Volume III: Biographies

DILLON, John *

Actor (1913)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: John Dillon was an actor with Thanhouser in 1913.

Biographical Notes: John Webb Dillon was born in London, England on February 6, 1883 (one account says 1877). He followed a stage career with James O'Neill, Viola Allen, and others and was seen in Get Rich Quick Wallingford, Paid in Full, At the Mercy of Tiberius, The Lost Bridegroom, and other productions. He was on the stage in stock in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Worcester, Portland (Oregon), and elsewhere.

His motion picture career included work with American Biograph, Edison, Pathé (Woman's Law), Thanhouser, World Film (By Whose Hand?), and Fox (Hypocrisy). In early 1916 he was an actor and director for Vogue comedies and received publicity in connection with More Truth Than Poetry, released on March 12th of that year.

The Evening Standard carried the following biographical sketch in its edition of July 7, 1913: "Everyone in New Rochelle and Mount Vernon knows John Webb Dillon of the Stainach-Hards Stock Company as an important member who played the heavy roles in the Westchester Theatre. Indeed he was one of the favorite matinee idols for the two years he played with that company. Girls used to wait about stage entrance after matinees to see him in street dress and to have a closer inspection of him. The result of the inspection was never disappointing for Mr. Dillon is a tall, broad shouldered, good looking young fellow of about 30, lithe and muscular and has a direct way of looking at one with his attractive brown eyes that seem to give one the impression that he is just what he appears to be on the street or in the parlor. No one after meeting him could imagine him to be the double-dyed villain he often pretended to be on the stage, no matter how strong the impression across the footlights.

"So it is good news to the girls of New Rochelle that Mr. Dillon is working with the Thanhouser Film Corporation and this week is playing the leading role in the latest of Lloyd Lonergan's human interest scenarios. If he remains with Thanhouser, he intends to transfer his home from Mount Vernon to New Rochelle, for he has fallen in love with the city. 'I have always wished for a country home in a place where it is a city and country and seashore all in one, and New Rochelle is the place,' said he Saturday in conversation with a representative of The Evening Standard. When he closed with the Stainach-Hards Stock Company on June 7 he came to New Rochelle, and the next Monday morning he began work with Thanhouser. This is not the first time he has been in motion pictures, for he formerly worked for the Edison Company.

"Mr. Dillon is an Englishman by birth. His father was an architect, and there are no other actors in his family, so his ability is not an inherited trait but original with him. When he was a small baby his parents removed to America and, of course, brought him with them, settling in New Haven, Connecticut. As he grew up he took a liking for the stage and wanted to be an actor. He stuck to school because his mother insisted upon it and was then given his choice of professions, with the single exception of the stage. Mrs. Dillon, his mother, did not think much of the stage in those days and would have grieved had her son gone contrary to her wishes, so he chose dentistry and entered the Philadelphia Dental College. He had shown great ability in amateur theatricals and was one of the leading members of his college dramatic club. But after a year of cleaning and plugging teeth, studying bones and making casts of defective mouths, he convinced his mother that dentistry was not in his line. Then it was that with resigned sigh she finally consented to his becoming an actor, fully convinced that he would be at home looking for a job at the end of the week.

"But she was disappointed. John went to Brooklyn, showed the management of the Novelty Theatre, Brooklyn what he could do, and was given a juvenile part. His first letter was full of hope and self importance, but it made his mother sad. His first appearance in the play settled the fact that he was cut out for the stage, and then the good woman who was watching over his career made up her mind that the stage was not such a bad place after all, and that even if it were it would be better for her John's influence. You see, she had every confidence in him anyway. That was in 1901, and he has been an actor ever since, rising higher in his profession as he grew older. Leaving the Novelty Theatre, he joined an East Lynne company with Rebecca Harren in the lead. Later he traveled with Billy Gray's Volunteer Organist and then spent two years with Viola Allen playing Shakespeare. One of his best parts was in Monte Cristo with James O'Neill, and during that engagement he played in New Rochelle. Joe Jefferson gave him a good part in The Rivals, and then he put in a few seasons in stock. His last engagement before joining the Mount Vernon company was with At the Mercy of Tiberius. His work in the movies was summer engagements.

"Now he intends to stick to the motion picture stage, for he believes it to be the highest form of dramatic art and that is what he has always aimed at. Considering the fact that motion pictures have reduced the drama to one fourth of what it used to be, he believes that they are the ultimate end of the actor and the goal toward which all ambitious actors should face. The Italians, he says, are natural pantomimists, and the art is new in America. But Americans, who can adapt anything and excel in it, are rapidly becoming past masters in the native art of the Latins. He says the motion picture stage has the advantage of giving employment 52 weeks in the year, and the actor has some evenings and some whole days to himself which he does not get on the dramatic stage. Two years ago before he was known in this section, Mr. Dillon worked with Thanhouser off and on during the summer. Mr. Dillon tells an amusing story about himself:

"The other day he was working a scene in which he lay dead on the sidewalk. The film in the camera ran out, and the cameraman had to insert another reel. During the operation, which lasted several minutes, Mr. Dillon had to lie still on the sidewalk in the hot sun, so that the picture could be continued without a change in the position of his dead body. During that time people in a window of the flat above him, who knew him as a former member of the Stainach-Hards Stock Company, jived him, offering him a pillow or a dish of ice cream.

"'When the legitimate actor, by that I mean the actor on the dramatic stage, adapts the pantomime art stage,' said Mr. Dillon, 'he advances to the highest form of histrionic art. On the dramatic stage he depicts his character principally by the voice. In the silent drama he lays that aside and depends entirely upon his powers of suggestion, whether it be by a glance, a movement of the body or by gesticulation, and in these he should have perfect repose in order to be convincing to his audience. The lifting of an eyebrow, a smile, a shrug of a shoulder conveys as much on the screen as a chapter in a novel or a scene in a play. Therefore the picture actor must have all of the powers of silent expression absolutely at his command.'"

The October 1916 Motion Picture News Studio Directory noted that Dillon was 6' tall, weighed 170 pounds, and had dark hair and brown eyes. At the time he lived at 540 West 144th Street, New York City, and worked in New York with Fox. John Dillon remained in films through the 1940s and died in Hollywood, California on December 20, 1949. His surname sometimes appeared in print as "Dillion," including in the October 1916 directory previously noted.

Note: Several other John Dillons were in the entertainment business and are not to be confused with the Thanhouser player:

1. John Dillon was the stage name of John Daily Marum, who was born at Mount Stopford, County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1831, and who came to America 17 years later. His first stage appearance was in the role of Boissac, in Milwaukee on May 3, 1854. The next year he was seen in Dombey and Son. He married Helen Louise Allen in 1856. This "John Dillon" was seen in numerous dramatic productions in America during the next several decades. The New York Dramatic Mirror, October 2, 1912, printed an autobiographical letter received from him. He died in Chicago on April 21, 1913.

2. John Francis Dillon was born in New York and educated there at St. Francis Xavier College. He became a stage director, and, later, one of the Keystone Kops. In the early years he worked for Kalem, Nestor, Lubin, Famous Players, Universal, First National, and other studios. As a film director he had among his credits Kismet, Sally, The Girl of the Golden West, and The Cohens and the Kellys in Hollywood. He died in Beverly Hills, California on April 4, 1934.

3. John T. Dillon, born in New York City, served in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and later was an actor on Broadway. He worked in films and was seen in numerous American Biograph subjects circa 1908-1913 and in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. He died at the age of 61 and was survived by his wife, Wilhelmina. His brother Eddie, a film director, died earlier.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1913: The Lie That Failed (8-15-1913), The Veteran Police Horse (9-2-1913), His Last Bet (9-7-1913), Robin Hood, Parts 1 and 2 (Mutual 9-23-1913), Robin Hood, Parts 3 and 4 (Mutual 9-30-1913)

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