Melbourne MacDowell

Melbourne MacDowell

Born: November 11, 1856
Died: February 18, 1941
in South River, New Jersey, USA
From Wikipedia

He was born Willet Melbourne MacDowell in Little Washington, New Jersey (now South River, New Jersey).

MacDowell began appearing in silent films in 1917 by which time he was long a stage veteran. His co-stars were such actors as William S. Hart, Lon Chaney, Charles Ray, Enid Bennett and numerous others. Though he lived until the early 1940s, his film career ended in 1928 with the end of silent films. He returned for one sound film short in 1932, A Fool About Women with Andy Clyde and Vernon Dent.

Several films that Melbourne MacDowell appeared in survive today and can be found on DVD, particularly two of his outing with Lon Chaney, Nomads of the North and Outside the Law.

Movies for Melbourne MacDowell...

Feel My Pulse
Title: Feel My Pulse
Character: Her Uncle Wilberforce
Released: February 26, 1928
Type: Movie
A rich but hypochondriac heiress inherits a sanitarium. What she doesn't know is that it is a front for bootleggers, and a hideout for criminals on the run from the law.
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There It Is
Title: There It Is
Character: Frisbie Family Patriarch
Released: January 1, 1928
Type: Movie
When a mysterious figure appears to cause a series of disruptions at the Frisbie Home in New York, word goes out to Scotland Yard that the Fuzz-Faced Phantom is at work. Soon, Charley MacNeesha and his assistant MacGregor are sent across the ocean to investigate.
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Code of the Cow Country
Title: Code of the Cow Country
Character: John Calhoun
Released: June 19, 1927
Type: Movie
Jim West, foreman of John Calhoun's ranch, falls in love with Helen, the boss's daughter, after rescuing her from a runaway horse. Her brother, Ted, falls into the companionship of Bill Jackson, a notorious gambler and saloon keeper, who persuades Ted to sign I. O. U.'s while under the influence of alcohol. Jim, in company with Red Irwin, a tough deputy sheriff, confronts the gambler and forces a confession. Jackson plans a raid on the Calhoun cattle, forcing Ted to be his ally. Dolores, a dancehall girl, overhears the plot and tells Jim, causing Helen to misunderstand his motives.
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Driven from Home
Title: Driven from Home
Released: January 15, 1927
Type: Movie
A father throws his daughter out of the house when she marries a man he doesn't approve of. In addition, she also finds herself being lusted after by the sinister owner of an opium den.
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The City
Title: The City
Character: Vorhees
Released: November 14, 1926
Type: Movie
The City is a lost 1926 silent film produced and released by the Fox Film Corporation. It was directed by Roy William Neill and is based on Clyde Fitch's 1909 Broadway play. A previous film on Fitch's play appeared in 1916. This version has been updated to contemporary 1926
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The Rainmaker
Title: The Rainmaker
Character: Bennson
Released: May 10, 1926
Type: Movie
The story of a racetrack tout whose prayers could bring a dry or muddy racetrack, and how he learned to capitalize on those powers. Until the day he lost the power and bet the wrong way.
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Behind the Front
Title: Behind the Front
Character: Mr. Bartlett-Cooper
Released: February 22, 1926
Type: Movie
During World War I a young man joins the army and winds up befriending another young recruit, not knowing that it's the same pickpocket who stole his watch. After finishing basic training, the two are sent to the front lines in France, where they wind up in trouble with the MPs, getting involved with some cute French girls and "volunteering" for a dangerous front-line mission, and their antics result in their endangering the armistice.
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What Happened to Jones
Title: What Happened to Jones
Character: Mr. Bigbee
Released: February 8, 1926
Type: Movie
On the night before his wedding, a young man plays poker with friends. When the game is raided by the police, he escapes into a Turkish bath on ladies night, ending up disguised in drag and with difficult explanations to make.
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Fighting Courage
Title: Fighting Courage
Character: Kingsley Sr
Released: December 12, 1925
Type: Movie
Richard Kingsley, son of a financier, trying to aid Marjorie Crenshaw and her sister during a raid on a New York roadhouse, is arrested. His father, enraged by the bad publicity, threatens to disinherit him if he doesn't go to Colorado in search of a mine....
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Savages of the Sea
Title: Savages of the Sea
Character: Daniel Rawley
Released: February 17, 1925
Type: Movie
A seaman on board a sailing ship battles mutinous crew members, a corrupt millionaire trying to take over the ship and falls in love with a girl who turns out to be his adopted sister.
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The Cloud Rider
Title: The Cloud Rider
Character: David Torrence
Released: February 15, 1925
Type: Movie
Bruce Torrence is an aviator and member of the secret service. His rival for the hand of Zella Wingate is Juan Lascelles, a drug smuggler. To get rid of Torrence, Lascelles loosens a wheel on one of his planes, but Zella is the one who goes up in it. Torrence goes up in another plane and attaches a fresh wheel to Zella's plane. In spite of his efforts he later finds her in Lascelles' arms.
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Geared to Go
Title: Geared to Go
Released: December 15, 1924
Type: Movie
"Hero is son of owner of taxicab company. Learning of injustice toward independents, he becomes independent driver. Heroine inherits half interest in company, and desiring to learn truth, goes to work as telephone operator in independent garage. Together they force a consolidation with the independents, and find happiness in their love."
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Richard the Lion-Hearted
Title: Richard the Lion-Hearted
Released: October 15, 1923
Type: Movie
Wallace Beery repeats his role of King Richard, a role he played so sucessfully in Robin Hood the previous year.
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Forsaking All Others
Title: Forsaking All Others
Character: Cyrus K. Wharton
Released: December 10, 1922
Type: Movie
Jealous of her son Oliver's interest in Penelope Mason, Mrs. Newell takes him to a resort where he is easy prey for designing Enid Morton. After some near-disastrous situations with Enid's suspicious husband, Penelope comes to Oliver's rescue at Mrs. Newell's request.
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The Infidel
Title: The Infidel
Character: 'Bully' Haynes
Released: April 2, 1922
Type: Movie
Lola Daintry (MacDonald) is an actress who's mad at the world, and especially ministers, one of whom -- her father -- was so cruel that he drove her mother out of the house. When Bully Haynes (Melbourne MacDonald) wants her help in showing up a group of South Seas missionaries, she's more than happy to assist. But Lola doesn't realize she's being used so that Haynes can gain control over the copra trade from his rival, Cyrus Flint (Robert Ellis).
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The Greater Duty
Title: The Greater Duty
Released: February 1, 1922
Type: Movie
The Greater Duty is a silent Western
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Beyond the Crossroads
Title: Beyond the Crossroads
Character: David Walton / Truman Breese
Released: January 27, 1922
Type: Movie
While James Fordham is away prospecting in Alaska, his wife runs off with Truman Breese. She manages to make her way back to her husband, but dies shortly thereafter.
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The Golden Snare
Title: The Golden Snare
Character: Doug Johnson
Released: July 10, 1921
Type: Movie
Sgt. Philip Raine of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police is sent to the mountains to capture killer Bram Johnson.
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Outside the Law
Title: Outside the Law
Character: Morgan Spencer
Released: January 6, 1921
Type: Movie
Silent Madden and his daughter Molly have left the criminal underworld of San Francisco thanks to the wise teachings of Chang Low, a Confucian master. But the evil Black Mike Sylva is determined to frame Madden to avenge a mistake from the past…
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Nomads of the North
Title: Nomads of the North
Character: Duncan McDougall
Released: September 25, 1920
Type: Movie
A Canadian Mountie allows an innocent fugitive to escape with the women he loves.
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Miss Nobody
Title: Miss Nobody
Character: Red Gull
Released: May 1, 1920
Type: Movie
A raft carrying a little girl and a dead woman drifts in from a shipwreck to Devil's Island. There, a band of thieves and smugglers name the girl Rose Marie, though she grows up as "nobody's girl."
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The Gift Supreme
Title: The Gift Supreme
Character: Eliot Vinton
Released: March 30, 1920
Type: Movie
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Eve in Exile
Title: Eve in Exile
Character: George Armitage
Released: December 7, 1919
Type: Movie
Society girl Eva Ricardo is sent to a seaside New England village to live with her maiden aunt by her father after he loses all his money in speculation. There she falls in love..
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Soldiers of Fortune
Title: Soldiers of Fortune
Character: Mr. Langham
Released: November 22, 1919
Type: Movie
Civil engineer Robert Clay is commissioned by wealthy New Yorker Mr. Langham to open iron deposits in the tiny South American republic of Olancho. General Mendoza, the unscrupulous head of the army, unsuccessfully tries to persuade President Alvarez, and then Clay, to divide the spoils of the contract.
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Modern Husbands
Title: Modern Husbands
Character: Jonathan Cosgrove
Released: April 28, 1919
Type: Movie
When wealthy Wall Street stockbroker Stephen Duane neglects his wife Julia for business, she consorts with philanderer Bert Brockwell. Finding them in an embrace forced by Brockwell, Stephen denounces Julia and leaves. After losing his fortune in the market, Stephen refuses Julia's offer to sell her jewels, and stays away for one year
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Coals of Fire
Title: Coals of Fire
Character: James Bradley
Released: August 26, 1918
Type: Movie
Pretty young Nell Bradley is the daughter of a saloonkeeper in a "dry" town, and is looked down upon by townspeople, but Rev. Charles Alden, the town minister, finds himself attracted to her. One day at Nell's father's bar, a traveling salesman gets a young woman intoxicated, intending to "have his way" with her. Nell sees this and gets the bartender to save the young woman's virtue, but just at that moment Rev. Alden walks in and mistakenly believes that Nell has gotten the girl drunk. Complications ensue. - From IMDB
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The Vamp
Title: The Vamp
Character: Mr. Fleming
Released: July 14, 1918
Type: Movie
Nancy, a naive young girl who works backstage at a musical-comedy theatre, learns from the chorus girls the notion of winning a man by the seductive method of "vamping" him. She tries the method on the shy minister she loves, and it works.
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The Claws of the Hun
Title: The Claws of the Hun
Character: Godfrey Stanton
Released: July 8, 1918
Type: Movie
An American munitions manufacturer and his son become ensnarled with enemy agents from Germany during the First World War.
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Playing the Game
Title: Playing the Game
Character: Jeremiah Prentiss
Released: April 22, 1918
Type: Movie
Millionaire Larry Prentiss inherits a ranch. He decides to visit his new property incognito and gets a job as a ranch-hand. He falls in love with the ranch foreman's daughter and complications ensue.
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Love Me
Title: Love Me
Character: Grant Appleby
Released: March 18, 1918
Type: Movie
In a Western mining town, millionaire Gordon Appleby meets Maida Madison, a civil engineer, and proposes. The two marry and return to Philadelphia, where they are coldly received by Gordon's snobbish family. Gordon's elder brother Mortimer's highbrow sensibilities are particularly offended by Maida's breezy manner, and he determines to break up the marriage.
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Wolves of the Rail
Title: Wolves of the Rail
Character: Murray Lemantier
Released: January 1, 1918
Type: Movie
Smoky Gap Railroad president Murray Lemantier is fed up with a bandit gang led by Buck Andrade constantly holding up his train and getting away with it. He hires ace detective David Cassidy to track down and get Buck, dead or alive. However, when Buck goes to see his dying mother she makes him promise to reform, and he does. Cassidy, though, doesn't care about that and tries to arrest him. Buck decides to do something that will once and for all show everyone that he has indeed reformed--especially Faith Lawson, a pretty station agent he's in love with.
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Bond of Fear
Title: Bond of Fear
Character: Judge McClure
Released: September 23, 1917
Type: Movie
When stern Judge McClure gets into an argument with his younger brother John, a physical fight ensues in which the judge apparently kills John. In fear of the consequences, he runs off to the West and hires guide Cal Nelson to take him far into the desert. Along the way they meet Mary Jackson, and the judge, overcome by heat prostration, babbles out his secret.
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The Flame of the Yukon
Title: The Flame of the Yukon
Character: 'Black Jack' Hovey
Released: July 1, 1917
Type: Movie
George Fowler arrives at the Mias saloon, and the proprietor, "Blak Jack" Hovey, orders a saloon girl, known only as "The Flame," to fleece him, but he has no money...
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Hell Hath No Fury
Title: Hell Hath No Fury
Released: March 20, 1917
Type: Movie
Hell Hath No Fury is a silent drama.