Search a film or person :
FacebookConnectionRegistration
Norman Kerry is a Actor American born on 15 june 1894 at Rochester (USA)

Norman Kerry

Norman Kerry
If you like this person, let us know!
Birth name Arnold Kaiser
Nationality USA
Birth 15 june 1894 at Rochester (USA)
Death 12 january 1956 (at 61 years) at Los Angeles (USA)

Norman Kerry (June 16, 1894 – January 12, 1956) was an American actor whose career spanned over twenty-five years in the motion picture industry beginning in the silent era at the end of World War I.

Biography

Born Arnold Kaiser in Rochester, New York of German parentage, he changed his unmistakably German name to 'Norman Kerry' at the onset of World War I.

Around 1916 he befriended Rudolph Valentino, then an exhibition dancer of some renown, in New York City. He is said to have introduced Valentino to dancer Bonnie Glass who became Valentino's partner. Valentino in turn encouraged Kerry to try making a name for himself in film. Later, Kerry would help out Valentino financially when the two met again in California.

Kerry made his first film appearance in the 1916 Allan Dwan directed comedy Manhattan Madness, starring Douglas Fairbanks. He would rise to leading actor status the following year in the Marshall Neilan directed A Little Princess, playing opposite actress Mary Pickford. In 1918, Kerry followed his success with A Little Princess in the William Desmond Taylor-directed Up the Road with Sallie, opposite Constance Talmadge.

Kerry's career flourished during the silent film era of the late 1910s and throughout the 1920s and he quickly became a matinee idol who was extremely popular with female fans. With his slicked back hair and thin, waxed moustache, he was often cast in the role of the heroic dashing swashbuckler or the exotic, seductive lothario. By 1923, Kerry was a very well-respected leading man and box-office draw. That year he starred in two much talked-about films: the enormous box-office hit The Hunchback of Notre Dame, opposite Lon Chaney and Patsy Ruth Miller and the controversial Merry-Go-Round opposite the newcomer Mary Philbin. Kerry was cast in Merry-Go-Round by the famous Austrian director Erich von Stroheim to play von Stroheim's alter-ego 'Count Franz Maximilian Von Hohenegg', but studio executive Irving Thalberg fired von Stroheim during filming and had him replaced by director Rupert Julian. Although the film was controversial at the time, it is now considered a classic.

Kerry would again be paired with Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin in the 1925 horror classic The Phantom of the Opera, playing Philbin's love-interest, the Vicomte Raoul de Chagny. The film was an enormous financial and critical success and solidified Kerry's position as a leading actor during the 1920s. That same year Kerry would star opposite Patsy Ruth Miller in the adventure film Lorraine of the Lions, although the film didn't achieve nearly the degree of success as The Phantom of the Opera. In 1927 Kerry would again share the screen with Lon Chaney, Sr. in the Tod Browning directed horror film The Unknown with Joan Crawford. Kerry was cast as a circus strongman, despite his evident lack of a muscular physique. He would spend the decade appearing in high-profile roles opposite such famous actresses of the era as: Anna Q. Nilsson, Marion Davies, Bebe Daniels, Mildred Harris, ZaSu Pitts, Joan Crawford, Lillian Gish, and Claire Windsor.

At the beginning of the talkie era he and Mary Philbin reunited to film talking scenes for the 1930 sound reissue of Phantom of the Opera. On the surviving soundtrack both stars are stiff and awkward, speaking with exaggerated diction. This was Philbin's only sound film, and the beginning of Kerry's decline. He was cast in the 1931 film Bachelor Apartment, opposite silent film star Mae Murray. The film was critically panned at the time of release and both Murray and Kerry's careers in the new medium of sound quickly waned. Kerry would only make three more film appearances before retiring from acting.

At the start of World War II Kerry joined the French Foreign Legion, returning to the U.S. only when France capitulated to Nazi Germany.

Norman Kerry died in Los Angeles, California from a liver ailment at the age of 61 in 1956 and was interred at
Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, Los Angeles County, California.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Norman Kerry was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6724 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood, California.

Usually with

Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney
(4 films)
Carl Laemmle
Carl Laemmle
(5 films)
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
(3 films)
Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan
(4 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Norman Kerry (46 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

Tanks a Million, 50minutes
Directed by Fred Guiol, John E. Burch
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Military humor in film
Actors William Tracy, James Gleason, Noah Beery, Jr, Joe Sawyer, Elyse Knox, Douglas Fowley
Roles Major
Rating58% 2.949052.949052.949052.949052.94905
Dorian Doubleday, "Dodo" to his friends, works as a clerk at a railway station but he has the ability of photographic memory. When he is drafted in the Army, he memorizes all the manuals for Army procedure immediately before starting his service.
Bachelor Apartment, 1h16
Directed by Lowell Sherman
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Actors Lowell Sherman, Irene Dunne, Ivan Lebedeff, Mae Murray, Norman Kerry, Claudia Dell
Roles Lee Graham
Rating61% 3.0980253.0980253.0980253.0980253.098025
Wayne Carter (Lowell Sherman) is a New York playboy, who pays no attention to the marital status of his many dalliances. However, there are some women who's attention he attempts to avoid, one such being the married Agatha Carraway (Mae Murray).
Annie Laurie, 1h20
Directed by Josephine Lovett, John S. Robertson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama, Romance
Actors Lillian Gish, Norman Kerry, Creighton Hale, Hobart Bosworth, Patricia Avery, Russell Simpson
Roles Ian Macdonald
Rating64% 3.2446653.2446653.2446653.2446653.244665
A film about the battles of Scottish clans.
Love Me and the World is Mine, 1h
Directed by Ewald André Dupont
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Actors Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Betty Compson, Henry B. Walthall, Charles Sellon, Martha Mattox
Roles Von Vigilatti

Hannerl (Philbin) is a young woman growing up in Old Vienna. She falls in love with two men: A young army officer who can provide her love and security and an old wealthy man who can provide her a high-class life. She doesn't know who she wants to spend her life with, but must make her decision.
The Unknown, 1h5
Directed by Tod Browning
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Horror, Romance
Themes Circus films
Actors Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford, Nick De Ruiz, John George, Frank Lanning
Roles Malabar
Rating76% 3.8466453.8466453.8466453.8466453.846645
Alonzo the Armless is a circus freak who uses his feet to toss knives and fire a rifle at his partner, Nanon. However, he is an impostor and fugitive. He has arms, but keeps them tightly bound to his torso, a secret known only to his friend Cojo, a midget. Alonzo's left hand has a double thumb, which would identify him as the perpetrator of various crimes.
The Phantom of the Opera, 1h33
Directed by Edward Sedgwick, Lon Chaney, Rupert Julian, Ernst Laemmle
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Musical theatre, Horror
Themes Films about music and musicians, Ghost films, Musical films
Actors Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis
Roles Vicomte Raoul de Chagny
Rating74% 3.7460253.7460253.7460253.7460253.746025
Based on the general release version of 1925, which has additional scenes and sequences in different order than the existing reissue print.