Cesare Gravina

Cesare Gravina ( born January 23, 1858 in Naples, † around 1954 in Italy) was an Italian- American theater and film actor. Between 1912 and 1929 he played in at least 60 films.

Life

Gravina began as a stage actor in his native city of Naples. In the 1890s, he also appeared in operettas and comic operas. His acting career took him on tours of Europe, South and North America. With his own troops, he played in New York and San Francisco.

His film debut was in 1912 in Italy Gravina in a film comedy in film Ambrosio. He went to the USA and joined from 1915 on exclusively in American film. He started in the film company Famous Players in a film by Hugh Ford and Edwin S. Porter. 1915/16 he played in three Mary Pickford films. Also in 1915 Gravina first worked under the direction of Sidney Olcott, with whom he still made ​​several films until 1925. Around 1920 Cesare Gravina was established as a supporting actor in Hollywood. In the 1920s, he was employed by the film companies Fox Film Corporation and Universal. From Foolish Wives ( 1922) Gravina belonged to the actor pool by Erich von Stroheim and had roles as a showman in Merry -Go-Round (1923 ) and The Wedding March (1928 ). In Greed ( 1924) demonstrates its role completely dropped the radical cuts that had made ​​the producers, to the victim.

In 1923, he starred in two Jackie Coogan movies and 1924 in a six-part thriller series by Edward Laemmle on a story by Gerald Beaumont. Small roles he had in The Hunchback of Notre Dame ( 1923), The Phantom of the Opera ( 1925) and The Divine Woman ( 1928). In The Trail of '98 Gravina in 1928 played the role of grandfather, who did not survive the torturous rich train through the snow during the Klondike Gold Rush in addition to Dolores del Río. He had a more important role during the same year along with Mary Philbin and Conrad Veidt as a traveling showman in Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs. His last film was Burning the Wind ( 1929) directed by Herbert Blaché, which also starred Boris Karloff.

Filmography (selection)