Malcolm McGregor

Smooth, dark-haired Malcolm McGregor (1892-1945) had a rich Hollywood career as a leading man of 1920s silent action films and melodramas. He was the handsome and clean-cut partner to such glamorous stars as Pauline Frederick, Norma Shearer and Corinne Griffith. Like so many of his contemporaries, McGregor's career quickly waned after the changeover to sound.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 337.


French postcard in the Series Les Vedettes de Cinéma by A.N., Paris, no. 228. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn.

The highlight of a busy career

Malcolm McGregor was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1892. His parents were Austin Hall McGregor and Emily Ward Ripley McGregor.

Initially, he was under contract with Metro. McGregor debuted in The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram, 1922) as Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim, who helps to defend his king.  "Perhaps after mature deliberation I may want to retract the statement, but in this moment of enthusiasm I want to say that I think The Prisoner of Zenda is the best picture I have ever seen", raved the Chicago Tribune critic.[

McGregor had his breakthrough as the male lead in Broken Chains (Allen Holubar, 1922) opposite Colleen Moore and Ernest Torrence. It was based on the winning story from a scenario contest held by the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and the Chicago Daily News. Among 27,000 entries, Winifred Kimball's 'Broken Chains' was selected. Experienced scenarist Carey Wilson made it ready for filming.

McGregor starred as the young whaling captain in the film version of Ben Ames Williams' All the Brothers Were Valiant (Irving Willat, 1923) with Billie Dove and Lon Chaney. Photoplay: "This is a whaling good story, though overlong. Most of the action is on board a ship, and there is some good saltwater atmosphere. Both of the brothers are valiant. Malcolm McGregor is a likeable hero. And the other, Lon Chaney, is most villainous!"

The film was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire and was considered completely lost until some reels (500 metres, app. 25 minutes) were discovered at Eye Filmmuseum in the Netherlands in 2014. All the Brothers Were Valiant was perhaps the highlight of a busy career that mostly found the handsome actor supporting such glamorous female stars.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 679/4. Lewis Stone as Rudolph Rassendyll and Alice Terry as Princess Flavia in The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram, 1922). The Bismarck-like guy behind Terry is the actor Robert Edeson, who plays Colonel Sapt. Behind him is Malcolm McGregor, who plays Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim. Both are the loyal aids of the King, defending him against his evil half-brother Michael (Stuart Holmes, who might be the man in black on the right) and his plotting cronies: his mistress Antoinette (Barbara La Marr) and Rupert von Hentzau (Ramon Novarro). Trying to stop a coup by Michael, who has abducted and imprisoned the real king, Sapt and Tarlenheim arrange a lookalike cousin of the king to be crowned (which we see on this card). The substitute king falls in love with Princess Flavia, but he cannot tell the truth... Stone played both the King and his lookalike.


Belgian postcard by Ed. Weekblad Cinéma, Antwerp.

Second fiddle to Bela Lugosi

Malcolm McGregor was the partner of Pauline Frederick in Smouldering Fires (Clarence Brown, 1923), Norma Shearer in Lady of the Night (Monta Bell, 1925) and Corinne Griffith in Infatuation (Irvin Cummings, 1925).

He also co-starred with such glamorous stars as Colleen Moore, May McAvoy, Florence Vidor, Patsy Ruth Miller, and Evelyn Brent. He appeared in Frank Borzage's The Circle (1925), starring Eleanor Boardman, and Michael Curtiz's The Man from the Sea (1927), starring Dolores Costello and Warner Oland.

Until the late 1920s, McGregor had a prosperous career, but when sound set in, his career waned. He was reduced to playing second fiddle to Bela Lugosi in the Mascot serial The Whispering Shadow (Colbert Clark, Albert Herman, 1932). He had a small, uncredited role in China Seas (Tay Garnett, 1935), with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow.

McGregor retired after playing a gangster in a low-budget screen version of radio's Special Agent K-7 (Raymond K. Johnson, 1937). Malcolm McGregor was married twice. In 1916, he married Genevieve Murphy, and in 1918, they had a daughter, Joan. In 1938, Aimee Christine Rochester became his second wife.

In 1945, McGregor died in General Hospital, Los Angeles, from facial and body burns received in his Hollywood home. Police reported he was found collapsed on the floor near a bed where he had apparently fallen asleep while smoking. Malcolm McGregor was 52. He was interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Los Angeles County.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 158.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 158a.

Sources: Find A Grave, Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb. Our thanks to Elif Rongen (Eye Filmmuseum) for additional information.