Van Dyke Brooke

Biography

Footlights veteran Van Dyke Brooke traded Broadway boards for Vitagraph lenses in 1909, slipping seamlessly into the churning new world of flickers. Over the next seven years he juggled greasepaint and megaphone, scripting, staging and starring in a blur of one-reelers that kept the company’s cameras turning double-time. When Vitagraph’s broom swept out seasoned names in 1916, Brooke dodged obscurity, remaining before the lens until the final curtain fell on his life five years later.