Thomas Meighan

Thomas Meighan (1879-1936) was an American stage and screen actor. He starred in seven silent films by William C. de Mille and five others by his brother, Cecil B. DeMille.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 360. Photo: Paramount.


British postcard in the "Pictures" Portrait Gallery by Pictures Ltd, London, no. 136.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1153.


British postcard by Beagles in the 'Famous Cinema Star' series, no. 114.A.


Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 154. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Thomas Meighan and Leatrice Joy.

Nearly eighty silent films

Thomas Meighan was born in 1879 to John and Mary Meighan in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was the president of Pittsburgh Facing Mills, a major manufacturing company, and his family was well-off. Meighan's parents encouraged him to go to college, but he refused. At the age of 15, his father sent him to work shovelling coal in an effort to instil a sense of discipline and a strong work ethic. After his experience with manual labour, he attended Mount St. Mary's College to study pharmacology. After three years of study, Meighan decided he wished to pursue acting. This decision ultimately resulted in a career in both theatre and the emerging film industry.

Meighan became a juvenile player in the Pittsburgh Stock Company, headed by Henrietta Crosman. In 1900, he began his acting career on Broadway in New York. Between 1900 and 1912, he acted in six plays, among which two were with John Barrymore and Lucile Watson. His breakthrough role came in 1908 when he appeared with William Collier Sr. in 'The Dictator'. This play was followed by a leading role in 'The College Widow', which had a successful run on Broadway in the 1907–1908 season. During this run, he met his wife, Frances Ring. Though he became a well-known film star from the late 1910s on, he remained devoted to the stage.

Thomas Meighan made his film debut in a short British film with Gladys Cooper. His first film was titled Dandy Donovan, the Gentleman Cracksman. The film was shot in London during his performances at a theatre in England in 1914. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Having developed a highly respected name for himself on Broadway right after the turn of the century, he decided, at the age of 36, to give up the stage to pursue the still-floundering medium of movie-making. It was a wise and prosperous move."

In 1915, the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation gave Meighan a contract, and the American studio produced most of his films. Till 1928, Meighan contributed to nearly eighty silent films. His first American film was The Fighting Hope (George Melford, 1915) with Laura Hope Crews. During the next two years, Meighan's career took off. In 1918, he made a propaganda film for World War I, titled Norma Talmadge and Thomas Meighan in a Liberty Loan Appeal. He then played opposite Mary Pickford in M'Liss (Marshall Neilan, 1918).

Thomas Meighan achieved stardom in 1919. He had his breakthrough with The Miracle Man (George Loane Tucker, 1915). He played Tom Burke, a notorious con-man, who tries one last scheme, a faith-healing scam, before going clean. The film co-starred Betty Compson and Lon Chaney. Initially produced for $126,000, the film grossed $1,000,000 in theatrical rentals and became the second-highest-grossing film of 1919. The Miracle Man is now believed to be lost except for brief clips. From then on, Meighan commanded a salary of $5,000 per week for much of his career. At one point, it reached $10,000 per week.


Spanish postcard by La Novela Semanal Cinematografica, no. 72.


Spanish collector card in the Collecciones Amatller Series, Series M, artist 17, no. 48, by Chocolate Amatller. Thomas Meighan and the Spanish writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. The latter was the author of 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', 'Mare Nostrum', 'The Torrent', 'The Temptress', and 'Blood and Sand', all filmed in Hollywood in the 1920s, even if not with Meighan.


Spanish minicard in the Escenas selectas de cinematografía series, series B, no. 2, for Juan Garcia, Chocolates Gavilan, Alicante. Thomas Meighan in The Miracle Man (George Loan Tucker, 1919). The woman could be Betty Compson.


Spanish minicard in the Series Intimidades cinematograficas, series I, card 9 of 20. Caption: Filming in a stormy area. Here, Thomas Meighan and director Alfred Green, during the making of The Ne'er Do Well (1923), shot in Panama. The director, holding the film's script, points out to the actor where he needs to go, the door of the local Teatro Tivoli. Next to them, the camera, which cannot wait to get set in motion by the cinematographer, who is just finishing lunch.


Spanish collector card in the series 'Los artistas cinematográficos en la intimidad' by Amatller, Barcelona, Series A. Left to right: Thomas Meighan, Jeanie MacPherson, Lois Wilson, Cecil B. DeMille, Conrad Nagel, and Gloria Swanson. The photo was made during a visit to Nagel's villa, part of one of the biggest acacia plantations in California.


American arcade card. Ex. Sup. Co., Chicago. Paramount Pictures. Thomas Meighan in The Alaskan (Herbert Brenon, 1924).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 39. Photo: Apeda.


French postcard by A.N. Paris, in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series, no. 21. Photo: Paramount.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 110. Photo: Paramount.

Involved in two Hollywood scandals

Thomas Meighan next appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's Male and Female (Cecil B. DeMille, 1919), which starred him with Gloria Swanson and Lila Lee. Most of that film's cast returned for the comedy Why Change Your Wife? (Cecil B. DeMille, 1920), which co-starred Bebe Daniels. He appeared in three other films by DeMille and seven films by his brother, William C. de Mille. Among his best-known films is also Manslaughter (Cecil B. DeMille, 1922) with Leatrice Joy and Lois Wilson.

His popularity continued through the Roaring Twenties, during which he starred in several pictures. His female film partners included Renée Adorée (two films), Billie Burke (five films), Pauline Frederick (five films), Leatrice Joy (three films in 1922, including Manslaughter), Lila Lee (eleven films), Blanche Sweet (five films), Norma Talmadge (three films), Virginia Valli (two films), and Lois Wilson (five films). In the mid-1920s, Paramount decided to close its New York Astoria studio and bring its big three stars, Richard Dix, Bebe Daniels and Thomas Meighan to Hollywood. Meighan refused and was too big a star at the time to be fired, so the studio ostensibly kept the facility open for him.

In 1924, he played in The Alaskan (Herbert Brenon, 1924) with Estelle Taylor and Anna May Wong. He also co-starred with Louise Brooks in the crime film The City Gone Wild (James Cruze, 1927). His final silent films were The Mating Call (1928), which was critical of the Ku Klux Klan, and The Racket (Lewis Milestone, 1928), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Both were produced by Howard Hughes and were thought lost until rediscovered in private collections in 2006.

Thomas Meighan's first sound feature film was The Argyle Case (Howard Bretherton, 1929, with H.B. Warner, Lila Lee, and Zasu Pitts. At this time, he was nearing 50. Fearing his popularity might wane, he decided to go into real estate. It wasn't until 1931 that he returned to the screen with Young Sinners (John G. Blystone, 1931). Meighan only made four other sound films, the last one being Peck's Bad Boy (Edward F. Cline, 1934) with Jackie Cooper. Two years later, in 1936, Thomas Meighan died prematurely of lung cancer. He was originally buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens. After almost a year, his remains were moved to a family plot at Saint Mary Cemetery in Meighan's hometown of Pittsburgh.

Meighan was involved in two Hollywood scandals: he was the only witness at the secret marriage of Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas, and he paid a large share of the bail to get Rudolph Valentino out of prison after the latter was accused of bigamy. Thomas Meighan and Frances Ring remained married until his death. Their marriage was considered happy and strong. One writer remarked, "Thomas Meighan and Rin Tin Tin were the only Hollywood stars who had never seen a divorce court". The couple had no children. For his contribution to the cinema, a star is dedicated to Thomas Meighan on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. The Thomas Meighan Theatre in New Port Richey, Florida, was named in his honour. Designed by Thomas Reed Martin, the 500-seat theatre opened with Meighan's The New Klondike (Lewis Milestone, 1926). The building still stands but is now called the Richey Suncoast Theatre.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Paramount. Thomas Meighan and Leatrice Joy.


British postcard in the second Series of 42 Cinema Stars issued with Sarony Cigarettes, no. 57. Photo: Warner Bros.


Belgian postcard Weekblad Cinéma, Antwerpen.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1118.


Russian postcard by Gozniak, Moscow, 1927, Series 2,no. A. 1725.


Spanish postcard by EFB (Editorial Fotografica, Barcelona), no. A.86.


British hand-coloured postcard, in the Foreign Series by Ross Verlag no. 1438/1. Photo: Paramount.

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

Dolph Lundgren

Muscular Dolph Lundgren (1957), with his square jaw and bold blue eyes, is a Swedish actor, director, martial artist, screenwriter, and producer. Since his breakthrough in Rocky IV (1985), he has starred in more than 80 action films.


British postcard by Athena International, no. 335233, 1987.


English postcard by Star-Graphics, London, no. S 133. Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV (Sylvester Stallone, 1985).


Vintage postcard by Amazing Movie Cards by Taro, no. 30. Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude van Damme in Universal Soldier (Roland Emmerich, 1992).

A desire to participate in heavy-contact sports

Dolph Lundgren was born Hans Lundgren in 1957 in Stockholm to Sigrid Birgitta née Tjerneld, a language teacher, and Karl Johan Hugo Lundgren, an engineer and economist for the Swedish government. At age seven, he tried judo and Gōjū-ryū. He took up Kyokushin karate at the age of 10 and began training with weights as a teenager.

Lundgren claims his father was physically abusive and took out his own personal frustrations on his wife and son. He has cited his troubled relationship with his father as the reason he developed a desire to participate in heavy contact sports such as boxing and karate. Despite an early interest in music and the fine arts, Dolph decided to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue an Engineering degree.

After having completed his military service, he enrolled at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He later received a degree in chemistry from Washington State University and a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in 1982. He holds the rank of 3rd dan black belt in Kyokushin karate and was the European champion from 1980 to 1981.

While in Sydney, he became a bodyguard for Jamaican singer Grace Jones and began a relationship with her. He received a Fulbright scholarship to MIT and moved to Boston. Jones convinced him to leave the University and move to New York City to be with her and begin acting. He changed his forename to Dolph.

After a short stint as a model and bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub The Limelight, Grace Jones got him a small debut role as a KGB henchman in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (John Glen, 1985) starring Roger Moore in his final film as 007. Lundgren's breakthrough came when he starred in Rocky IV (Sylvester Stallone, 1985) as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, he has starred in more than 80 films, including dozens of direct-to-video films in the action genre.


Italian postcard by Vittorius, Roma (Rome), no. VR 510. Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV (Sylvester Stallone, 1985).


Italian postcard by Vittorius Roma, no. VR 618. Photo: Cannon / Scotia. Dolph Lundgren in Masters of the Universe (Gary Goddard, 1987).


Spanish poster postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 531. Spanish poster of Dolph Lundgren in The Punisher (Mark Goldblatt, 1989). The Spanish title was Vengador.

A ghostly and soul-depraved vigilante

Dolph Lundgren received his first lead role as the mighty He-Man in Masters of the Universe (Gary Goddard, 1987), based on the popular children's toy line and cartoon. He next starred in Red Scorpion (Joseph Zito, 1989), opposite M. Emmet Walsh. He portrayed Marvel Comics character Frank Castle in The Punisher (Mark Goldblatt, 1989), opposite Louis Gossett, Jr. and Jeroen Krabbé. Over the years, the film developed a cult following with some who think it's the best adaptation of the comic and find Lundgren's performance solid as a ghostly and soul-depraved vigilante.

Lundgren appeared in the Martial Arts action film Showdown in Little Tokyo (Mark L. Lester, 1991) opposite Brandon Lee as police officers investigating the yakuza. In 1992, Lundgren starred opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, the Sci-Fi action picture Universal Soldier (Roland Emmerich, 1992). Film critic Roger Ebert did not like the film: "It must be fairly thankless to play lunks who have to fight for the entire length of a movie while exchanging monosyllabic idiocies".

In the early 1990s, he also appeared in films such as Dark Angel (Craig R. Baxley, 1990), Joshua Tree (Vic Armstrong, 1993), Johnny Mnemonic (Robert Longo, 1995), co-starring Keanu Reeves, and Blackjack (1998), by Hong Kong action legend John Woo. In 2004, he directed his first film, The Defender (2004), and subsequently directed The Mechanik (2005), Missionary Man (2007), Command Performance (2009), and Icarus (2010), in which he also starred. After a long spell performing in direct-to-video films since 1995, Lundgren reunited with co-star Jean-Claude Van Damme for Universal Soldier: Regeneration (John Hyams, 2009).

Lundgren returned to Hollywood with the role of Gunner Jensen in The Expendables (Sylvester Stallone, 2010), alongside Sylvester Stallone and an all-action star cast. He reprised his role in The Expendables 2 (Simon West, 2012) and The Expendables 3 (Patrick Hughes, 2014). Also in 2014, he co-starred in Skin Trade (Ekachai Uekrongtham, 2014), an action thriller with Tony Jaa and Ron Perlman about human trafficking. He filmed a cameo for the Coen brothers' comedy film Hail, Caesar! (2016), portraying a Soviet submarine captain. Lundgren played King Nereus in the popular action epic Aquaman (James Wan, 2018), starring Jason Momoa, and reprised his breakthrough role as Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in the eighth instalment in the Rocky franchise, Creed II (Steven Caple Jr., 2018). Lundgren also returned as Gunner Jensen in Expend4bles (Scott Waugh, 2023).

In 1994, Dolph Lundgren married Anette Qviberg, a jewellery designer and fashion stylist in Marbella. They have two daughters: Ida Sigrid Lundgren and Greta Eveline Lundgren, both born in Stockholm. In early May 2009, Lundgren's Marbella home was reportedly broken into by three masked burglars who tied up and threatened his wife, but fled when they found a family photo and realised that the house was owned by Lundgren. His wife was traumatised, and they later divorced in 2011. Lundgren married Norwegian personal trainer Emma Krokdal, nearly 40 years his junior, in 2023.


German collector card by Bravo.


British postcard by Heroes, London, no. SPC1052.


French postcard by Colour dr. Photo: Gaumont / Columbia / TriStar. Jean-Claude van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in Universal Soldier (Roland Emmerich, 1992). Caption: Van Damme - Lundgren: The clash of the Titans. A total spectacle.


Spanish collector card by Accion.

Sources: Sylvie Pazoutova (IMDb), Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Emmy Wehlen

German-born actress Emmy Wehlen (1887–1977) was a beautiful and graceful star of both the Edwardian musical comedy stage and American silent cinema, for Metro. Wehlen shone brightly but briefly in the public eye, retiring in her early thirties despite a successful transatlantic career.


German postcard by EAS (E. A. Schwerdtfeger, Berlin), no. 871.


German postcard by EAS (E. A. Schwerdtfeger, Berlin), no. 935.


German postcard by EAS (E. A. Schwerdtfeger, Berlin), no. 1001.

Drawing international attention

Emmy Wehlen was born Emily Wehlen in Mannheim, Germany, in 1887. She received her musical training at the Mannheim Conservatory as a teenager, preparing her for a future in performance.

Her early stage career flourished in German musical theatre, with roles in Stuttgart, Munich, and Berlin with the Thalia-Theater company. Here, she performed alongside the humorist Arnold Rieck. She also recorded the song 'Ohne Männer' (Without Men), a duet from the operetta 'Doktor Klapperstorch', with Rieck.

Her talent soon drew international attention, leading to an invitation to London as a potential successor to the celebrated actress Lily Elsie. In 1909, Wehlen made a significant impact at Daly's Theatre, starring as Sonia in 'The Merry Widow', an English version of Franz Lehár's operetta 'Die lustige Witwe'.

That same year, she played Olga in the hit musical 'The Dollar Princess', an English version of Leo Fall's operetta 'Die Dollarprinzessin', which enjoyed an impressive run of 428 performances. It solidified her status as a notable West End performer.

Her success crossed the Atlantic, and by 1911, she was on Broadway, appearing in shows like 'Marriage a la Carte' and the Ziegfeld production 'A Winsome Widow', alongside Mae West. Critics praised her as "very pretty, very graceful" with a "distinctly pleasant voice" and an "indescribable charm of personality" that endeared her to audiences. Her final Broadway performance came during the 1914/1915 season in 'To-Night's the Night'.


British postcard by Beagles' Postcards, no. 280F. Emmy Wehlen in the operetta 'The Dollar Princess' (Die Dollarprinzessin) by Leo Fall.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 6915 H. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield LTD. Emmy Wehlen as Winifred and George Grossmith as Max Daly in 'The Girl on the Film'. 'The Girl on the Film' is a Musical Farce in Three Acts with a book by James T. Tanner based on the original German musical comedy 'Filmzauber' by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolf Schanzer. It has music by Walter Kollo, Willy Bredschneider and Albert Sirmay and lyrics by Adrian Ross. It opened at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 5 April 1913, where it ran for 232 performances.

Leading roles in 18 films

Shortly after her last Broadway show, Emmy Wehlen shifted her focus from the stage to the burgeoning world of American silent films, appearing in over twenty films between 1915 and 1920.

She quickly established herself as a leading lady, primarily working for the Metro Pictures Corporation. Her film debut was in When a Woman Loves (Robert G. Vignola, 1915). This was followed by a string of roles in films such as Her Reckoning (Robert G. Vignola, 1915), The Pretenders (George D. Baker, 1916), and Vanity (John B. O'Brien, 1916).

Wehlen remained prolific throughout the late 1910s, with notable appearances in Sowers and Reapers (George D. Baker, 1917) opposite Harry Davenport, The Trail of the Shadow (Donald Crisp, 1917), Miss Robinson Crusoe (Christy Cabanne, 1917), and The Duchess of Doubt (George D. Baker, 1917).

Other significant films included His Bonded Wife (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1918), Sylvia on a Spree (Harry L. Franklin, 1918), alongside Joseph Sweeney and The Amateur Adventuress (Henry S. North, 1919) with Eugene Pallette. Her final film role was as Vania in Lifting Shadows (Léonce Perret, 1920). She had appeared in 18 films, mostly in leading roles.

After her last film, she returned to the operetta stage, but ended her career after a few years. She disappeared from the public eye while still in her early thirties. Emmy Wehlen lived a long life and passed away in 1977. Only three Wehlen films are known to have survived, and none of these have been re-released in any format to the public.


German postcard by NPG, no. 895. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin. German humorist, couplet singer, and actor Arnold Rieck (1876-1924) was a forerunner of the stand-up comedians of today. He was also one of the first stage actors who started to perform in films.


German postcard by NPG, no 896. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Paul Muni

Paul Muni (1895-1967) was an American stage and film actor who was nominated five times for the Academy Awards. He won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The Story of Louis Pasteur (William Dieterle, 1936). During the 1930s, he was considered one of the most prestigious actors at the Warner Bros. studio and was given the rare privilege of choosing which parts he wanted.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 286. Photo: Warner Bros.


Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 45. Photo: United Artists. Paul Muni and Karen Morley in Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932).


Special issue of Film-Bühne, no. III, 6. Paul Muni in Louis Pasteur / The Story of Louis Pasteur (William Dieterle, 1936).


Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam, no. B473. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Luise Rainer and Paul Muni in The Good Earth (Sidney Franklin, 1937). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Romanian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Paul Muni as Émile Zola in The Life of Émile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937). Zola lives in misery in the first years of his career. The Romanian title of the film was Viata lui Emile Zola.

A cruel, explosive gangster

Paul Muni was born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund in 1895 in Lwów, Lemberg, Galicia, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine). His parents were Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, both actors in a travelling Yiddish repertory company. He learned Yiddish as his first language. The family immigrated to America in 1899. The Weisenfreund family settled in Chicago, where Paul grew up. He started his acting career in the Yiddish theatre with his parents. Naturally talented in acting, he wanted to become a professional actor, but this was unacceptable to his father, who wanted his son to become a musician. However, Muni was adamant, and his father reluctantly agreed to let him pursue his passion.

As a teenager, he developed a skill in creating makeup, which enabled him to play much older characters. At the age of 12, he played the stage role of an 80-year-old man. He was quickly recognised by Maurice Schwartz, who signed him up with his Yiddish Art Theatre in New York in 1918. After 4 years, he moved to other Yiddish theatres until 1926. Paul Muni was a very reserved and shy person in real life. In 1921, he married Bella Finkel, an actress in the Yiddish theatre. They remained married until Muni died in 1967. Muni began acting on Broadway in 1926. His first role was that of an elderly Jewish man in the play 'We Americans', written by playwrights Max Siegel and Milton Herbert Gropper. It was the first time that he ever acted in English.

In 1929, Muni was signed by Fox. His name was simplified and anglicised to Paul Muni (he had the nickname 'Moony' when he was young). His acting talents were quickly recognised, and he made his film debut in the drama The Valiant (William K. Howard, 1929) with Marguerite Churchill. For his portrayal of a murderer, he received an Oscar nomination, although the film did poorly at the box office. In his second film, Seven Faces (Berthold Viertel, 1929), he played seven different characters. He was given the nickname "The New Lon Chaney", but the film was again a financial failure. Unhappy with the roles offered to him, he returned to Broadway, where he starred in a major hit play, 'Counselor at Law' (1931-1933).

Paul Muni soon returned to Hollywood to star as the cruel, explosive gangster Antonio 'Tony' Camonte in the original Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932), part of a cycle of gangster films at the time. The film was written by Ben Hecht, who based his screenplay on Armitage Trail's 1929 novel of the same title, which is loosely based on the rise and fall of Al Capone. The plot centres on Camonte, who aggressively and violently moves up the ranks in the Chicago gangland world. A version of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is depicted. A man of 5'9" height (175.3 cm), Muni wore small lifts (adding three or four inches) and padding to appear more hulking and ape-like as Tony. The film was the basis for Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983) starring Al Pacino.

In the crime drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932), he played a wrongfully convicted convict on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. For his role, Muni was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. Audiences in the United States who saw the film began to question the legitimacy of the United States' legal system, and in January 1933, the film's protagonist, Robert Elliott Burns, who was still imprisoned in New Jersey, and several other chain gang prisoners nationwide in the United States, were able to appeal and were released. The acclaim that Paul Muni received as a result of this performance so impressed Warner Bros., they signed him to a long-term contract, publicising him as "the screen's greatest actor".


British postcard in the Film Weekly series, London.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 838. Photo: Warner.


Spanish promotional postcard. Image: Warner Bros. Glenda Farrell and Paul Muni in Hi, Nellie (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


British Real Photograph postcard, no. 108. Photo: Warner Bros. Vitaphone Pictures.


French postcard, no. 601. Photo: Warner Bros.

Louis Pasteur

During the 1930s, Paul Muni became one of the most prestigious actors at Warner Bros. and was given the rare privilege of choosing which parts he wanted. His reputation as a prominent stage actor prevented Hollywood from moulding him into a marketable image or into a typical big-screen leading man. Muni’s film roles were diverse and generally superior to most Hollywood fare. In 1935, Muni starred as a coal miner involved in a union dispute in Black Fury (Michael Curtiz, 1935) with Karen Morley, and for his performance, he earned his third Oscar nomination (as a write-in candidate). Muni persuaded Warner Bros. to take a financial risk by producing the historical biography The Story of Louis Pasteur (William Dieterle, 1935). Muni played the 19th-century chemist who developed major advances in microbiology, which revolutionised agriculture and medicine, to prove that his medical theories would save lives. It was the first of Muni's many biographical roles. The sudden success of Pasteur gave Warner's 'box office gold'. For his performance, Muni won an Oscar and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor from the Venice Film Festival.

Muni played other historical figures, including French author Émile Zola in The Life of Emile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. The film won Best Picture and was interpreted as indirectly attacking the repression of Nazi Germany. He also played the lead role as the Mexican national hero Benito Juárez in Juarez (William Dieterle, 1939) opposite Bette Davis. His acting quality, usually playing a powerful character, was partly a result of his intense preparation for his parts, often immersing himself in the study of the real character's traits and mannerisms. He was also highly skilled in using makeup techniques, a talent he learned from his parents, who were also actors, and from his early years on stage with the Yiddish theatre in Chicago.

In 1937, Muni played a Chinese peasant with a new bride in a film adaptation of Pearl Buck's novel The Good Earth (Sidney Franklin, 1937). It co-starred Luise Rainer as his wife. She won an Academy Award for her part. The film was a recreation of a revolutionary period in China, and included special effects for a locust attack and the overthrow of the government. Dissatisfied with life in Hollywood, Muni chose not to renew his contract. He returned to the screen only occasionally in later years, for such roles as Frédéric Chopin's teacher in A Song to Remember (Charles Vidor, 1945) with Merle Oberon. In 1946, he starred in a rare comic performance, Angel on My Shoulder (Archie Mayo, 1946), playing a gangster whose early death prompts the Devil (played by Claude Rains) to make mischief by putting his soul into the body of a judge. His new identity turns the former criminal into a model citizen.

In 1946, he appeared on Broadway in A Flag is Born, written by Ben Hecht, to help promote the creation of a Jewish state in Israel. This play was directed by Luther Adler and co-starred Marlon Brando. At London's Phoenix Theatre, in 1949, Muni began a run as Willy Loman in the first English production of 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller. He took over from Lee J. Cobb, who had played the principal role in the original Broadway production. Both productions were directed by Elia Kazan. In Italy, he appeared in the drama Imbarco a mezzanotte / Stranger on the Prowl (Joseph Losey, 1952). Muni travelled to Italy to star in the film partly as an act of solidarity and support for blacklisted friends living there in exile. A few years later, during 1955 and 1956, Muni had his biggest stage success in the United States as the crusading lawyer, Henry Drummond (based on Clarence Darrow), in 'Inherit the Wind', winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. In late August 1955, Muni was forced to withdraw from the play due to a serious eye ailment, causing deterioration in his eyesight.

His last film role was as a crusading doctor in The Last Angry Man (Daniel Mann, 1959), and he was again nominated for an Oscar. After that, Muni mostly retired from acting to deal with failing eyesight and other health problems. Over the years, he became increasingly dependent on his wife, Bella, a dependence which increased as his failing eyesight turned to blindness in his final years. He made his final screen appearance on television, in a guest role on the dramatic series Saints and Sinners (1962). Paul Muni died of a heart disorder in Montecito, California, in 1967. He was 71 and had made 22 films and also starred in numerous Broadway plays. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood.


British cigarette card in the Third Film Stars series by John Player & Sons, no. 32. Photo: Warner - First National. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


German collector card by Kino.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1063. Photo: Warner Bros.


Romanian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.


Romanian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Paul Muni as Émile Zola in The Life of Émile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937). The actress is Erin O'Brien-Moore, who played the prostitute Nana, the inspiration for one of Zola's most famous novels. The Romanian title of the film was Viata lui Emile Zola.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1617/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Warner Bros. / Vitaphone Pictures.


American postcard by John Golden. Paul Muni in 'Counselor-at-law' (1942-1943) by Elmer Rice at the Royale Theatre, New York City.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Biography.com (Page now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.