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WALLACE FITZGERALD BEERY
April 1, 1885 (Kansas City, Missouri, USA) - April 15, 1949 (Beverly Hills, California, USA).
"Wallace Beery, like most movie actors, came to the movies from the theater, where he went to great school.
The juiciness and full-bloodedness of Wallace Beery's temperament is due to the characteristics of his background and environment. Wallace and his brother Noah Beery were born in Missouri, the state from which the toughest, healthiest and most venomous people come.
Wallace's parents were farmers who wanted him to be a farmer, too. But in young Wallace's eyes, the golden casts of rye fields surrounding his ranch were transformed into shimmering reflections of theatrical scenery, and the farmers around him were seen as masks of American melodrama. Such is the romance of a child dreaming of the theater.
Following the example of his brother Noah, the first to go to the stage, and Wallace became an actor. But life was harder than the dream, and Wallace failed miserably on stage. Then, without thinking twice, he joins the circus and performs the humble duty of "governess" elephants. He quickly gets along with his good-natured pets and probably would have remained in the circus environment all his life if it were not for chance.
The director of an American operetta, having heard Wallace humming a "lullaby" to the elephants, invites him to join the operetta.
This is where Wallace's career begins.
The Yankee Tourist he played thrilled all of Broadway.
On tour in Chicago, he notices and invites the director of the famous film company Esseney and, after some hesitation, Wallace goes to the movies. At Esseney he plays with Gloria Swenson.
Yet only much later he finally reveals his artistic personality "villain" of American film.
Artistic appearance Wallace Beery is due to full-blooded temperament, he portrays not schematic villain, fitted with gloomy colors screenwriter. He is above all a man with tremendous volitional impulses restraining the impulses of his passions, with a healthy humor and a firm chuckle."
"Soviet Screen" #17, 1927
Was the first husband of actress Gloria Swenson.