George Beranger | |
|---|---|
 Beranger in D. W. Griffith'sThe Birth of a Nation (1915) | |
| Born | George Augustus Beringer (1893-03-27)27 March 1893 Enmore, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 8 March 1973(1973-03-08) (aged 79) Laguna Beach, California |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, film director, film writer |
| Years active | 1913–1950 |
George Beranger (27 March 1893 – 8 March 1973), was an Australian-bornsilent film actor, director and film writer in New York andHollywood.[1] He is also sometimes credited under the pseudonymGeorge Andre de Beranger.[2] and multiple variations of the same.
Beranger was born George Augustus Beringer[1] inEnmore, New South Wales, Australia, the youngest of five sons of Caroline Mondientz and Adam Beringer, a German engine fitter. His mother committed suicide when he was three years old and he left home at the age of 14.[3] He studied acting at the College of Elocution and Dramatic Art founded by Scottish actorWalter Bentley.[3]
Beranger began playing Shakespearean roles at the age of sixteen with the Walter Bentley Players. He then emigrated from Australia toCalifornia, United States in 1912[1] and worked in the silent film industry in Hollywood. According to a researcher, he "reinvented himself in Hollywood, claiming French parentage, birth on a French ocean liner off the coast of Australia and a Paris education."[3] Beranger worked under the name George Andre de Beranger and multiple variations of the same pseudonym.
By the 1920s, Beranger had become a star, appearing in the movies ofErnst Lubitsch andD. W. Griffith.[3] He also directed sixteen films between 1914 and 1924. Beranger owned a large Spanish-style home in Laguna Beach, rented a room at the Hollywood Athletic Club and owned an apartment inParis, France.[3]
Beranger eventually appeared in more than 160 films between 1913 and 1950. Beranger's career declined following the 1930sGreat Depression and the advent of sound film. He supplemented his income as a draftsman for the Los Angeles City Council. He sold his large properties and moved into a modest cottage beside his house in Laguna Beach.[3]
Beranger's silent roles had often been sophisticates or dandy types, and in early sound films he was often relegated to non-speaking walk-ons or bit parts as hairdressers, concierges, florists and the like. However, in the mid and late 1940s, he played interesting speaking bit parts in three20th Century-Fox (his main studio) film noirs:The Spider (a B noir in which he has several lines as a nosy apartment manager),Nightmare Alley (an all-time classic noir, playing the geek in the first act and singing the Irish drinking song "The Boston Burglar") andRoad House (for which he received a rare screen credit, in spite of having only two lines of dialogue asRichard Widmark's bespectacled fishing buddy, "Lefty").[4]
Beranger entered into a "lavender marriage" with a neighbouring woman who was a widow, but they never shared the same house and he continued to have sexual relationships with men unabated.[5]
Beranger retired in 1952 and lived his later years in seclusion.[6] He was found dead of natural causes in his home on 8 March 1973.[7]
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