Lewis Stone — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

Those who witnessed Lewis Stone’s opportunities in The Dangerous Age hardly will wonder why this eminent stage star deserted his former profession for the screen when roles of that type were lying around loose, with pretty girls to be kissed.

Mr. Stone was a genuine example of the theatre favorite for many years. His popularity followed him vigorously throughout the years, as he appeared in leading plays from Coast to Coast. When he deserted to join the films, there was protest. But this has died away away to a murmur, for the actor has well re-established himself, but this time upon the screen.

Lewis Stone was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1879. At the age of six he was taken by his parents to Boston, and four years later the family moved to New York, where young Stone spent his boyhood. He was educated in the public schools of New York City, leaving his studies to go into the Spanish-American War. He was a sergeant in “H” company of the Twelfth New York Infantry.

When he returned from the war, he went on the stage in 1900, his first role in the theatre being that of a “heavy” in a comedy with music called Side-Tracked. Following this piece, he played in The Bowery After Dark on the road. His first New York appearance was in The Great White Diamond.

After six years in the Belasco Theatre stock companies in Los Angeles, he went to New York with the premier company of The Bird of Paradise. Following this engagement, he appeared in New York in The Misleading Lady, Inside the Lines, Bunny, with Charlotte Walker in Nancy Lee, in Where Poppies Bloom with Marjorie Rambeau, and The Brat.

When he closed his engagement with The Brat in 1917 he entered the ranks of infantry instructors at Plattsburg training camp.

Mr. Stone’s first screen appearance was in “Held By the Enemy.” Next he played in Neilan’s [Marshall Neilan] “The River’s End.” Called by various studios, he began to add to his string, playing in such features as “Man’s Desire,” “Milestones,” “The Concert,” “Don’t Neglect Your Wife,” “Beau Revell,” “Nomads of the North,” “The Golden Snare” and “Muffled Drums.”

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Lewis Stone really isn’t ill. He just wants the attention of the lovely lady (Barbara La Marr).

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)