William E. Shay — Motography’s Gallery of Picture Players (1914) 🇺🇸

William Shay is one of the oldest leads in any of the Universal companies in point of service. Affiliated with the Imp Company as lead for several years, he has endeared himself to the hearts of millions of screen fans.

Mr. Shay [William E. Shay] was born and educated in New York City. Naturally shifted as a musician, and always a student of it, he went to Paris at an early age to study the piano. There he stayed for three years before he returned to enter the musical field.

However, the stage got into his blood, and he soon was playing leads in a prominent stock company in the east. He remained in this held for two years, and then joined Mrs. Leslie Carter, with whom he played for ten years.

The Imp Company discovered him and he has been with it for four years as leading man under the direction of Herbert Brenon. One of his best pictures is “Neptune’s Daughter.”

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Collection: Motography Magazine, August 1914