Richard Arlen

97
Richard Arlen bigraphy, stories - Actor

Richard Arlen : biography

01 September 1899 – 28 March 1976

Richard Arlen (September 1, 1899[1]#Notes – March 28, 1976) was an American actor of film and television.

Notes

Although Arlen’s birthplace is often listed as Charlottesville, Virginia and his birth name as Cornelius Richard Van Mattimore, other non-Hollywood information is different. The "Van" is likely a shorten version of Sylvanus, not an additional name. The 1 June 1900 census data says Arlen’s father, James Mattimore lived in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1900 with five children, the youngest of whom is Sylvanus, who was born in Minnesota (city unspecified) in September 1899 and was also listed as 8/12 years of age. Sylvanus was also listed in the 1 April 1910 census as being 10 years old. On Arlen’s 12 September 1918 draft card, his name given as Van Mattimore, a member of the Royal Flying Corps of the British Army, based in Toronto, his nearest relative is listed as his father James Mattimore. The 1918 draft card’s date of birth is given as 1 Sept 1900, and it would appear that the writer started to put the year of birth as 18 and then wrote over the 8 with a 9, so it appears as 1900. The Social Security Administration notes Richard Arlen was born on 1 Sept 1899 and died in March 1976. The census of 1930 lists Van Mattimore, Richard age 29. It says that he and both parents were born in Minnesota. According to the 1900 and 1910 census, his father was born in Ireland.

Biography

Born Sylvanus Richard Van Mattimore in St. Paul, Minnesota, he attended the University of Pennsylvania. He served as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. His first job after the war was with St. Paul’s Athletic Club. Then he went to the oilfields of Texas and Oklahoma and found work as a tool boy. He was thereafter a messenger and sporting editor of a newspaper before going to Los Angeles to star in films, but no producer wanted him. He was a delivery boy for a film laboratory when the motorcycle which he was riding landed him a broken leg outside the Paramount Pictures lot. A sympathetic film director gave him his start as an extra. He appeared at first in silent films before making the transition to talkies. His first important film role was in Vengeance of the Deep (1923).

He took time out from his Hollywood career to teach as a United States Army Air Forces flight instructor in World War II.

Arlen is best known for his role as a pilot in the Academy Award-winning Wings (1927) with Clara Bow, Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, Gary Cooper, El Brendel, and his first wife, Jobyna Ralston, whom he married in 1927. He was among the more famous residents of the celebrity enclave, Toluca Lake, California. from TolucaLakeChamber.com, retrieved on September 15, 2010.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Arlen was active in television, having guest starred in several anthology series, including Playhouse 90, The Loretta Young Show, The 20th Century Fox Hour, and in three episodes of the series about clergymen, Crossroads.

Arlen appeared in westerns, such as Lawman, Branded, Bat Masterson, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Wagon Train, and Yancy Derringer, and in such drama/adventure programs like Ripcord, Whirlybirds, Perry Mason, The New Breed, COronado 9, and Michael Shayne.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Richard Arlen has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6753 Hollywood Blvd.

On his death from emphysema in 1976, Arlen was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Filmography

Features:

  • Ladies Must Live (1921)
  • The Green Tempation (1922)
  • The Ghost Breaker (1922)
  • Quicksands (1923)
  • Vengeance of the Deep (1923)
  • The Fighting Coward (1924)
  • Sally (1925)
  • In the Name of Love (1925)
  • The Coast of Folly (1925) (scenes deleted)
  • The Enchanted Hill (1926)
  • Behind the Front (1926)
  • Padlocked (1926)
  • You’d Be Surprised (1926)
  • Old Ironsides (1926)
  • Rolled Stockings (1927)
  • The Blood Ship (1927)
  • Wings (1927)
  • Sally in Our Alley (1927)
  • Figures Don’t Lie (1927)
  • She’s a Sheik (1927)
  • Under the Tonto Rim (1928)
  • Feel My Pulse (1928)
  • Ladies of the Mob (1928)
  • Beggars of Life (1928)
  • Manhattan Cocktail (1928)
  • The Man I Love (1929)
  • Thunderbolt (1929)
  • The Four Feathers (1929)
  • Dangerous Curves (1929)
  • Burning Up (1930)
  • Dangerous Paradise (1930)
  • The Light of Western Stars (1930)
  • Paramount on Parade (1930) (also appeared in Spanish and French-dubbed versions)
  • The Sea God (1930)
  • The Santa Fe Trail (1930)
  • Only Saps Work (1930)
  • The Conquering Horde (1931)
  • Gun Smoke (1931)
  • The Lawyer’s Secret (1931)
  • The Secret Call (1931)
  • Caught (1931)
  • Touchdown (1931)
  • Wayward (1932)
  • Sky Bride (1932)
  • Guilty as Hell (1932)
  • Tiger Shark (1932)
  • The All-American (1932)
  • Island of Lost Souls (1932)
  • Song of the Eagle (1933)
  • College Humor (1933)
  • Three-Cornered Moon (1933)
  • Golden Harvest (1933)
  • Hell and High Water (1933)
  • Alice in Wonderland (1933)
  • Come on Marines (1934)
  • She Made Her Bed (1934)
  • Ready for Love (1934)
  • Helldorado (1935)
  • Let ’em Have It (1935)
  • The Calling of Dan Matthews (1935)
  • Three Live Ghosts (1936)
  • The Mine with the Iron Door (1936)
  • Secret Valley (1937)
  • Silent Barriers (1937)
  • Artists & Models (1937)
  • Murder in Greenwich Village (1937)
  • No Time to Marry (1938)
  • Call of the Yukon (1938)
  • Straight, Place and Show (1938)
  • Missing Daughters (1939)
  • Mutiny on the Blackhawk (1939)
  • Tropic Fury (1939)
  • Legion of Lost Flyers (1939)
  • The Man from Montreal (1939)
  • Danger on Wheels (1940)
  • Hot Steel (1940)
  • Black Diamonds (1940)
  • The Leather Pushers (1940)
  • The Devil’s Pipeline (1940)
  • Lucky Devils (1941)
  • Mutiny in the Arctic (1941)
  • Power Dive (1941)
  • Men of the Timberland (1941)
  • Forced Landing (1941)
  • Raiders of the Desert (1941)
  • A Dangerous Game (1941)
  • Flying Blind (1941)
  • Torpedo Boat (1942)
  • Wildcat (1942)
  • Wrecking Crew (1942)
  • Aerial Gunner (1943)
  • Alaska Highway (1943)
  • Submarine Alert (1943)
  • Minesweeper (1943)
  • Timber Queen (1944)
  • The Lady and the Monster (1944)
  • That’s My Baby! (1944)
  • Storm Over Lisbon (1944)
  • The Big Bonanza (1944)
  • Identity Unknown (1945)
  • The Phantom Speaks (1945)
  • Accomplice (1946)
  • Buffalo Bill Rides Again (1947)
  • Speed to Spare (1948)
  • The Return of Wildfire (1948)
  • When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948)
  • Grand Canyon (1949)
  • Kansas Raiders (1950)
  • Silver City (1951)
  • Flaming Feather (1952)
  • Hurricane Smith (1952)
  • Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
  • The Blazing Forest (1952)
  • Sabre Jet (1953)
  • Devil’s Harbor (1954)
  • Blonde Blackmailer (1955)
  • Hidden Guns (1956)
  • The Mountain (1956)
  • Warlock (1959)
  • Raymie (1960)
  • The Young and The Brave (1963)
  • Cavalry Command (1963)
  • Law of the Lawless (1963)
  • Sex and the College Girl (1964)
  • The Best Man (1964)
  • The Shepherd of the Hills (1964)
  • Young Fury (1965)
  • The Human Duplicators (1965)
  • Black Spurs (1965)
  • Town Tamer (1965)
  • The Bounty Killer (1965)
  • Apache Uprising (1965)
  • Johnny Reno (1966)
  • To the Shores of Hell (1966)
  • Waco (1966)
  • The Road to Nashville (1967)
  • Red Tomahawk (1967)
  • Hostile Guns (1967)
  • Fort Utah (1967)
  • Rogues’ Gallery (1968)
  • Buckskin (1968)
  • Anzio (1968)
  • The Sky’s the Limit (1975)
  • Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
  • A Whale of a Tale (1977)

Short subjects:

  • A Trip Through the Paramount Studio (1927)
  • How to Break 90 #4: Downswing (1933)
  • Hollywood on Parade No. A-6 (1933)
  • Hollywood on Parade No. A-9 (1933)
  • Hollywood on Parade No. B-6 (1934)
  • Hollywood Hobbies (1935)
  • Screen Snapshots Series 15, No. 3 (1935)
  • Swing with Bing (1940)
  • Screen Snapshots: Sports in Hollywood (1940)
  • Unusual Occupations (1942)
  • Soaring Stars (1942)
  • Paramount Victory Short: A Letter from Bataan (1942)