Lawrence Gray — Fate Made Him an Actor (1926) 🇺🇸

He always had a disdain for acting, so that is why he will probably make a good actor.

On the surface, this deduction may appear a trifle strained, but sometimes those who yearn and burn most to do certain things do not achieve because of the overintensity of their desire and purpose. A little disdain is often a good thing. And Lawrence Gray, Famous Players’ new juvenile, is proving it. Because today, after having played in only a few pictures, he is more enthusiastic over screen acting than anything he has ever known.

Three years ago Gray came to Hollywood from San Francisco, where he had been raised. His parents had always had strong prejudices against the stage, but their opinions did not influence their son, because when he arrived in Hollywood, he went to Famous Players, and applied for a job along technical lines, and got it.

As one of numerous assistants on production, his work brought him into contact with stars like Bebe Daniels, Betty Compson, and others. And often they asked him, “Lawrence, why don’t you become an actor? You look like one.” But he wanted only to become a director.

Transferred to the Lasky studios [Jesse L. Lasky] in New York, he remained in the East for two years, and then was suddenly dropped, on account of a slackening up of production.

Upset at first, the idea that he had been evading for three years suddenly struck him.

His next move was back to Hollywood. Paul Bern, director, gave him a very small part in “The Dressmaker of Paris.”

Even the comparatively few flashes given him in that film were evidently good enough to impress the powers at Lasky’s, because Gray was immediately assigned to a good part in Are Parents People?. And then he was given the lead opposite Gloria Swanson in Stage Struck, and later in The Untamed Lady. And now he is in “The Palm Beach Girl” with Bebe Daniels.

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Photo by: Potter

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, October 1926