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- Writer
- Art Department
- Actor
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, Netherlands. His father, named Theodorus van Gogh, was a Protestant minister. His mother, named Anna Cornelia Carbentus, was a daughter of the "book-binder to the King" Willem Carbentus; who had bound the first Consitution of Holland. Vincent Van Gogh was given the name of his elder brother, who had died at birth a year before Van Gogh was born. He had two junior brothers and three sisters, and was strongly attached to his brother Theo.
Young Van Gogh was brought up in a religious and strict atmosphere. He was severely punished by his grandmother at one time. He had a very uncontrollable temper, was highly emotional, and lacked self-confidence. From the age of 7 to 11 he was taught at home by a governess. Then from the age of 11 to 15 he was sent to boarding schools in the Netherlands. His first art teacher was Constantijn Huysmans, a professional artist, who taught the young Van Gogh basic drawing and composition. From 1869-1873 Van Gogh worked for an established art dealer, Goupil & Cie, in the Hague. Then he worked in London and Paris until 1876, when he was fired for showing resentment to the customers. Van Gogh went to England as a minister's assistant. Then he studied theology at the University of Amsterdam for one year, but gave up. He tried to follow his father's profession and become a preacher in Belgium, but was dismissed after a year for "underminig the dignity of the priesthood."
He studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Brussels for six months in 1880 and 1881. In the summer of 1881 Van Gogh fell in love with his widowed cousin, Kee Vos, but was cruelly rejected by her. He became upset and resentful. This led to a violent quarrel with his father on Christmas, and he moved in with an alcoholic prostitute for a year. In 1884 Van Gogh had a romance with a neighbor's daughter, who shared his interest in art, but their marriage was opposed by both families. This and the death of his father in March of 1885 caused depression. At that time Van Gogh made his first major work, "The Potato Eaters". In September of 1885 he was accused of making one of his sitters, a young peasant girl, pregnant and was ostracized by the local Church. He moved to Antwerp, where he studied color theory and painting at the Antwerpen School of Arts, and matriculated in January of 1886. While he was away, his mother and sister moved. They left behind almost all of his paintings, of which 70 were bought by a junk dealer and some were burned.
From March 1886 to February 1888, Van Gogh lived in Paris. There he met the Impressionists: Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Paul Signac, Georges Seurat, and brothers Lucien and Camille Pissarro. The Impressionist's use of light and color inspired Van Gogh on updating his own palette. During the Paris years, his color scheme became brighter and lighter. His use of complementary colors in proximity produced remarkable decorative effects. He wrote: "I want to use colours that complement each other, that cause each other to shine brilliantly, that complete each other like a man and a woman." Van Gogh also adopted some ideas of pointillism, but developed his own technique with stronger brush-strokes, sharp composition, and his own color scheme using complementary colors. He created about 200 oil paintings during his two years in Paris.
In February of 1888 Van Gogh moved to Arles with a plan to found an art colony. His friend Paul Gauguin joined in October. Van Gogh presented him several paintings of sunflowers, but their cooperation lasted only for two months. Their arguments about art and life were exacerbated by drinking and rivalry for prostitutes. Van Gogh's mental state was alternating between fits of depression and lucidity. At times, his madness led to aggressive actions. In December of 1888 he attacked Paul Gauguin with an open razor, was stopped, but eventually cut part of his ear off and gave it to a prostitute. Paul Gauguin sent a note to his brother Theo and left forever. Theo immediately came to help. Van Gogh was sent to the state mental hospital of St. Paul in Saint Remy de Provence. There he lived for a year and made some of his best works: "Starry Night", "Vincent's Bedroom", and several paintings of Irises.
Van Gogh was released in May of 1890 and moved to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under supervision of Dr. Gachet. His health improved enough to give him energy for the most intensive work marathon. In just two months there he painted ninety excellent works. This included portraits of Dr. Gachet, landscapes, still-lives, and "Wheat Field with Crows". In a state of depression he went out into the wheat field and shot himself in the chest on July 27, 1890. Fatally wounded, Van Gogh died two days later in the arms of his brother Theo. He was laid to rest at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.
Van Gogh's disobedience drove his creativity towards new horizons. Although categorized as a Post-impressionist, Van Gogh pioneered the style of Expressionism and had a very important influence on 20th century art. He influenced many artists and art movements, such as Henri Matisse and the French Fauves, Ernest Ludwig Kirchner and German Expressionists, as well as Francis Bacon and other artists. Van Gogh was been the topic of several biographical films. He was played most memorably by Kirk Douglas in Lust for Life (1956) and by Tim Roth in Vincent & Theo (1990). The highly popular song "Vincent" by Don McLean was a tribute to Van Gogh.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in London, England, in 1853, prolific actor/director (300+ credits) Tom Ricketts is mostly forgotten today, but his chief claim to fame is that he directed the first motion picture shot in Hollywood.
Ricketts began his show-business career as an actor on the London stage, and gained a reputation as one of the best Shakespearean actors of his day. Ricketts never seemed to rest, working up until a few days before his death in 1939. He left for work one day with a bad cold, which quickly developed into pneumonia. His health went downhill rapidly and he died only a few days later. His wife, the actress Josephine Ditt (aka Josephine Ditt), was not notified of his death at the time; she was still suffering from the effects of a stroke that she had in December of 1938.- Lily Langtry was born on 13 October 1853 in Jersey, Channel Islands. She was an actress, known for His Neighbor's Wife (1913). She was married to Sir Hugo de Bathe, Edward Langtry and Frederick Gebhardt. She died on 12 February 1929 in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
- Writer
- Actor
Handsome American actor, playwright and stage director/producer William Gillette was born in Hartford, CT, in 1853. His father Francis was a former United States Senator and crusader for women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery; his mother Elisabeth Daggett Hooker is a descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, who either wrote or inspired the first written constitution in history to form a government.
In 1873 William left Hartford to begin his apprenticeship as an actor, briefly working for a stock theatre company in New Orleans and then returning to New England. He made his debut at the Globe Theatre in Boston with Mark Twain's play "The Guilded Age" in 1875. His first major Civil War drama, "Hold by the Enemy", was a major step forward to modern theatre in that it abandoned many crude devices of Victorian melodrama and introduced realism into the sets, props, costumes, sound effects and performances; it was a critical and commercial success in America and Britain.
Gillette is probably best remembered, however, as the first actor to be universally acclaimed for portraying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective Sherlock Holmes, playing the role first on stage in 1899 and continuing for more than 35 years. He also wrote many stage versions from Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels and even starred in the film version, Sherlock Holmes (1916), directed by Arthur Berthelet for the Essanay Film Co. He had previously appeared in two other films, his debut being in J.P. McGowan's The Battle at Fort Laramie (1913) and the following year he played support as Jack Lane in The Delayed Special (1914), both of which starred Helen Holmes and were made for the Kalem Film Co. Gillette also became popular on radio, performing the first radio serial version of Sherlock Holmes in 1930 and in 1935. His last stage appearance was in Austin Strong's "Three Wise Fools" in 1936. He wrote 13 original plays, seven adaptations and some collaborations, encompassing farce, melodrama and novel adaptation. He also wrote two pieces based on the US Civil War, "Held by the Ememy" and "Secret Service", which were highly acclaimed. In 1882 he married Helen Nichols, who died in 1888 from peritonitis; he never remarried.
Gillette died from pulmonary hemorrhage in Connecticut in 1937 at age 83.- Gunfighter John Wesley Hardin was one of the most notorious killers to come out of the Old West (while staying overnight at a hotel, he was awakened by the snoring of a man in the next room; Hardin reached over, grabbed his pistol and fired a shot through the wall, killing the man). He was a Southerner who harbored a deep hatred of blacks; the first man he is known to have killed, when he was 15, was black, and while fleeing the law for that murder he shot and killed at least one, and possibly four, Union soldiers, most of them black, who were attempting to arrest him.
Hardin later got a job herding cattle on the Chisholm Trail, but the combination of his white-hot temper, a quick draw and the prodigious amounts of alcohol he regularly imbibed resulted in his killing at least seven men along the way; when the herd arrived in Abilene, KS, he got into more gunfights, resulting in three more deaths. He returned to Texas soon afterwards, got married and settled down to raise a family (he had three children), but he soon reverted to his old ways, adding four more murders to his total, before being captured by a county sheriff. Although jailed, he soon broke out and was on the run again.
His hatred of Northerners in general and blacks in particular caused him to become involved in a political battle between pro- and anti-Reconstruction forces in Texas (he naturally took the side of the latter) in 1873 and he killed a former State Police officer who led the pro-Reconstruction forces. In 1874 he murdered a sheriff's deputy in Brown County, TX. The deputy was well liked, and it roused the fury of the locals, who formed a lynch mob. The mob actually lynched three men for the murder, none of whom had anything to do with it but all of whom were related to Hardin, which is why they were hanged; by this time Hardin had managed to flee to Florida (his wife and parents remained safe in protective custody). In 1877 he was captured in Pensacola, FL, by Texas Rangers (during his stay in Florida he was suspected of at least one and probably five more murders). He was tried for the Brown County deputy's murder in 1878 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but only served 16 years before being pardoned in 1894. While in prison he had studied law, and after his release he was admitted to the Texas bar.
In 1895 Hardin testified as a defense witness in a murder trial in El Paso, and after the trial was over he decided to stay in that city and open up a law practice. Although he tried to remain "straight" after becoming a lawyer, he was--almost inevitably--drawn back to his old ways by his pride and a return to the heavy drinking he had once been known for. On top of that, El Paso Constable John Selman Sr., an outlaw in his own right, had an ongoing conflict with Hardin; Selman's son, a lawman, had attempted to arrest a female acquaintance of Hardin's and was pistol-whipped by Hardin for his trouble. Seething over Hardin's beating of his son, Selman entered the Acme Saloon where Hardin often played dice. The bustle of the saloon allowed Selman to enter unnoticed by Hardin. He got behind Hardin and shot him several times, although the first one actually killed him. Like many of the legendary figures of the old west, Hardin had met a violent end from someone who hadn't the courage to face him man-to-man and shot him in the back. It was said that in his last moments, even though slowed own by age and without the advantage of his youthful quick reactions, Hardin still managed to reach for his pistol before he died, although not aware of who it was who had shot him.
In the end, he died as he had lived--by the gun. - Howard Pyle was born on 5 April 1853 in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. He was a writer, known for The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), The Adventures of Robin Hood (2018) and World Fairy Tale Series (1994). He died on 9 November 1911 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
- Frederick Treves was a famous pioneer in abdominal surgery. Today he is mostly remembered as the physician to the Elephant Man. On May 4, 1901, Treves was knighted by King Edward VII on whom he had performed an appendicectomy.
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
David Belasco was born on 25 July 1853 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Man Without a Face (1993), The Return of Peter Grimm (1935) and Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930). He was married to Cecilia Loverich. He died on 14 May 1931 in New York City, New York, USA.- Katharina Schratt was born on 11 September 1853 in Baden, Lower Austria, Austrian Empire. She was an actress, known for The Great Cattle War (1920). She was married to Nikolaus Kiss de Ittebe. She died on 17 April 1940 in Vienna, Austria.
- Charles Dungan was born on 18 June 1853 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is known for T'Other Dear Charmer (1918), The Man Without a Country (1917) and The Beloved Blackmailer (1918).
- Actor
- Writer
Dan Mason was born on 9 February 1853 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Valley of the Giants (1927), The Scarlet Letter (1917) and The Wall Street Whiz (1925). He was married to Millicent La Fonte (aka Millie La Fonte). He died on 6 July 1929 in Baersville, New York, USA.- William T. Rock was born on 31 December 1853 in Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1905), National Red Cross Pageant (1917) and A Vitagraph Romance (1912). He died on 27 July 1916 in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko was born July 27, 1853, into the family of a district judge in Zhitomir, Ukraine, Russian Empire. He studied at the St. Petersburg College of Technology, then at the Moscow Academy of Agriculture. In 1876 he was expelled from college for his revolutionary activities, and imprisoned in Kronstadt, St. Petersburg. In 1877-79 he was a student at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. In 1879 he was arrested again on false political accusations and exiled to Siberia, but returned and settled in the city of Perm.
Korolenko published his first stories in 1879, calling for social justice in the Russian Empire. In 1881 he refused to pledge to the new Russian Tsar Alexander III and was sentenced to his second exile in Siberia, where he spent 3 years. After the Siberian exile he was allowed to settle in Nizhni Novgorod on the Volga river. There he got married and had a daughter. His impressions from his life in exile and his life in several provincial cities provided him with rich material for his writings. His story "Makar's Dream" (1885) about the dying peasant's dream of heaven was translated and published in English in 1891, bringing him international recognition. His masterpiece novel "The Blind Musician" (1886) was published in English in 1892, and made him the internationally renown writer.
Korolenko made a trip to United States in 1893, visiting the Chicago World Exibition. There Korolenko met recent immigrants from Russia, which gave him material for the short novel "Without a Language", a story of an uneducated Ukrainian peasant, who struggles in America without ability to speak a word in English. After 1900 Korolenko turned from fiction to journalism. In 1902 Korolenko together with Anton Chekhov resigned from the Russian Academy of Sciences in solidarity with Maxim Gorky. He regarded writers Nikolay Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai A. Nekrasov, and Lev Tolstoy as his most important influences.
Korolenko was a human rights advocate and a prominent journalist. He took strong public stand against the anti-Semitic Beilis trial and wrote the powerful essay "Call to the Russian People in regard to the blood libel of the Jews" (1911-13). His historic description of the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 was also published in English. During the Russian Revolution and the following Civil War Korolenko opposed to the bloody methods of the communist regime, and called against the terror and destruction. He died in Poltava, Ukraine on December 25, 1921, after being ignored by the communist leaders of that time.
In his story "Paradox", a cripple, born without arms, says, "Man is created for happiness, as a bird for flight." - Esther De Boer-van Rijk was born on 29 July 1853 in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. She was an actress, known for Op hoop van zegen (1918), Op hoop van zegen (1934) and Heilig recht (1914). She was married to Henri de Boer. She died on 7 September 1937 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.
- Paul M. Potter was born on 3 June 1853 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Test of Womanhood (1917), Trilby (1915) and Queen of the Moulin Rouge (1922). He died on 7 March 1921 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Lawrence D'Orsay born in Peterborough, England. Well-known in drama and comedy theatre from the 1880's, perhaps more notable for his starring role in 'The Earl of Pawtucket' at the Manhattan Theatre in 1903. A brilliant star in at least 8 Hollywood comedy and drama movies, he played the typical English monocled upper-class character often seen as Lords or Colonels, making his film debut in 'The Border Detective' a short western made at the American Film Co in 1912, perhaps best remembered as Hon. George Vane-Basingwell in Lawrence C. Windom's 'Ruggles of Red Gap' a western/comedy co-starring Taylor Holmes in 1918, his last screen appearance he played the role of Lord Elton in D.W. Griffith's 'The Sorrows of Satan' starring Adolphe Menjou and Carol Dempster at the Paramount studios in 1926. Died in London in 1931 age 78.
- Henry C. DeMille was born on 17 September 1853 in Washington, North Carolina, USA. He was a writer, known for Forty Winks (1925), Men and Women (1925) and The Lost Paradise (1914). He was married to Beatrice DeMille. He died on 9 February 1893 in Pompton, New Jersey, USA.
- John Drew was born on 13 November 1853 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He died on 9 July 1927 in San Francisco, California, USA.
- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Clément Maurice was a French photographer, film director and producer born at Aiguillon, France. He worked for several years at the Lumière photographic factory at Monplaisir, where he became a friend of Antoine Lumière and his sons, and followed with interest their work with new photographic processes. He became a professional photographer and settled in Antoine Lumière's studio at 8 boulevard des Italiens, above the Robert-Houdin Theater, property of the future filmmaker Georges Méliès. It was Clément Maurice who arranged the rental of the Salon Indien, at the Grand Café, for the first public Lumière show on 28 December 1895, and who took charge of the till for the first performances. He continued to manage the Lumière programme at the Grand Café for some time, and remained an active figure in the burgeoning Paris film scene. From 1898 to 1906, he was the cameraman for surgeon Eugène Doyen for whom he filmed for educational purposes around sixty operations. With Henri Lioret, he developed the Phono-Cinema-Theater, a pioneering system of sound cinema, presented at the Universal Exhibition of 1900.- King Chulalongkorn was born on 20 September 1853 in Thailand. He died on 23 October 1910 in Thailand.
- Marie Sloot was born on 13 January 1853 in Semarang, Semarang, Dutch East Indies [now Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia]. Marie was a writer, known for La renzoni (1916). Marie died on 13 June 1927 in Noordwijk aan Zee, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.
- Benedito Calixto was born on 14 October 1853 in Itanhaém, São Paulo, Brazil. He was an actor, known for Amor e Boemia (1918). He died on 31 May 1927 in São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
- Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853-1937) was an English actor and theatrical impresario that George Bernard Shaw and other critics considered to be the finest Hamlet (1913) of his generation. Forbes-Robertson had trained to be an artist and was not overly fond of acting, but he took to the boards to make a living. He did his apprenticeship with Samuel Phelps' company and made his theatrical debut in 1874. He played the second lead in the company of Henry Irving, indisputably the greatest actor of his generation and the first actor to be knighted.
Forbes-Robertson did not play Hamlet until he was 44 years old, but excelled at it. He was famed for his magnificent voice. Other Shakespearean roles he was hailed for were Leontes in "The Winter's Tale", Othello and Romeo. Shaw wrote the part of Julius Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) specifically for Forbes-Robertson.
In 1913, at the age of 60, he became the fifth actor since Irving was knighted in 1895 to made a knight bachelor. He retired from the stage the same year but continued to produce plays. He died in Dover in 1937 at the age of 84. - Charles J. Badger was born on 6 August 1853 in Rockville, Maryland, USA. He was married to Sophia Jane Champlin. He died on 7 September 1932 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
- James Daly was born on 30 November 1853 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Road o' Strife (1915), Sorrows of Happiness (1916) and The Fortune Hunter (1914). He was married to Clara Lambert. He died on 9 November 1933 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.