Maurice Costello

Maurice George Costello (February 22, 1877 – October 29, 1950)[1] was a prominent American vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s who later played a principal role in early American films as leading man, supporting player, and director.

Maurice Costello
Born	Maurice George Costello February 22, 1877 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	October 29, 1950 (aged 73) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Burial place	Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles
Occupation	actor, director, screenwriter
Years active	1905–1945
Spouse(s)	Mae Costello ​ ​ (m. 1902; div. 1927)​ Ruth Reeves ​ ​ (m. 1939; div. 1941)​
Children	Dolores Costello Helene Costello

Life and career

Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants Ellen (née Fitzgerald; born 1853) and Thomas Costello (born 1852). He made his film debut in 1908, but was long believed to have debuted in Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom (1905), supposedly playing the lead in what is regarded as the first serious film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, since it was preceded only by the 30-second comedy film Sherlock Holmes Baffled (1900). However, Holmesian scholar Leslie S. Klinger has written that the identification of Costello in the role is flawed.[2] Klinger states that the first identification of Costello with the role was in Michael Pointer's Public Life of Sherlock Holmes published in 1975 but Pointer later realized his error and wrote to Klinger stating

"I am now aware that Maurice Costello could not have been in that film, as he had not joined the Vitagraph company by that date. I'm sorry that my book has been misleading, but I doubt that I shall have the opportunity for an amended reprint, and should not have the time to prepare one anyway."[2]

Maurice Costello and Florence Lawrence in ‘Antony and Cleopatra' (1908)

Costello joined Vitagraph, being a member of the first motion picture stock company ever formed, playing opposite Florence Turner. Among some of his best known pictures are A Tale of Two Cities, The Man Who Couldn't Beat God and For the Honor of the Family. After an absence of some years he returned to the screen. He was married to actress Mae Costello (née Altschuk). His descendants include two daughters, actresses Dolores Costello and Helene Costello, a grandson John Drew Barrymore, and a great granddaughter Drew Barrymore. He was one of the world's first leading men in early American cinema, but like a lot of other silent screen stars, he found the transition to "talkies" extremely difficult, and his leading man status was over. However, Costello was a trouper, and continued to appear in movies, often in small roles and bit parts, right up until his death in 1950.

On November 23, 1913, Costello was arrested for beating his wife Mae. On November 25, 1913, Costello admitted that he had beaten his wife while intoxicated. Mae Costello requested that the charges be dropped to disorderly conduct, and Costello was given six months probation by Magistrate Geisner of the Coney Island Police Court.[3]

Maurice Costello also discovered Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, who, as a teenager, ran errands and got lunches for the actors at the Vitagraph Studios at no charge. This impressed Costello who brought him in and introduced him to other leading actors of the day. Moe then gained small parts in many of the Vitagraph movies but most of these were destroyed by fire that swept the studios in 1910.

Costello died at the age of 73 in 1950 in Los Angeles, California of a heart problem[4] and was interred at Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles, a Catholic cemetery.

Filmography

Maurice Costello in 1916

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1908	Antony and Cleopatra	Marc Antony	Short
1909	Les Misérables	Jean Valjean	Short
1909	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Lysander	Short
1911	A Tale of Two Cities	Sydney Carton	Short
1911	His Sister's Children	Harry Burton	Short
1911	Some Good in All	Bill	Short
1912	As You Like It	Orlando
1912	The Adventure of the Italian Model	Lambert Chase	[5][6]
1912	The Adventure of a Thumb Print	Lambert Chase	[5][6]
1912	The Mystery of the Seven Jewels	Lambert Chase	[5][6]
1913	A Princess of Bagdad	Seyn – the Cobbler
1914	Mr. Barnes of New York	Mr. Barnes
1915	The Man Who Couldn't Beat God	Martin Henchford
1915	The Crown Prince's Double	Prince Oscar / Barry Lawrence
1916	The Crimson Stain Mystery	Harold Stanley
1919	The Captain's Captain	John Sark
1919	The Cambric Mask	John Sark
1919	The Man Who Won	Henry Longfield
1919	The Girl-Woman	Sanford
1920	Human Collateral	Richard Morton
1920	Deadline at Eleven	Paul Klocke
1920	The Tower of Jewels	Fraser Grimstead
1921	Conceit	Barbe la Fleche
1922	Determination	Putnam
1923	None So Blind	Russell Mortimer
1923	The Glimpses of the Moon	Fred Gillow
1923	Man and Wife	Caleb Perkins
1923	Fog Bound	Deputy Brown
1924	Let Not Man Put Asunder	Sir Humphrey
1924	Roulette	Ben Corcoran
1924	Week End Husbands	John Keane
1924	Virtuous Liars	Josiah Wright
1924	Love of Women	Mr. Redfield
1924	Heart of Alaska
1924	The Story Without a Name	The Cripple
1924	The Law and the Lady	Cyrus Blake
1925	The Mad Marriage
1926	The Wives of the Prophet	William Neil
1926	The Last Alarm	Fireman's father
1926	The False Alarm
1926	Camille	Armand's father
1927	Johnny Get Your Hair Cut	Baxter Ryan
1927	Wolves of the Air	Bob's Father
1927	The Shamrock and the Rose	Father O'Brien
1927	Spider Webs	Jeffrey Stanton
1928	See You Later
1928	The Wagon Show	Colonel Beldan
1928	Black Feather
1928	Eagle of the Night
1934	Search for Beauty	Health Acres Guest	Uncredited
1936	Hollywood Boulevard	Director in Commissary
1938	I Am the Law	Lindsay Staff Member	Uncredited
1938	A Man to Remember	Town Councilor	Uncredited
1938	Comet Over Broadway	Actor at Dress Rehearsal	Uncredited
1938	There's That Woman Again	Headwaiter	Uncredited
1939	Disbarred	Frightened Juror	Uncredited
1939	It's a Wonderful World	Guest	Uncredited
1939	Judge Hardy and Son	Man in Audience	Uncredited
1939	Five Little Peppers and How They Grew	Hart	Uncredited
1939	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	Diggs – Newsman	Uncredited
1939	The Roaring Twenties	Nightclub Patron	Uncredited
1940	Rovin' Tumbleweeds	Ways and Means Committee Member	Uncredited
1940	The Ghost Comes Home	Townsman at Banquet	Uncredited
1940	Johnny Apollo	Extra	Uncredited
1940	Edison, the Man	Broker	Uncredited
1940	The Sea Hawk	Man Carrying Spear	Uncredited
1940	All This, and Heaven Too	Minor Role	Uncredited
1940	Foreign Correspondent	Minor Role	Uncredited
1940	A Little Bit of Heaven	Uncle Louie
1940	Third Finger, Left Hand	Man at Railroad Station	Uncredited
1940	Tin Pan Alley		Uncredited
1941	A Man Betrayed	Club Inferno Patron	UNcredited
1941	Lady from Louisiana	Edwards
1941	Citizen Kane	Extra	Uncredited
1941	Here Comes Mr. Jordan	Ringsider at Fight	Uncredited
1941	H.M. Pulham, Esq.	Wedding Guest	Uncredited
1942	Ride 'Em Cowboy	Rodeo Spectator with Martin Manning	Uncredited
1942	Reap the Wild Wind	Ball Guest	Uncredited
1942	Cairo	Cavity Rock Townsman	Uncredited
1942	The Glass Key	Card Player	Uncredited
1942	Henry Aldrich, Editor	Fire Spectator	Uncredited
1943	Du Barry Was a Lady	Passerby	Uncredited
1943	Sweet Rosie O'Grady	Minor Role	Uncredited
1944	A Fig Leaf for Eve	Nightclub Patron	Uncredited
1944	The Doughgirls	Minor Role	Uncredited
1944	The Climax	Minor Role	Uncredited
1944	Practically Yours	Senate Stenographer	Uncredited
1945	Guest Wife	Bit Part	Uncredited, (final film role)

References

1. According to the California Death Index, http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi?surname=Costello&given=Maurice Archived 2016-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
2. Kilnger, Leslie S. (June 1998). "Was Maurice Costello The First Screen Sherlock Holmes?". The Baker Street Journal. 48 (2): 27–30.
3. "The evening world. (New York, N.Y.) 1887–1931, November 25, 1913, Final Edition, Image 22". 25 November 1913 – via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
4. Los Angeles Times
5. Encyclopedia of Early Cinema, ed. Richard Abel (London: Routledge, 2005), 679; and Adam Lauder, “It’s Alive!: Bertram Brooker and Vitalism,” in The Logic of Nature, the Romance of Space: Elements of Canadian Modernist Painting, ed. Cassandra Getty (Windsor, ON; Oshawa, ON: Art Gallery of Windsor; The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2010), 104n93.
6. James King, Betram Brooker. Life and work. Art Canada Institut – Institut de l’Art Canadien, 2018, p. 5.

External links

• Maurice Costello at IMDb
• Biography at Hollywood Heritage
• Maurice Costello at Find a Grave