Hugh Antoine d'Arcy

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Hugh Antoine d'Arcy (March 5, 1843 – November 11, 1925) was a French-born poet and writer and a pioneer executive in the American motion picture industry.

Hugh Antoine d'Arcy is most famous for his 1887 poem "The Face on the Barroom Floor," a sorrowful tale of a painter who takes to drink after his lover deserts him for the fair-haired lad in one of his portraits. Keystone Studios would use the poem as the basis for a 1914 film of the same name starring Charlie Chaplin and John Ford would use it for the basis of his 1923 film. It would be put to song by country music star Hank Snow on his 1968 "Tales Of The Yukon" album.

D'Arcy married the daughter of Philadelphia film mogul Siegmund Lubin and went to work as the publicity manager for his Lubin Studios. The studio used a story he had written for a 1912 film titled "Madeline's Christmas."

Hugh Antoine d'Arcy died in 1925 in New York City.