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Sam De Grasse

Samuel Alfred De Grasse (June 12, 1875 – November 29, 1953) was a Canadian actor. He was the uncle of cinematographer Robert De Grasse.

Sam De Grasse
De Grasse in Heart o' the Hills (1919)
Born
Samuel Alfred De Grasse

(1875-06-12)June 12, 1875
Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada
DiedNovember 29, 1953(1953-11-29) (aged 78)
Hollywood, California, U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park
OccupationActor
Years active1914–1930
Spouses
Annie McDonnell
​
​
(m. 1904; died 1909)​
Ada Fuller Golden
​
(m. 1912)​
Children2
RelativesJoseph De Grasse (brother)
Robert de Grasse (nephew)

Biography

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Samuel Alfred De Grasse was born in Bathurst, New Brunswick to Lange De Grasse and Helene (née Comeau), both of French-Canadian descent. He trained to be a dentist, and married Annie McDonnell in 1904. Their daughter, Clementine Bell, was born in 1906. Annie died in 1909 while giving birth to another daughter, Olive, who also died. In 1910, Samuel was practicing dentistry and he and his daughter Clementine were living in Providence, Rhode Island along with his older sister, Mrs. Clementine Fauchy, and her 14-year-old son, Jerome Fauchy.[citation needed]

He married British actress Ada Fuller Golden and became a step-father to her three children. His own elder brother, Joe, went into the fledgling movie business and Sam decided to also give it a try. He traveled to New York City and, in 1912, he appeared in his first motion picture. At first he played standard secondary characters such as Dr. Robert Armstrong in Blind Husbands (1919), but when fellow Canadian Mary Pickford set up her own studio with her husband Douglas Fairbanks, he joined them.[1] He portrayed the villainous Prince John in Douglas Fairbanks' 1922 Robin Hood. Afterward, he began to specialize in crafty or slimy villainous roles, such as Senator Charles Summer in The Birth of a Nation (1915), the mill owner Arthur Jenkins in Intolerance (1916), John Carver in The Courtship of Miles Standish (1923), Colonel Lestron in The Eagle of the Sea (1926), a pirate lieutenant in The Black Pirate (1926), a Pharisee in The King of Kings (1927) and King James in The Man Who Laughs (1928).[2] Mary Pickford named him as one of her favorite stars.[3]

In the 1960s, Jackie Coogan claimed Jean Harlow had lived in De Grasse's apartment for two years and was married to him when she was 16. At the time both de Grasse and Harlow were deceased. The claim was untrue -- Harlow was married to Charles McGrew when she was 16. However, she did appear as an extra in the film Honor Bound (1928), in which De Grasse played "Blood Keller".[4]

Death

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De Grasse lived on the west coast until his death at age 78 in Hollywood from a heart attack during his sleep.[5] He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[2][6]

Selected filmography

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Foster, Charles (September 2000). Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood. Dundurn. ISBN 9781459720787.
  2. ^ a b Wilson, Scott (19 August 2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons (3rd ed.). McFarland Publishing. p. 187. ISBN 978-1-4766-2599-7.
  3. ^ Howe, Herbert (January 1924). "Mary Pickford's Favorite Stars and Films". Photoplay. New York: Photoplay Publishing Company. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  4. ^ Foster, Charles (September 2000). Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood. Dundurn. ISBN 9781459720787.
  5. ^ Foster, Charles (2000). Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood. Dundurn Group. pp. 41–62. ISBN 978-1-55002-348-0.
  6. ^ "The Final Curtain". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 12 December 1953. p. 51. ISSN 0006-2510.
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