Richard Arlen — They Almost Called Him “Doc” Arlen (1925) 🇺🇸

Richard Arlen, recently placed under contract by Paramount, advances a brand-new reason for his entry into the world of cinema.

Arlen insists that if the recent World War had not broken out, there is every reason to believe he would at the present time be known to dental surgery friends as “Doc.”

He is a Southerner, was educated at a preparatory school in St. Paul, Minnesota, and entered the University of Pennsylvania to prepare himself for dentistry as a profession. But the war came screaming into his life and he joined the Royal Flying Corps. He saw action and plenty of it.

When the struggle was ended, Arlen had lost all interest in dentistry and went to South America to engage in the oil business. While there, a motion-picture company on location interested him. He became acquainted with the director and some of the players and the acting bug bit him.

After the company left, he decided to follow and went to Hollywood, where he joined the vast throng knocking at the casting-office doors day after day. He was successful in getting several small parts, most of which were eliminated from the pictures in the final cutting, but even that failed to break his spirit.

Eventually, he was cast for parts that remained in and his personality began to come to the attention of directors. His work in Paramount’s “In the Name of Love,” won him recognition, Jesse L. Lasky offered him a contract and his days of worry ended.

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Photo by: Eugene Robert Richee

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, September 1925