William S. Hart

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William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart, 1918
Born	William Surrey Hart December 6, 1864 Newburgh, New York, U.S.A.
Died	June 23, 1946 (aged 81) Newhall, California, U.S.A.
Other name(s)	Two-Gun Bill
Spouse(s)	Winifred Westover

William Surrey Hart (December 6, 1864 – June 23, 1946) was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer.

1 Biography
2 Personal life
3 Death
4 Dedications
5 Further reading
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Biography

Hart was born William Surrey Hart in Newburgh, New York; to James Howard Hart (1829-1902) and Katherine Diédricht Hart (1833-1909). William had 2 brothers and 4 sisters. His father is of Irish ancestry, and his mother had German ancestry. In his twenties, Hart began his acting career on stage and would not consider acting in movies until he was 49 years of age.^[1]

William S. Hart

A successful Shakespearean actor on Broadway who had worked with Margaret Mather and other stars, William S. Hart went on to become one of the first great stars of the motion picture western. Hart appeared in the original 1899 stage production of Ben-Hur.

Hart was fascinated by the Old West. He acquired Billy the Kid's “six shooters” and was a friend of legendary lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. He entered films in 1914 where, after playing supporting roles in two short films, he achieved stardom as the lead in the feature The Bargain. Hart was particularly interested in making realistic western films. His films are noted for their authentic costumes and props, as well as Hart's extraordinary acting ability, honed on Shakespearean theatre stages in the United States and England.

Beginning in 1915, Hart starred in his own series of two-reel western short subjects for producer Thomas Ince, which were so popular that they were supplanted by a series of feature films. Many of Hart's early films continued to play in theaters, under new titles, for another decade. In 1917 Hart accepted a lucrative offer from Adolph Zukor to join Famous Players-Lasky, which merged into Paramount Pictures. Hart was now making feature films exclusively, and films like Square Deal Sanderson and The Toll Gate were popular with fans.

By the early 1920s, however, Hart's brand of gritty, rugged westerns with drab costumes and moralistic themes gradually fell out of fashion. The public became attracted by a new kind of movie cowboy, epitomized by Tom Mix, who wore flashier costumes and was faster with the action. Paramount dropped Hart, who then made one last bid for his kind of western. He produced Tumbleweeds (1925) with his own money, arranging to release it independently through United Artists. The film turned out well, with an epic land-rush sequence, but did only fair business at the box office. Hart was angered by United Artists' failure to promote his film properly and sued United Artists. The legal proceedings dragged on for years, and the courts finally ruled in Hart's favor, in 1940.

After Tumbleweeds, Hart retired to his Newhall, California, ranch home, “La Loma de los Vientos,” which was designed by architect Arthur R. Kelly.

In 1939 Hart appeared in his only sound film, a spoken prologue for a reissue of Tumbleweeds. The 75-year-old Hart, filmed on location at his Newhall ranch, reflects on the Old West and recalls his silent-movie days fondly. The speech turned out to be William S. Hart's farewell to the screen, and it's a fitting valedictory. Most prints and video versions of Tumbleweeds circulating today include Hart's speech.

This 1921 Vanity Fair caricature by Ralph Barton shows the famous people who, he imagined, left work each day in Hollywood; use cursor to identify individual figures.

[edit] Personal life

Hart married young Hollywood actress Winifred Westover. Although their marriage was short-lived, they had one child, William S. Hart Jr. (1922-2004).

[edit] Death

Hart died on June 23, 1946, in Newhall, California at the age of 81. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

[edit] Dedications

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, William S. Hart has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd. In 1975, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

As part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California, Hart's former home and 260-acre (1.1 km²) ranch in Newhall is now William S. Hart Park. The William S. Hart Union High School District as well as William S. Hart Senior High School, both located in the Santa Clarita Valley in the northern part of Los Angeles County, were named in his honor.

[edit] Further reading

William Surrey Hart, My Life East and West, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1929.
David W. Menefee, The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era, Albany: Bear Manor Media, 2007.
Jeanine Basinger, Silent Stars, 1999 (ISBN 0-8195-6451-6). (chapter on William S. Hart and Tom Mix)