Richard Willis
actor, writer
- Born:
- 1876-10-15, London, England, UK
- Died:
- 1945-04-08, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor, writer
Biography
London welcomed Richard Willis on 15 October 1876, and before the echoes of Victorian carriages faded he was already spinning stories and stepping onto makeshift stages. By 1914 he had traded gas-lit boards for flickering celluloid, scripting the taut drama of *The Last Chapter*. A year later he dealt audiences the suspense-laden *The High Hand*, then in 1917 lured them into the salt-sprayed mystery of *Lorelei of the Sea*. Actor, scenarist, conjurer of silent-era illusions—he chased the moving-picture dream across the Atlantic, dying quietly in Los Angeles on 8 April 1945 while the world’s projectors still flickered in his mind.
