Murdock MacQuarrie
actor, director, writer
- Birth name:
- Murdock J. MacQuarrie
- Born:
- 1878-08-25, San Francisco, California, USA
- Died:
- 1942-08-22, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor, director, writer
Biography
A Bay-area boy who arrived on 25 August 1878, Murdock MacQuarrie swapped San Francisco’s fog for the flicker of silent-film arc lights and built a two-sided career in front of and behind the camera. Between 1914’s celestial romance The Star Gazer and the same year’s sentimental short The Old Bell-Ringer, he proved equally at home steering productions or stepping into their stories. Two decades later he slipped, almost unnoticed, into Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece Modern Times, sealing a 22-year screen legacy. Off-set he shared life with wife Claire M. MacQuarrie, and on 22 August 1942—three days shy of his 64th birthday—he died quietly in Los Angeles, the city that had become his professional playground.
