Gerald Ames

Biography

Now completely forgotten, the name of Gerald Ames had a very special feel back in the silent era. The man who bore this name was indeed a heart breaker. Six feet tall, burly, athletic, mustached, dark-eyed and dark-haired, Ames had all it took to get top billing and he did grace about seventy films (many of which directed by pioneers George Loane Tucker and Cecil M. Hepworth) with his manly presence. He very successfully portrayed three archetypal fiction characters, Rupert Von Hetzau, Arsène Lupin and Raffles. And he most often found himself in the shoes of figures of imposing bearing such as aristocrats (knights, counts, marquises, princes...), officers (lieutenants, captains...), judges, ambassadors, the like... Directors also explored the darker side of his personality by making him a spy or an enemy officer. Debuting on the boards as of 1905 and on the big screen in 1914, Gerald was one of the few actors to manage two careers at once. For not content to be a thespian he was also a fencing champion and even represented Britain in the Stockholm Games of 1912. Born in Blackheath in 1881, educated at Freiburg University in Germany, married to actress Mary Dibley, Percy Gerald Ames died too soon of a heart attack after falling down the steps at a London Underground station in 1933. He was only 51.