Hector V. Sarno
actor, director, writer
- Born:
- 1880-04-24, Naples, Italy
- Died:
- 1953-12-16, Pasadena, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director, writer
Biography
Naples, April 24, 1880: the curtain rose on Hector V. Sarno’s first act long before he ever saw a camera. Crossing the Atlantic with little more than a notebook of ideas and a Neapolitan’s sense of drama, he traded the Bay of Naples for the glare of American klieg lights. Between 1914 and 1915 he slipped into three now-flickering silents—*Gwendolin*, *Martin Chuzzlewit*, and *The Wanderer’s Pledge*—writing lines for others and then stepping in front of the lens himself, a quiet craftsman doubling as the face on the title card. Off-screen he shared his life with Maria Gemma Gori, a marriage left largely outside the frame. The final reel rolled on December 16, 1953, in Pasadena, California, where the former street kid from southern Italy closed his last scene at age 73.
