Rhody Hathaway (bornHenry Rudolph de Fiennes; October 5, 1868 – February 18, 1944) was an American film actor and aBelgianmarquess. He also worked as anadvance man, and stage manager. Hathaway worked both insilent films andtalkies.
Rhody Hathaway was born Henry Rudolph de Fiennes on October 5, 1868, in San Francisco, California.[1] His father Henry J. de Fiennes was born in Belgium and his mother Mary Hanson was from theEast Coast.
His title ofMarquis was inherited from his grandfather Jean-Baptiste de Fiennes (or J.B. de Fiennes), a Belgian nobleman andbarrister[2][3] in service to KingLeopold I of Belgium. When his grandfather failed in his commission to establish commercial relations between theSandwich Islands (now Hawai'i) with Belgium, the disgraced Marquis self-exiled to San Francisco in 1850 where he worked as a lawyer.[2][4][5]
In his early career, Hathaway worked as anadvance man, and as a stage manager. By 1909, he was part of theAllan Dwan'sAmerican Film Manufacturing Company, starring in films alongside his wife Rhody Hathaway and sometimes with their young son Henry Hathaway.[6][8] From 1911 until 1914, the Hathaway family worked forThomas Ince's Inceville Studios.[6] In the 1920s, Rhody abandoned his family[6] and started to act in film.
^Annual Report of the Hawaiian Historical Society. Hawaiian Historical Society. 1923. p. 88.J. B. de Fiennes, a Belgian lawyer who is said to have been prominent in several land and financial schemes
^"Henry Hathaway, un marquis devenu roi du western à Hollywood" [Henry Hathaway, a marquis who became king of the western in Hollywood].L'Echo (in French). August 7, 2013.grandson of the Marquis de Fiennes who had settled in California after acting as intermediary between the first Belgian king and the Hawaiian authorities in the 1860s.
^Brumell, Marguerite A. (9 February 1924)."Box Office Reviews:Not a Drum Was Heard".Exhibitors Trade Review.15 (12). New York: Exhibitors Review Publishing Corporation: 27. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.