Fred Niblo
Encyclopedia
Fred Niblo was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 pioneer film actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

.

Biography

He was born Frederick Liedtke in York, Nebraska
York, Nebraska
York is a city in York County, Nebraska, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,766. It is the county seat of York County. It is the home of York College and the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women.-Geography:...

, to a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 mother and a father who had served as a captain in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...

. Using the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

, Fred Niblo, Liedtke began his show business career performing in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 and in live theater. After more than twenty years doing live performing, during which he traveled extensively around the globe, he turned to the burgeoning motion picture industry, making his first two films in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

On June 2, 1901, Niblo married Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 actress Josephine Cohan, the older sister of George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....

. He managed the Four Cohans
Four Cohans
The Four Cohans was a late 19th-century vaudeville family act that introduced 20th-century Broadway legend George M. Cohan to show business. It consisted of father Jeremiah "Jere" Cohan , mother Helen "Nellie" Costigan Cohan , daughter Josephine "Josie" Cohan Niblo , and son George M...

 in their two big successes, The Governor's Son and Running for Office. From 1904-05, Fred resumed his stage career, appearing as Walter Lee Leonard in The Rogers Brothers in Paris and then returned to vaudeville.

Josephine died young in 1916, the year he began acting and directing motion pictures. While in Australia, he met actress Enid Bennett
Enid Bennett
-Career:Born in York, Western Australia, Bennett started her film acting career in 1916, first starring in Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, with two other films that same year...

, whom he would later marry. As a Hollywood director, he is most remembered for several notable films beginning with his 1920 work The Mark of Zorro
The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)
The Mark of Zorro is a 1920 silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. This genre-defining swashbuckler adventure was the first movie version of The Mark of Zorro...

 which starred Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....

. The following year he teamed up with Fairbanks again in The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers (1921 film)
__notoc__The Three Musketeers is an American silent film based on the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Fred Niblo and starred Douglas Fairbanks as d'Artagnan. The film originally had scenes filmed in the Handschiegl Color Process...

 and then directed Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...

 in Blood and Sand. In 1925, Niblo was the principal director of the epic Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur (1925 film)
Ben-Hur is a 1925 silent film directed by Fred Niblo. It was a blockbuster hit for newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This was the second film based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace...

 that was one of the most expensive films of the day but became the third highest grossing silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 in cinema history. Niblo followed up on this success with two major 1926 works, The Temptress
The Temptress
The Temptress is an American silent romantic drama film directed by Fred Niblo. Starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Lionel Barrymore and Roy D'Arcy it premiered on October 10, 1926...

 starring Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...

 in her second film in America, and Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...

 in Camille
Camille (1926 film)
Camille is a silent film based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The film was adapted by Fred De Gresac, George Marion Jr., Olga Printzlau and Chandler Sprague, directed by Fred Niblo, and starred Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland, and Lilyan Tashman...

. Niblo went on to direct some of the greatest stars of the era including Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....

, and Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...

. In 1930 he directed his first talkie with two of the biggest names in show business, John Gilbert
John Gilbert (actor)
John Gilbert was an American actor and a major star of the silent film era.Known as "the great lover," he rivaled even Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw...

 and Renée Adorée
Renée Adorée
Renée Adorée was a French actress who had appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s.-Early life:...

 in a film titled Redemption
Redemption (1930 film)
Redemption is a 1930 talking film directed by Fred Niblo, produced and distributed by MGM, and starring John Gilbert. Reportedly Lionel Barrymore filmed retakes in this picture. This film was actually Gilbert's first talking film but was released after the now infamous His Glorious Night, which...

.

Fred Niblo retired in 1933 after more than forty years in show business. The last years sixteen were used to make more than forty films, most of which were feature length projects. He was an important personality in the early years of Hollywood and was one of the original founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...

. In recognition of his role in the development of the film industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 at 7014 Hollywood Blvd. His Ben-Hur film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...

.

Fred Niblo died in New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

, and is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

. His son with Josephine Cohan, Fred Niblo, Jr.
Fred Niblo, Jr.
Fred Niblo, Jr. was a successful Hollywood screenwriter. His career began in 1930 and lasted a little over twenty years. He died in Los Angeles, California, in February 1973, aged 70. Niblo, Jr. was the son of director Fred Niblo.- Awards :He was nominated with Seton I...

(1903–1973) was a successful Hollywood screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

.

Filmography

Year Title
1916 Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford
1916 Officer 666
Officer 666 (1916 film)
Officer 666 is a 1916 silent film made in Australia, based on a successful Broadway comedy of 1912. The film was directed by Fred Niblo who would go on to direct The Mark of Zorro, The Three Musketeers, Blood and Sand and over forty more films....

1918 The Marriage Ring
The Marriage Ring
The Marriage Ring is a 1918 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett as Anne Mertons* Jack Holt as Rodney Heathe* Robert McKim as Hugo Mertons* Maude George as Aho* Charles K. French as Koske* Lydia Knott as Mrs. Heathe...

1918 When Do We Eat?
When Do We Eat? (1918 film)
When Do We Eat? is a 1918 silent comedy film directed by Fred Niblo.-Plot:Nora, An actress is performing in an adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin in a Texas town. A sheriff enters with an attachment against the show. Nora, dressed as Little Eva, escapes from the venue and gets onto a train. A tramp...

1918 Fuss and Feathers
Fuss and Feathers
Fuss and Feathers is a 1918 silent comedy film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Susie Baldwin* Douglas MacLean - Robert Leedyard* J. P. Lockney - Pete Baldwin * Charles K. French - Martin Ledyard...

1919 Happy Though Married
Happy Though Married
Happy Though Married is a 1919 silent comedy film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Millicent Lee* Hallam Cooley - Jim Montjoy * Charles K...

1919 Partners Three
Partners Three
Partners Three is a 1919 silent Western film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Agnes Cuyler* Casson Ferguson - Arthur Gould* J. P. Lockney - Hassayampa Hardy * Robert McKim - Grant Haywood* Lydia Yeamans Titus - Gossip...

1919 The Law of Men
The Law of Men
The Law of Men is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett as Laura Dayne* Niles Welch as Denis Connors* Andrew Robson as Benton Wade* Dorcas Matthews as Mildred Wade...

1919 The Haunted Bedroom
The Haunted Bedroom
The Haunted Bedroom is a 1919 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Betsy Thorne* Dorcas Matthews - Dolores Arnold* Jack Nelson - Daniel Arnold* Lloyd Hughes - Roland Dunwoody* William Conklin - Dr. James Dunwoody...

1919 The Virtuous Thief
The Virtuous Thief
The Virtuous Thief is a 1919 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Shirley Armitage* Niles Welch - Bobbie Baker* Lloyd Hughes - Dick Armitage* Willis Marks - Major Jefferson Armitage* William Conklin - Walter Haskell...

1919 Stepping Out
Stepping Out (1919 film)
Stepping Out is a 1919 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - The Wife* Niles Welch - The Husband* Julia Faye - The Secretary* Gertrude Claire - The Husband's Mother* William Conklin - Frank Wilson...

1919 What Every Woman Learns
What Every Woman Learns
What Every Woman Learns is a silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett as Amy Fortesque* Milton Sills as Walter Melrose* Irving Cummings as Dick Gaylord* William Conklin as John Matson* Lydia Knott as Aunt Charlotte...

1919 Dangerous Hours
Dangerous Hours
Dangerous Hours is a 1919 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo. Prints of the film survive in the UCLA Film and Television Archive. It premiered in February 1920.The film was based on a short story published in the Saturday Evening Post...

1920 The Woman in the Suitcase
The Woman in the Suitcase
The Woman in the Suitcase is a 1920 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Mary Moreland* William Conklin - James B. Moreland* Dorcas Matthews - Dolly Wright* Rowland V. Lee - W.H. 'Billy' Fiske...

1920 Sex
Sex (film)
Sex is a 1920 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo, written by C. Gardner Sullivan, produced by J. Parker Read, and starring Louise Glaum. On its surface, the film was a morality story on the evils of marital infidelity. However, the film's producer, J. Parker Read, had made a series of...

1920 The False Road
The False Road
The False Road is a 1920 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Betty Palmer* Lloyd Hughes - 'Pickpocket' Roger Moran* Wade Boteler - 'Sapphire' Mike Wilson* Lucille Young - 'Frisco' Minnie* Charles Smiley - Joshua Starbuck...

1920 Hairpins
Hairpins
Hairpins is a 1920 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Muriel Rossmore* Matt Moore - Rex Rossmore* William Conklin - Hal Gordon* Margaret Livingston - Effie Wainwright* Grace Morse - Mrs. Kent...

1920 Her Husband's Friend
Her Husband's Friend
Her Husband's Friend is a 1920 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Judith Westover* Rowland V. Lee - Billy Westover * Tom Chatterton - Princeton Hadley* Mae Busch - Clarice...

1920 The Mark of Zorro
The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)
The Mark of Zorro is a 1920 silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. This genre-defining swashbuckler adventure was the first movie version of The Mark of Zorro...

1920 Silk Hosiery
Silk Hosiery
Silk Hosiery is a 1920 silent comedy film directed by Fred Niblo. A print exist in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.-Cast:* Enid Bennett - Marjorie Bowen* Geoffrey Webb - Sir Derwain Leeds* Marie Pavis - Yvette Fernau...

1921 Mother o' Mine
Mother o' Mine
Mother o' Mine is a 1921 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo. This film is one of the many lost films from the silent era.-Cast:* Lloyd Hughes - Robert Sheldon* Betty Ross Clarke - Dolly Wilson* Betty Blythe - Fan Baxter...

1921 Greater Than Love
Greater Than Love
Greater Than Love is a 1921 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Louise Glaum - Grace Merrill* Patricia Palmer - Elsie Brown* Rose Cade - Maizie* Eve Southern - Clairice* Willie Mae Carson - Pinkie* Betty Francisco - Helen Wellington...

1921 The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers (1921 film)
__notoc__The Three Musketeers is an American silent film based on the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Fred Niblo and starred Douglas Fairbanks as d'Artagnan. The film originally had scenes filmed in the Handschiegl Color Process...

1922 The Woman He Married
The Woman He Married
The Woman He Married is a 1922 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Anita Stewart - Natalie Lane* Darrell Foss - Roderick Warren* Donald MacDonald - Byrne Travers* William Conklin - Andrew Warren* Shannon Day - Mimi...

1922 Rose o' the Sea
Rose o' the Sea
Rose o' the Sea is a 1922 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Anita Stewart - Rose Elton* Rudolph Cameron - Elliot Schuyler* Thomas Holding - Peter Schuyler* Margaret Landis - Vivienne Raymond* Kate Lester - Lady Maggie...

1922 Blood and Sand
1923 The Famous Mrs. Fair
The Famous Mrs. Fair
The Famous Mrs. Fair is a silent drama film produced by Louis B. Mayer, distributed through Metro Pictures, and directed by Fred Niblo. The film is based on the Broadway play of the same name by James Forbes that had starred Blanche Bates in the 1919 theatre season. This is now considered a lost...

1923 Strangers of the Night
Strangers of the Night
Strangers of the Night is a 1923 silent comedy film directed by Fred Niblo. Presumably this movie is a lost film.-Cast:* Matt Moore - Ambrose Applejohn* Enid Bennett - Poppy Faire* Barbara La Marr - Anna Valeska...

1924 Thy Name Is Woman
Thy Name Is Woman
Thy Name Is Woman is a 1924 silent comedy film directed by Fred Niblo.-Cast:* Ramon Novarro - Juan Ricardo* Barbara La Marr - Guerita* William V. Mong - Pedro the Fox * Wallace MacDonald - Capt. Rodrigo de Castelar...

1924 The Red Lily
The Red Lily
The Red Lily is a 1924 silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo, starring Ramon Novarro, Enid Bennett and Wallace Beery.-Plot:Jean Leonnec and Marise La Noue are pennyless lovers who eloped to Paris, she to become a prostitute known as 'the red lily', he to learn the ways of the underworld from...

 
1925 Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Ben-Hur (1925 film)
Ben-Hur is a 1925 silent film directed by Fred Niblo. It was a blockbuster hit for newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This was the second film based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace...

1926 The Temptress
The Temptress
The Temptress is an American silent romantic drama film directed by Fred Niblo. Starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Lionel Barrymore and Roy D'Arcy it premiered on October 10, 1926...

1926 Camille
Camille (1926 film)
Camille is a silent film based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The film was adapted by Fred De Gresac, George Marion Jr., Olga Printzlau and Chandler Sprague, directed by Fred Niblo, and starred Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland, and Lilyan Tashman...

1927 The Devil Dancer
1927 The Enemy
The Enemy (1927 film)
The Enemy is a 1927 drama film directed by Fred Niblo, and starring Lillian Gish. The film has been thought to be lost. The MGM library, now controlled by Turner Classic Movies, has a print which is missing the final reel...

1928 Two Lovers
Two Lovers (1928 film)
Two Lovers is a silent feature film directed by Fred Niblo.-Production background:The film was rereleased in the USA in 1928, with a synchronized soundtrack, after having been previously released as a silent film.-Preservation status:...

1928 The Mysterious Lady
The Mysterious Lady
The Mysterious Lady is an MGM silent film starring Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel, and Gustav von Seyffertitz, directed by Fred Niblo, and based on the novel War in the Dark by Ludwig Wolff.-Synopsis:...

1928 Dream of Love
Dream of Love
Dream of Love is a 1928 MGM silent film, directed by Fred Niblo, and starring Joan Crawford and Nils Asther. The film is based on the play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. In the film, Asther plays Prince Maurice de Saxe and Crawford plays Adrienne Lecouvreur, a Gypsy...

1930 Redemption
Redemption (1930 film)
Redemption is a 1930 talking film directed by Fred Niblo, produced and distributed by MGM, and starring John Gilbert. Reportedly Lionel Barrymore filmed retakes in this picture. This film was actually Gilbert's first talking film but was released after the now infamous His Glorious Night, which...

1930 Way Out West
Way Out West (1930 film)
Way Out West is a 1930 American comedy film. It tells the story of "Windy", a con man who cheats a group of cowboys out of their money. When they discover his cheating and learn that he himself has been robbed, they force him to work on a ranch until he has paid his debt...

1931 Young Donovan's Kid
Young Donovan's Kid
Young Donovan's Kid is a 1931 drama film directed by Fred Niblo, starring Richard Dix and featuring Boris Karloff.-Cast:* Richard Dix - Jim Donovan* Marion Shilling - Kitty Costello* Jackie Cooper - Midge Murray* Frank Sheridan - Father Dan...

1931 The Big Gamble
1932 Two White Arms
Two White Arms
Two White Arms is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Fred Niblo and starring Adolphe Menjou, Margaret Bannerman and Claud Allister. It is adapted from a play by Harold Dearden. A man becomes bored with married life and pretends to have lost his memory so he can pursue other women...

1932 Diamond Cut Diamond
Diamond Cut Diamond (film)
Diamond Cut Diamond is a 1932 British comedy crime film directed by Maurice Elvey and Fred Niblo and starring Adolphe Menjou, Claud Allister and Benita Hume.-Plot:...


External links

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