Paul Nicholson — A Pioneer Comes Back (1925) 🇺🇸

The name of Paul Nicholson may not mean a great deal to you. But for those who are interested in statistics, it is that of the first known actor of training to appear before the camera.

And now, after having started it all, and then retired from the scene for over twenty years, Paul Nicholson has returned to pictures and will, no doubt, continue in them as long as satisfactory parts are offered him.

It was back in 1897, when the old Biograph-Mutoscope Company in New York decided to film story episodes in place of the merely moving objects that had been done up to that time, that Paul Nicholson made his first screen appearance. He was a young stage favorite whom the Biograph company thought it would be a good idea to get to bolster up their untrained acting crew.

After a summer of strenuous day and night work, things in the legitimate stage world picked up again and he left pictures to be starred in stage comedies. Between production engagements, he was partner in a well-known vaudeville act with The Talkative Miss Norton.

It was while he was in California last summer for a rest that Paul Nicholson was induced to enter pictures again. He looks like a screen heavy, but has always played comedy rôles.

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Collection: Picture Play Magazine, October 1925