George Beranger
George Beranger
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George Augustus Beringer was born in Enmore, New South Wales, Australia, the youngest of five sons born to Caroline Mondientz and Adam Beringer, a German engine fitter. His mother committed suicide when he was three years old and his father's new wife turned the boys out of the house when they reached the age of fourteen.
In Sydney, he attended the College of Elocution and Dramatic Art run by Walter Bentley . At the age of sixteen, Beranger began playing Shakespearean roles with the Walter Bentley Players. By July 1912, the lure of the stage saw Beranger enter the US illegally via a steamship to Vancouver, where Bentley was on tour. Several months later, Beranger was photographed with stage and screen actor Donald Crisp in Union Square, New York, then the city's theatre district and close to D.W. Griffith Biograph studios.
Billed as "Andre Beranger," among other aliases, he began acting in silent films in which Griffith had a role. In 1913, he acted in five Biograph films and by 1914 Beranger was playing the part of young southerner Duke Cameron in Griffith's Civil War blockbuster,Bir Ulusun Doğuşu (1915) , as well as taking the role of assistant director on the film.
By the time the US entered the war in 1917, Beranger was giving thought to a military service record: he claimed to have joined the Australian Army as well as the Royal Flying Corp's crack Squadron 85 and while this remains unverified, at the time; many did fabricate a fake backstory and what can be proven inaccurate were his claims of French parentage, that his birth took place on a French ocean liner off the coast of Australia and that he had received his education in Paris. However, such reinventions benefited his career, which saw him later perfect the foppish or effete Frenchman role in at least a dozen films, including his role in his big hit So This Is Paris (1926), Ernst Lubitsch satirical take on Rudolph Valentino and the ''sheikh fever'' of the time.
By the 1920s, Beranger had become a star, acting in and directing dozens of movies in the US, Britain and Europe, and he won a Variety Award (a forerunner of the Academy Award). His movies eventually covered adventure, historical romance, mystery and comedy. He played pirates, soldiers, crooks, dandies, sophisticates and European noblemen, but comedy was his forte, particularly the role of the ardent but unlucky lover.
Beranger owned a large Spanish-style home in Laguna Beach, rented a room at the Hollywood Athletic Club, owned an apartment in Paris, France and drove a Kissel roadster. Ocean cruising was a popular pastime and he made several trips to Britain, France, and later, in 1928; he returned to Sydney, to visit his family.
Beranger's career declined following the Great Depression and the 1927 advent of sound film; he continued to work with Griffith, even though the director insisted that sound was just a fad and when the Great Depression hit Hollywood, the studios brought in efficiency experts and non-contract actors, such as Beranger, were the first to be let go.
Eventually, he was forced to sell the Laguna Beach house and move into a small cottage on the same block as his former home. In an attempt to maintain appearances and preserve his dwindling box-office appeal, as a comic romantic lead, Beranger entered what was known in Hollywood as a ''lavender marriage'' to a neighboring widow. The couple never shared a house and Beranger continued to live a gay bachelor life.
He was able to continue acting in films through the 1930s and '40s. In early sound films he was often relegated to non-speaking, uncredited walk-ons or bit parts as hairdressers, concierges, and florists. To make do, he worked as a draftsman for the Los Angeles city council, only staying at the Hollywood Athletic Club during the week. However, in the mid and late 1940s, he played interesting speaking bit parts in three 20th Century-Fox (his main studio) film noirs: The Spider (1945) (a B noir in which he has several lines as a nosy apartment manager), Şarlatan (1947) (an all-time classic noir, playing the geek in the first act and singing the Irish drinking song "The Boston Burglar") and Road House (1948) (for which he received a screen credit, in spite of having only two lines of dialogue as Richard Widmark bespectacled fishing buddy, "Lefty") and his last role, while uncredited, did include two lines.
Beranger retired in 1952 and lived his later years in seclusion. He had built an impressive collection of silent films during his years in the industry and he liked to screen them, alone, in his room at the club, recalling an earlier time of innovation and artistry.
Beranger was found dead, by natural causes, in his shack, behind locked gates and high walls. He had been dead for several days before a postman noticed mail spilling from the letterbox and called the police. Beranger's body was surrounded by press cuttings, photographs, films and costumes - mementos of a career long gone and mostly forgotten. Much of his belongings were packed into trunks and sent to his family in Australia.
In Sydney, he attended the College of Elocution and Dramatic Art run by Walter Bentley . At the age of sixteen, Beranger began playing Shakespearean roles with the Walter Bentley Players. By July 1912, the lure of the stage saw Beranger enter the US illegally via a steamship to Vancouver, where Bentley was on tour. Several months later, Beranger was photographed with stage and screen actor Donald Crisp in Union Square, New York, then the city's theatre district and close to D.W. Griffith Biograph studios.
Billed as "Andre Beranger," among other aliases, he began acting in silent films in which Griffith had a role. In 1913, he acted in five Biograph films and by 1914 Beranger was playing the part of young southerner Duke Cameron in Griffith's Civil War blockbuster,Bir Ulusun Doğuşu (1915) , as well as taking the role of assistant director on the film.
By the time the US entered the war in 1917, Beranger was giving thought to a military service record: he claimed to have joined the Australian Army as well as the Royal Flying Corp's crack Squadron 85 and while this remains unverified, at the time; many did fabricate a fake backstory and what can be proven inaccurate were his claims of French parentage, that his birth took place on a French ocean liner off the coast of Australia and that he had received his education in Paris. However, such reinventions benefited his career, which saw him later perfect the foppish or effete Frenchman role in at least a dozen films, including his role in his big hit So This Is Paris (1926), Ernst Lubitsch satirical take on Rudolph Valentino and the ''sheikh fever'' of the time.
By the 1920s, Beranger had become a star, acting in and directing dozens of movies in the US, Britain and Europe, and he won a Variety Award (a forerunner of the Academy Award). His movies eventually covered adventure, historical romance, mystery and comedy. He played pirates, soldiers, crooks, dandies, sophisticates and European noblemen, but comedy was his forte, particularly the role of the ardent but unlucky lover.
Beranger owned a large Spanish-style home in Laguna Beach, rented a room at the Hollywood Athletic Club, owned an apartment in Paris, France and drove a Kissel roadster. Ocean cruising was a popular pastime and he made several trips to Britain, France, and later, in 1928; he returned to Sydney, to visit his family.
Beranger's career declined following the Great Depression and the 1927 advent of sound film; he continued to work with Griffith, even though the director insisted that sound was just a fad and when the Great Depression hit Hollywood, the studios brought in efficiency experts and non-contract actors, such as Beranger, were the first to be let go.
Eventually, he was forced to sell the Laguna Beach house and move into a small cottage on the same block as his former home. In an attempt to maintain appearances and preserve his dwindling box-office appeal, as a comic romantic lead, Beranger entered what was known in Hollywood as a ''lavender marriage'' to a neighboring widow. The couple never shared a house and Beranger continued to live a gay bachelor life.
He was able to continue acting in films through the 1930s and '40s. In early sound films he was often relegated to non-speaking, uncredited walk-ons or bit parts as hairdressers, concierges, and florists. To make do, he worked as a draftsman for the Los Angeles city council, only staying at the Hollywood Athletic Club during the week. However, in the mid and late 1940s, he played interesting speaking bit parts in three 20th Century-Fox (his main studio) film noirs: The Spider (1945) (a B noir in which he has several lines as a nosy apartment manager), Şarlatan (1947) (an all-time classic noir, playing the geek in the first act and singing the Irish drinking song "The Boston Burglar") and Road House (1948) (for which he received a screen credit, in spite of having only two lines of dialogue as Richard Widmark bespectacled fishing buddy, "Lefty") and his last role, while uncredited, did include two lines.
Beranger retired in 1952 and lived his later years in seclusion. He had built an impressive collection of silent films during his years in the industry and he liked to screen them, alone, in his room at the club, recalling an earlier time of innovation and artistry.
Beranger was found dead, by natural causes, in his shack, behind locked gates and high walls. He had been dead for several days before a postman noticed mail spilling from the letterbox and called the police. Beranger's body was surrounded by press cuttings, photographs, films and costumes - mementos of a career long gone and mostly forgotten. Much of his belongings were packed into trunks and sent to his family in Australia.
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