George Bancroft (actor)
George Bancroft ( born September 30, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † October 2, 1956 in Santa Monica, California ) was an American actor.
Life
Bancroft began his career in vaudeville. He made the jump to Broadway, where he quickly made a name with appearances in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine and Paid in Full. His film debut was in 1921 in the strip The Journey 's End, but until 1925 he was the Western The Pony Express, directed by James Cruze, a star of the company Paramount. He reached the peak of his popularity, having appeared as a gangster in the Josef von Sternberg classic Underworld, for the first time in 1927 threw a worried glance behind the scenes of organized crime. Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay and the film was influential for the entire genre. Bancroft had a year later, which showed his best role, directed by Josef von Sternberg in The Docks of New York it was a sailor who in a prostitute, played by Betty Compson, falls in love, and the blame for crimes committed by their homicide takes over.
The actor made the jump to the talkies, but his popularity waned rapidly and he finished his career in 1942 to retire to his ranch.