Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses

Howard Gaye

HOWARDGAYE Crucial roles in The Birth ofa Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916) are played by a statuesque actor who has never received any recognition in his lifetime or since. The actor is an Englishman. Howard Gaye (Hitc:hin. Hertforshire. May 23. I878-London. December 26. 1955). and the characters he created on screen are General Robert E. Lee and Christ. Not a bad combination. Gaye was a well-educated young man whose father co-owned London's Gaiety Theatre. He had been a newspaper reporter in England and decided to visit America in 1912. While staying at the Hollywood Hotel. he was introduced to actor Carlyle Blackwell and invited to join the Kalem Company. After appearing in a handful of Kalem productions. Gaye spoke with D.W. Griffith and was hired in 1914 as a member of the director's stock company. Actor and assistant director George Siegmann gave Gaye a portrait of Robert E. Lee and asked if he could make up exactly like the Confederate general. The actor spent three hours on the facial makeup. using putty to create high cheekbones and to alter the contours of his nose. together with white crepe hair for the beard and moustache. Christ had first been portrayed on screen in a feature film by another Englishman. R Henderson Bland. in the 1912 Kalem production of From the Manger to the Cross. It is. of course. obvious typecasting for an Englishman to play Christ in that God is known to be an Englishman. and so. by natural deduction. is his son. Howard Gaye was "nailed" to the cross for three hours during the filming of Intolerance. with shooting beginning at dawn. George Siegmann accidentally hit the actor's toe with hammer during the "nailing" and Gaye's blood added to the realism. It was Howard Gaye's opinion that the long shooting schedule for one scene was deliberate on Griffith's part in order that the director would "wear me out physically." Howard Gaye again played Christ on screen in Metro's 1918 release of Restitution. which the actor also directed. It was a silly anti-German Biblical epic. with Satan helping Kaiser Wilhelm. The actor's performance as Christ certainly had an impact on those around him. and years later. Lillian Gish wrote to his widow that on a 1955 visit to Jerusalem she and sister Dorothy expected to see Howard Gaye coming down the street at any moment. Aside from The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Howard Gaye was also featured by Griffith in a number of Fine Arts productions of 1916. including Daphne and the Pirate. Flirting with Fate. The Devils Needle. and Diane of the Follies. He had supporting roles in half a dozen feature films of the teens. most notably in the 1917 William Fox production of The Scarlet Pimpernel . in which Sir Percy Blakeney is played by Dustin Farnum. 132 Howard Gaye Gaye acquired many of his later roles because of his makeup ability. For example. he was paid $350 a week to play the Duke of Norfolk in Mary Pickford's 1924 production of DorothyVernon ofHaddon Hall. Gaye is a French aristocrat in Rex Ingram's 5caramouche (1923), and he helped George Siegmann with his makeup as Danton, creatingsmallpox marks on the actor's face. Gaye's last U.S. feature is Dante's Inferno. in which a millionaire is given a tour of hell. Released by Fox in September 1924. with British actor Lawson Butt as Dante and Gay as Virgil. the film's chief claim to fame is the suggested nudity in several of the scenes. Back in England, Gaye found little worthwhile employment in the British film industry. but he did lecture on his career in Hollywood and he also wrote an unpublished autobiography. So This Was Hollywood. The latter was given to me by Gaye's widow. who. like her husband. ended her days in a small apartment close to Wembley Stadium. the home of Britain's soccer Cup Final and. more recently. rock concerts. Itwas about as far removed from the glamor of Hollywood as it is possible to be. Note: A copy of Howard Gaye's autobiography is at the Museum of Modern Art. and the original is on deposit at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ...