Lou Tellegen

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1881-11-26

Deathday 1934-10-29 (52 years old)

Place of Birth Sint-Oedenrode, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands

Also Known As Isidor Louis Bernard Edmon van Dommelen, Lou-Tellegen, Lon Tillegin

Lou Tellegen

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lou Tellegen (born Isidor Louis Bernard Edmon van Dommelen, November 26, 1881 – October 29, 1934) was a Dutch-born silent film and stage actor, film director and screenwriter. Tellegen made his stage debut in Amsterdam in 1903, and over the next few years built a reputation to the point where he was invited to perform in Paris, eventually co-starring in several roles with Sarah Bernhardt, with whom he was involved romantically. In 1910, he made his motion picture debut alongside Bernhardt in La dame aux camélias, a silent film made in France. In the summer of 1913, Tellegen went to London where he produced and starred in Oscar Wilde's play The Picture of Dorian Gray. Invited back to the United States, Tellegen worked in theatre and made his first American film in 1915, titled The Explorer, followed by The Unknown. Considered one of the best-looking actors on screen, he followed up with three straight films starring with Geraldine Farrar (his wife 1916-1923). Tellegen married a total of four times. He became an American citizen in 1918. Tellegen appeared in numerous films before his face was damaged in a fire on Christmas Day 1929, when he fell asleep while smoking. He had extensive plastic surgery in 1931. Fame fading, employment not forthcoming, and ridden with debt, he filed for bankruptcy. He was diagnosed with cancer, though this information was kept from him, and he became despondent. In 1931, he wrote his autobiography Women Have Been Kind. On October 29, 1934, while a guest in the Cudahy Mansion at 1844 North Vine Street in Hollywood (now the site of the Vine-Franklin underpass of the Hollywood Freeway), Tellegen locked himself in the bathroom, then shaved and powdered his face. Then, while standing in front of a full-length mirror, he committed suicide by stabbing himself with a pair of sewing scissors seven times. Tellegen was cremated and his remains scattered at sea.

Known For

Actor

1935
Together We Live

as Bischofsky

1931
Enemies of the Law

as Eddie Swan

1927
Married Alive

as James Duxbury

1927
The Princess from Hoboken

as Prince Anton Balakrieff

1926
Womanpower

as The Broker

1926
3 Bad Men

as Sheriff Layne Hunter

1926
The Silver Treasure

as Sotillo - the Bandit

1926
Siberia

as Egor Kaplan

1926
The Outsider

as Anton Ragatzy

1925
East Lynne

as Sir Francis Levison

1925
Borrowed Finery

as Harlan

1925
1925
With This Ring

as Rufus Van Buren

1925
Parisian Love

as Pierre Marcel

1925
1925
1924
Greater Than Marriage

as John Masters

1924
Those Who Judge

as John Dawson

1919
Flame of the Desert

as Sheik Essad

1919
The World and Its Woman

as Prince Michael Orbeliana

1917
The Long Trail

as Andre Dubois

1917
The Black Wolf

as The Black Wolf

1916
The Victoria Cross

as Maj Ralph Seton

1915
The Unknown

as Richard Farquhar

1912
Queen Elizabeth

as Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex

1912
Camille

as Armand Duval

Director

1930
1928
No Other Woman

as Director

1918
The Thing We Love

as Director

Writer

1930