British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 11-216.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 441
His striking looks resonated with audiences
Ralph Graves was born Ralph Taylor Horsburgh in 1900 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the son of John Taylor Horsburgh, the manager of a forging company, and his wife Lillian Graves. Ralph's parents eventually divorced, and as a young man he entered a contest sponsored by Universal Pictures. That proved to be his entry into the movies. In 1918, Ralph began working for Essanay in Chicago when he was only 17 years old. He used his mother's surname.
One of his first films was the drama Sporting Life (Maurice Tourneur, 1918), co-starring the sisters Faire Binney and Constance Binney, from the Broadway stage. Tourneur also directed him in The White Heather (Maurice Tourneur, 1919), starring Holmes Herbert and Ben Alexander. His striking looks resonated with audiences. He also appeared in Marshall Neilan's drama Her Kingdom of Dreams (Marshall Neilan, 1919) starring Anita Stewart.
D. W. Griffith directed him three times: in the Western Scarlet Days (1919) starring Richard Barthelmess, the drama The Greatest Question (1919) starring Lillian Gish and Bobby Harron, and the drama Dream Street (1921) with Carol Dempster. Graves also worked with Raoul Walsh on the drama Kindred of the Dust (1921), co-starring with Walsh's wife, Miriam Cooper. During filming, Cooper accidentally gazed into a stage light, causing her permanent eye damage that lasted until the end of her life. The film was one of Cooper's last films as she retired in 1923.
In the societal drama Prodigal Daughters (Sam Wood, 1923), Graves was the leading man of Gloria Swanson. In 1923, he began a three-year contract with Mack Sennett, appearing opposite Mabel Normand in The Extra Girl (F. Richard Jones, 1924). Between 1924 and 1926, he starred in his own series of 22 two-reel comedies for Sennett.
Graves wrote, directed, and starred in Swell Hogan (1926). That film was produced by Howard Hughes, whose father had once supported the young actor in the early stages of his career by placing him on the payroll of the Hughes Tool Company between screen assignments, even though Graves never actually worked there. Graves and the younger Hughes met on the Wilshire Country Club golf course, and over lunch the actor pitched the film about a Bowery bum who adopts a baby. The plot intrigued Hughes, who had a strong interest in Hollywood, and he invested $40,000 in the project. During filming, he sat on the sidelines to familiarise himself with the technical aspects of production. The budget eventually doubled, and after seeing the completed film numerous times, Hughes hired Dorothy Arzner to help him re-edit it, but there was little they could do to salvage it. Reportedly, the film was so bad that Hughes burned it. According to Wikipedia, Graves later claimed he and Hughes had engaged in a sexual relationship while collaborating on Swell Hogan.
Italian postcard, no. 132. Renée Adorée and Ralph Graves. They co-starred in Blarney (Marcel De Sano, 1926). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Vintage collector card. Photo: Columbia. Jack Holt, Lila Lee and Ralph Graves in War Correspondent (Paul Sloane, 1932).
Working with Frank Capra and Jack Holt
Despite this temporary setback, Ralph Graves directed four more films in 1927 and contributed the story or wrote the screenplay for 12 additional films, but most of his career was spent acting. While working for Mack Sennett, Graves had met Frank Capra. The young director cast him opposite Viola Dana in the comedy That Certain Thing (Frank Capra, 1928). It was Capra's first film for Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures.
Capra later cast Graves in several films, including Columbia's second sound feature Submarine (Frank Capra, 1928) with Jack Holt, and Flight (Frank Capra, 1929), with Holt and Lila Lee, and based on a story by Graves. He worked steadily through the 1930s, in such films as Ladies of Leisure (Frank Capra, 1930), Dirigible (Frank Capra, 1931), the sports drama Huddle (Sam Wood, 1932) with Ramon Novarro, and the mystery Ticket to a Crime (Lewis D. Collins, 1934)
Graves co-starred with many of the era's leading ladies, including Anita Page, Barbara Stanwyck and Fay Wray. From the mid-1930s, he acted primarily at lesser studios, and more sporadically so through the 1940s. His last job in the industry was in Joe Palooka and the Counterpunch (Reginald LeBorg, 1949) for Monogram featuring Leon Errol. After this, he retired from the business and dabbled in real estate.
His first wife, actress Marjorie Seaman, died very young in 1923. He married his second wife, Virginia Goodwin, in 1928. They had a child, but divorced in 1932. His third wife was actress Betty Flournoy. They married in 1934, had two children and remained together till his death. In 1938, their infant daughter was asphyxiated in the mosquito netting on her carriage. Ralph Graves died in 1977 in Santa Barbara, California, USA. He was 76.
In his book 'Silent Topics: Undocumented Areas of Silent Film', Anthony Slide writes about Graves' bisexuality: "A drunken Ralph Graves once revealed to me [Slide] that he had bedded a number of male personalities in the 'teens and 1920s: "I was a young male; I'd been in bed a couple of times with a number of fairies. Noel Coward came to my house, loved it, and said he didn't like Hollywood faggots. He knew I was one thing. And Somerset Maugham."
British postcard in the Film Partners series, London, no. PC 18. Ralph Graves and Joan Marsh.
Belgian postcard by Ed. Weekblad 'Cinema', Antwerp.
Submarine (Frank Capra, 1928). Source: Stream City (YouTube).
Sources: Trav S.D. (Travalanche), Harold Aherne a.o. (Nitrateville), Leo James (Find A Grave), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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