success in New York in Rose Marie, The Vagabond King, and The Three Musketeers.

His first screen appearance will be in Paramount’s Technicolor production of The Vagabond King, which brings Rudolph Friml’s glowing music to the screen. It has been in production for many weeks.

If Dennis King is like Fairbanks, there are times, too, when his resemblance to John Barrymore is startling. And like Barrymore and Fairbanks, Dennis King will always be at his best in costume pictures.

King’s boyhood explains that, for he was born in Coventry, England. In the shadows of the spires of Coventry he heard of the good lady Godiva who took a little jaunt through the streets, garbed only in her long hair.

For a romantic boy there is no future but the stage, or writing, or wandering. When Dennis was fourteen he ran away and became a call-boy in John Drinkwater’s repertory theater in Birmingham.

The war delayed his career four years. He lied about his age and joined the conflict. He served for four years and was wounded.

He was beginning to make a small success in England when he came to America with Monsieur Beaucaire. One of his early American successes was as Mercurio in Jane Cowl’s Romeo and Juliet. He came to Los Angeles, but none of the producers were interested in his camera possibilities.

During the long New York run of Romeo and Juliet he took up the study of voice. His singing teacher discovered that he had a splendid voice. Hammerstein sent for him for the male role in Rose Marie. His success was instantaneous. The rest is Broadway history.

His voice is beautiful, a baritone with the lyric quality of a tenor.

Dennis married a young English girl before he came to America. Mrs. King joined him in Hollywood before the picture was completed. Just before he left New York she presented him with a son, their second. Dennis is a great man with a rapier. He’ll cut his way to film fame.

Collection: Photoplay Magazine, December 1929