Louis Payne

Louis "Lou" Payne (January 13, 1873 – August 14, 1953) was an American character actor of the silent and sound film eras, as well as legitimate theater. His acting life began on Broadway in the first decade of the 1900s, when he appeared in the Broadway play, Her Majesty, the Girl Queen of Nordenmark, which ran at the Manhattan Theatre in 1900.[1]

In 1906, he married famous stage actress Mrs. Leslie Carter, fifteen years her junior, and remained married to her until her death in 1937. He made his film debut in 1915's DuBarry, a film created to highlight Carter, who was a protégé of the playwright David Belasco. Belasco wrote the stage play of the same name on which the film is based, and in which Carter starred on Broadway.[2][3] Payne appeared in over 40 films during his 35-year career in Hollywood, as well as doing numerous plays.[4][5]

In 1940, three years after Carter's death, Warner Bros. produced a biopic on her life, Lady with Red Hair, on which Payne serves as a technical advisor.[6] He continued to act in small roles through the 1940s. The final film in which Payne appeared was 1951's epic Quo Vadis, starring Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr, in which he played one of Jesus' 12 apostles.[7] Payne died on August 14, 1953, at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California. He was buried with his wife at Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum in Dayton, Ohio.[8]