William Burress
actor
- Birth name:
- William Rosenberry Burris
- Born:
- 1867-08-19, Newcomerstown, Ohio, USA
- Died:
- 1948-10-30, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor
Biography
A small-town Ohio boy who stepped onto the stage and never looked back, William Burress first drew breath on 19 August 1867 in Newcomerstown. Over the next eight decades he morphed from Midwestern unknown to sought-after character presence, lending razor-sharp timing to 1917’s swashbuckling The Scarlet Pimpernel, satirizing wartime zeal in 1918’s Kultur, and charting a family’s epic rise and fall in 1933’s The World Changes. Off-screen he shared his life with actress Carrie May O’Brien; together they rode the rollercoaster of touring theatre and the dawn of Hollywood. Burress’s final curtain fell in Los Angeles on 30 October 1948, leaving behind a reel of performances that still flicker with wit and fire.
