Anecdotes

Whenever he visited Passaic (NJ), he would always time a visit to the DL&W railroad station so he could wave to his brother, a train engineer.

In Rues sombres (1929) he completed the first dual role ever in talking pictures.

Got his first job in an iron foundry, then worked as a barker in an amusement park. Acted and danced in vaudeville and early Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. shows in New York before joining D.W. Griffith at Biograph. Became a noted star of the silent screen, acting opposite the likes of Mary Pickford and Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge. At the height of his popularity he made $1,000 a week. By the time he was financially destroyed by the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he had accumulated an estimated fortune of $1 million, much of it in California real estate.

Aside from making many television appearances, he acted in 420 movies.

Once served on the board of the Screen Actors Guild.

Guest-starred in the pilot episode of TV's How to Marry a Millionaire (1957) on October 7, 1957, which happened to be his birthday.