Frank Marion — The Boy Grows Older (1928) 🇺🇸
What happens to the little stars of the movies? Answer: They grow up to be big stars — sometimes.
Frank Marion [Francis Marion] is a fair example. He is a find of the DeMille [Cecil B. DeMille] organization, but his career actually began long before he had arrived at his present stage of juvenility. Frank, you may remember, was the son of the village capitalist, in The Country Doctor, in love with the genial old physician’s ward. At that time there was thought of costarring him with Virginia Bradford, who played the girl, as the two were placed under contract at just about the same time.
Frank made his debut in pictures when he was nine, with the D. W. Griffith organization. In “Hearts of the World” he was cast as Benny Alexander’s brother, but Benny [Ben Alexander] had the better break in this. Marion played kid parts in “The World and Its Woman,” starring Geraldine Farrar, and with Constance Collier and Sir Herbert Tree during their venture in the films. Later he was with Mary Pickford, in Little Lord Fauntleroy, which spelled the end of his movie work as a youngster, and according to all expectations, of his further continuing in the films.
Marion went to a Jesuit school in Los Angeles, and is said at one time to have contemplated becoming a priest. Pictures looked like a remote dream and, in fact, he had no desire to return to them.
But a friend of the family, a theatrical agent, refused to let Marion forget about a film future. He kept constantly reminding him with the question:
“Well, Frank, when are you going back into pictures?”
Frank would laugh at him from day to day, saying, “Oh, quit kidding me. I’m through with pictures. You couldn’t get me back into them for anything in the world.”
“All right,” the agent would reply, “we’ll see.”
Then the tests for the juvenile lead in The Country Doctor were under way. They were looking for a new player and a new type. The agent heard about it.
“Now’s your chance,” he said. “If you’re going back you’d better step.”
The agent argued hotly for about an hour, and then after Frank had said, “Oh well, all right,” the appointment for the test was arranged. Before he knew it, Marion had signed a contract and was being billed as a bright hope by the DeMille studio. After The Country Doctor he had played the hero, in The Wreck of the Hesperus.
He is a descendant of General Francis Marion, of Revolutionary War fame.
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Collection: Picture Play Magazine, March 1928
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Transcriber’s Note: This article is about Francis Marion (1905–1992). Not to be confused with movie pioneer Frank Marion (Frank Joseph Marion | 1869–1963), one of the Kalem Company’s co-founders, or with screewriter Frances Marion (1888–1973).