Owen Moore

 Owen Moore (December 12, 1886 – June 9, 1939)

Moore was an Irish-born American actor, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937. He emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the S.S. Anchoria and was inspected on Ellis Island in May 1896; settled around Toledo, Ohio; Moore and his siblings went on to successful careers in motion pictures in Hollywood, California. While working at D. W. Griffith's Biograph Studios, Moore met a young Canadian actress named Gladys Smith whom he married on January 7, 1911. Their marriage was kept secret at first because of the strong opposition of her mother. However, Gladys Moore would soon overshadow her husband under her stage name, Mary Pickford. In 1912, he signed on with Victor Studios, co-starring in a number of their films with studio owner/actress Florence Lawrence. Mary Pickford left Biograph Studios to join the Independent Moving Pictures (IMP) to replace their major star, Pickford’s Canadian friend, Florence Lawrence. Carl Laemmle, the owner of IMP who soon merged IMP into Universal Studios, agreed to sign her husband as part of the deal.

This humiliation, together with his wife's meteoric rise to fame, drastically affected Moore and alcohol became a problem that led to violent behavior and his physically abusing Pickford. In 1916, Pickford met actor Douglas Fairbanks, Pickford filed for a divorce from Moore, when she agreed to his demand of $100,000 settlement. In the late teens and early 1920s, Moore was a popular star at Selznick Pictures along with Olive Thomas, Elaine Hammerstein, Eugene O'Brien and Conway Tearle. With the advent of sound film, Moore's career declined and he became basically a supporting actor for newer stars. After years of fighting alcoholism, Owen Moore died in Beverly Hills, California from a heart attack at age 52. He is interred at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.