King Baggot
William King Baggot (November 7, 1879 – July 11, 1948) was an American actor, film director and screenwriter. He was an internationally famous movie star of the silent film era. The first individually publicized leading man in America, Baggot was referred to as "King of the Movies", "The Most Photographed Man in the World", and "The Man Whose Face Is As Familiar As The Man In The Moon".
Baggot appeared in over 300 motion pictures from 1909 to 1947, wrote 18 screenplays, and directed 45 movies from 1912 to 1928, including The Lie (1912), Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (1925), and The House of Scandal (1928). He also directed William S. Hart in his most famous western, Tumbleweeds (1925).
Among his film appearances, Baggot was best known for The Scarlet Letter (1911), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913), and Ivanhoe (1913).
Baggot began his career on the stage, in a Shakespearean stock company, and toured throughout the U.S.
While acting in stock in St. Louis in 1909, he was cast as supporting player in the Schubert touring production of The Wishing Ring. When The Wishing Ring closed in Chicago, Baggot returned to New York to join another company. Upon a chance meeting with Harry Solter, who was directing movies for Carl Laemmle at Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), he was persuaded to go with Solter to the studio. Baggot became interested in the fledgling industry and decided to turn picture player.
His first film was the romance short The Awakening of Bess (1909) opposite Florence Lawrence. It was directed by Harry Solter, her husband, at IMP in Fort Lee, New Jersey. At a time when screen actors worked anonymously, Baggot and Lawrence became the first "movie stars" to be given billing, a marquee, and promotion in advertising.
Baggot starred in at least 42 movies opposite Lawrence from 1909 to 1911. In the latter year, he starred in at least 16 movies with Mary Pickford.
He also began writing screenplays and directing, all the while becoming a major star internationally. When he appeared "in person" at theatres he was mobbed at stage doors.
By 1912, he was so famous that when he took the leading part in forming the prestigious Screen Club in New York, the first organization of its kind strictly for movie people, he was the natural choice for its first president.
King Baggot died in Los Angeles, California in 1948, age 68.
For his contributions to the film industry, Baggot received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. His star is located at 6312 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography (151 Appearances)
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
Merton of the Movies
My Brother Talks to Horses
The Secret Heart
Holiday in Mexico
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
Dangerous Partners
Swing Fever
Her Cardboard Lover
Jackass Mail
Fingers at the Window
Rio Rita
Honky Tonk
The Big Store
Ziegfeld Girl
Come Live with Me
The Philadelphia Story
Gallant Sons
Bitter Sweet
The Ghost Comes Home
I Take This Woman
Dancing Co-Ed
Stronger Than Desire
The Ice Follies of 1939
Opening Day
Stablemates
Too Hot to Handle
Boys Town
Marie Antoinette
Think It Over
Snow Gets in Your Eyes
That Mothers Might Live
Arsène Lupin Returns
A Night at the Movies
The Emperor's Candlesticks
It May Happen to You
Parnell
Torture Money
Mad Holiday
Sworn Enemy
The Devil-Doll
San Francisco
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
A Night at the Opera
3 Kids and a Queen
Chinatown Squad
The Call of the Savage
Mississippi
Sweepstake Annie
A Notorious Gentleman
Father Brown, Detective
Cheating Cheaters
Romance in the Rain
The Red Rider
Beloved
I Loved a Woman
The Death Kiss
Afraid to Talk
The Big Flash
What Price Hollywood?
Police Court
Girl of the Rio
Graft
Sweepstakes
The Bad Sister
Once a Gentleman
The Czar of Broadway
The Thrill Chaser
The Butterfly Girl
The Girl in the Taxi
The Forbidden Thing
The Dwelling Place of Light
Life's Twist
The Cheater
The Shadow of Lightning Ridge
The Hawk's Trail
The Man Who Stayed at Home
Building for Democracy
Kildare of Storm
The Eagle's Eye
Mission of the War Chest
The Silent Stranger
The Man from Nowhere
Half a Rogue
The Suburban
The Marble Heart
The Great Universal Mystery
Absinthe
Ivanhoe
The Wanderer
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Up Against It
A Cave Man Wooing
Shamus O'Brien
Over the Hills
The Better Way
The Rose's Story
The Call of the Song
Science
At a Quarter of Two
For the Queen's Honor
In the Sultan's Garden
A Game of Deception
The Master and the Man
The Fair Dentist
The Temptress
Second Sight
The Scarlet Letter
While There is hope, There is Life
The Wife’s Awakening
Sweet Memories
The Secret of the Palm
Tracked
Pictureland
At the Duke's Command
The Mirror
The Count of Montebello
All the World’s a Stage
Pressed Roses
Debt
The Taming of Jane
Once Upon a Time
The Irony of Fate
Bear Ye One Another’s Burdens
Old Heads and Young Hearts
The Time-Lock Safe
The Call of the Circus
A Game for Two
A Reno Romance
The Eternal Triangle
The Doctor's Perfidy
Two Men
The New Shawl
The Maelstrom
The Rosary
His Second Wife
The Miser’s Daughter
Transfusion
The Stage Note
The Broken Oath
Mother Love
The Governor’s Pardon
Jane and the Stranger
The Blind Man’s Tact
Justice in the Far North
The Tide of Fortune
The Right of Love
The Winning Punch
The Awakening of Bess
Love's Stratagem