Sam De Grasse

Samuel Alfred De Grasse (June 12, 1875 – November 29, 1953) was a Canadian actor.

Sam De Grasse
De Grasse in Heart o' the Hills (1919)
Born(1875-06-12)June 12, 1875
Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada
DiedNovember 29, 1953(1953-11-29) (aged 78)
Hollywood, California, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1914–1930
Spouse(s)
Annie McDonnell
​
​
(m. 1904; died 1909)​

Ada Fuller Golden
​
(m. 1912)​
Children2
RelativesJoseph De Grasse (brother)
Robert de Grasse (nephew)

Biography

Samuel Alfred De Grasse was born in Bathurst, New Brunswick to Lange De Grasse (1828–1891) and Helene "Ellen" Comeau (born 1836), both of French-Canadian descent. He trained to be a dentist, and married Annie McDonnell in 1904. Their daughter, Clementine Bell, was born in 1906. Annie died in 1909 while giving birth to another daughter, Olive, who also died. In 1910, Samuel was practicing dentistry and he and Clementine were living in Providence, Rhode Island along with his older sister (also named Clementine) and her 14-year-old son, Jerome Fauchy.

Sam married British actress Ada Fuller Golden and became a step-father to her three children. His older brother Joe went into the fledgling movie business and Sam decided to also give it a try. He traveled to New York City and in 1912 he appeared in his first motion picture.

At first he played standard secondary characters but when fellow Canadian Mary Pickford set up her own studio with her husband Douglas Fairbanks, he joined them.[1] He portrayed the villainous Prince John in Douglas Fairbanks' 1922 Robin Hood. Afterward, he began to specialize in crafty or slimy villainous roles, such as Senator Charles Summer in Birth of a Nation (1915), the mill owner Arthur Jenkins in Intolerance (1916), Dr. Robert Armstrong in Blind Husbands (1919), John Carver in The Courtship of Miles Standish (1923), Colonel Lestron in The Eagle of the Sea (1926), a pirate lieutenant in The Black Pirate (1926), a Pharisee in The King of Kings (1927) and King James in The Man Who Laughs (1928).[2] Mary Pickford named him as one of her favorite stars.[3] He was the uncle of successful cinematographer Robert De Grasse.

In the 1960s, Jackie Coogan alleged that Jean Harlow lived in De Grasse's apartment for two years and was married to him when she was 16.[4] This is not true, as Harlow was married to Charles McGrew when she was 16. However, she did appear in the film Honor Bound (1928), where Sam De Grasse plays Blood Keller, as an extra.

He lived on the west coast until his death in Hollywood; he died of a heart attack during his sleep.[5] He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[2][6]

Selected filmography

See also

References
  1. https://books.google.com/books?id=TSGtcYZnEJgC&pg=PA57&dq=sam+de+grasse&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9iK6Ltd3tAhUJcq0KHRH0B-MQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg
  2. Wilson, Scott (19 August 2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons (3rd ed.). McFarland Publishing. p. 187. ISBN 978-1-4766-2599-7.
  3. Howe, Herbert (January 1924). "Mary Pickford's Favorite Stars and Films". Photoplay. New York: Photoplay Publishing Company. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  4. https://books.google.com/books?id=TSGtcYZnEJgC&pg=PA58&dq=sam+de+grasse+jean+harlow&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQi7bgtd3tAhURTawKHfsYC2gQ6AEwAHoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=sam%20de%20grasse%20jean%20harlow&f=false
  5. Foster, Charles (2000). Stardust and Shadows: Canadians in Early Hollywood. Dundurn Group. pp. 41–62. ISBN 978-1-55002-348-0.
  6. "The Final Curtain". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 12 December 1953. p. 51. ISSN 0006-2510.
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