Francis Xavier Bushman

Francis Xavier Bushman (January 10, 1883 – August 23, 1966)

His career as a matinee idol started in 1911 in the silent film His Friend's Wife. He gained a very large female following and was one of the biggest stars of the 1910s and early 1920s. Bushman, like many of his contemporaries, broke into the moving picture business via the stage. He was performing at Broncho Billy Anderson's Essanay Studios in Chicago, Illinois, where he was first noticed for his muscular, sculpted frame. He appeared in nearly 200 feature film roles—more than 175 films before 1920, and 17 in his screen debut year of 1911 alone. He also worked for the Vitagraph studio before signing with Metro in 1915. At the peak of his career, he was advertised as "The Handsomest Man in the World". Bushman was also known as "the King of Photoplay" or "the King of Movies" before those titles were more popularly attached to Clark Gable. Bushman was paid large salaries during his screen career, and donated the land upon which Sid Grauman erected his famous Chinese Theater. But his fortune was wiped out in the great crash of 1929, and his career as a movie star had had its run. After his film career had waned, Bushman made his broadcasting mark on the CBS Radio network's long-runningdramatic serial entitled Those We Love. In the soap opera, which ran from 1938 to 1945, he played the role of John Marshall, a father of the twins (played by Richard Cromwell and Nan Grey). Robert Cummings rounded out the cast.

He took small roles in pictures and attempted to run a few small businesses, all of which lost money. In later years, Bushman made assorted guest appearances on American television in the 1950s and 1960s. On February 6, 1958, he and his wife Iva Millicient Richardson appeared on the quiz show You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx and won $1,000 by successfully answering questions in a geography quiz. He also performed on weekly sitcoms and television dramas, including Burns and Allen, Peter Gunn, Make Room for Daddy, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Perry Mason, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and Dr. Kildare. Francis X. Bushman suffered a heart attack and died at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, on August 23, 1966. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.