Monte Blue

Stalwart, durable Monte Blue (1887-1963) was an American romantic leading man of the silent cinema. He entered films as an assistant director and stuntman with D.W. Griffith. Blue's finest role was the alcoholic doctor who finds paradise in the film about which we had a post yesterday, White Shadows in the South Seas (1928).


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 893. Photo: Warner Bros / Micheluzzi Verleih. Monte Blue in One-Round Hogan (Howard Bretherton, 1927).


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 35a. Photo: Warner Bros.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 226.


German postcard. Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 110/2. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Monte Blue and Raquel Torres in White Shadows in the South Seas (W.S. Van Dyke, Robert Flaherty, 1928).

Stuntman for Houdini

Monte Blue was born Gerard Montgomery Blue in 1887 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father was half-French and part Cherokee and Osage Indian, a Civil War veteran in the Union army who had once served as a scout for famed frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody.

His father was killed in a railroad accident when Blue was eight years old. His mother could not raise Monte and her other four children by herself, so Monte and one of his brothers were raised in the Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home in Knightstown, Indiana. He eventually worked his way through Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

He played football and worked as a fireman, railroad worker, coal miner, cowpuncher, ranch hand, circus rider, and lumberjack. He started his film career as a stuntman for D.W. Griffith and made his debut as an extra in The Birth of a Nation (1915). Next, he played another small part in Intolerance (D. W. Griffith, 1916).

He also was a stuntman or stand-in for Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree during the making of Macbeth (John Emerson, 1916). He also appeared in the Harry Houdini film The Grim Game (Irvin Willat, 1919) in which he did stunts in an aeroplane because Houdini had a fear of flying.

Gradually moving to support roles for both D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, Blue earned his breakthrough role as Danton in Griffith's classic Orphans of the Storm (D.W. Griffith, 1921) with Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish.


American postcard by Max B. Sheffer Card Co., Chicago (M.B.S.C.Co.), 1922. Photo: First National. Monte Blue as Abner Elliott in The Affairs of Anatol (Cecil B. DeMille, 1921).


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 464. Photo: Ernest Bachrach / Paramount Pictures. Mae Murray and Monte Blue in The Gilded Lily (Robert Z. Leonard, 1921).


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 488. Photo: Metro Picture. Viola Dana and Monte Blue in Revelation (George D. Baker, 1927). The Italian title is Aspiri e sospiri.....


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 110/6. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Monte Blue in White Shadows in the South Seas (W.S. Van Dyke, Robert Flaherty, 1928).

A rugged romantic lead

Monte Blue rose to stardom as a rugged romantic lead opposite Hollywood's top silent stars, among them Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow, and Norma Shearer. He was most often partnered with Marie Prevost, such as in the silent romantic comedy Kiss Me Again (Ernst Lubitsch, 1925).

Blue's finest silent-screen performance was as the alcoholic doctor who finds paradise in White Shadows in the South Seas (W.S. Van Dyke, Robert Flaherty, 1928).

He made a relatively easy transition into talkies as he had a fine, cultivated voice, but, at the same time, lost most of his investments when the stock market crashed in 1929. By the 1930s the ageing star had moved back into small, often unbilled parts, continuously employed, however, by his old friend DeMille and Warner Bros.

In the Film Noir Key Largo (John Huston, 1948), Blue was memorable as 'Sheriff Ben Wade' opposite Lionel Barrymore. On TV, he was a recurring guest star in The Lone Ranger (1949-1953). At the end of his life, he was working as an advance man for the Hamid-Morton Circus in Milwaukee.

Monte Blue died of a coronary attack complicated by influenza in 1963. He was married three times. His wives were Erma Gladys (divorced in 1923), Tove Janson (1924-1956; her death) and Betty Jean Munson Mess (1959-1963; his death). With Janson he had two children: Barbara Ann (d. 2008) and Richard Monte (d. 1962).


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 466. Photo: Warner Bros.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 23. Photo: Paramount.


British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. 35a.


Spanish postcard by EFB (Editorial Fotografica, Barcelona), no. A-33.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, no. PC6, London. Photo: Columbia. Monte Blue and Eleanor Boardman in The Flood (James Tinling, 1931).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 10 June 2023.