Charles K. French
actor, director, writer
- Birth name:
- Charles Edward Krauss
- Born:
- 1860-01-17, Columbus, Ohio, USA
- Died:
- 1952-08-02, Hollywood, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director, writer
Biography
Columbus, Ohio greeted Charles K. French on 17 January 1860, and by the time the flickering-image era dawned he had already traded Midwestern streets for studio lots. Between cue-cards and camera cranks he shaped more than 200 screen tales, stepping in front of the lens for The Abysmal Brute and Gentle Julia (both 1923) and ducking behind it for the Civil-War comedy blockbuster Hands Up! (1926). Off-screen, three weddings wrote overlapping chapters of his life: first to actress Isabelle Gurton, then to leading lady Helen French, and finally to screenwriter Doris Herbert. The final curtain fell on 2 August 1952 in Hollywood, California, closing the book on a 92-year journey that spanned horse-drawn infancy to the golden age of talkies.
