Page "John Gilbert (actor)" Paragraph 2

Born John Cecil Pringle in Logan, Utah, to stock company actor parents, he struggled through a childhood of abuse and neglect before moving to Hollywood as a teenager.

He first found work as an extra with the Thomas Ince Studios, and soon became a favorite of Maurice Tourneur, who also hired him to write and direct several pictures.

He quickly rose through the ranks, building his reputation as an actor in such films as Heart o ' the Hills with Mary Pickford.

In 1921, Gilbert signed a three year contract with Fox Film Corporation, where he was cast as a romantic leading man.

Some of his films for Fox include Monte Cristo, an adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo ; St. Elmo, an adaptation of a popular book of the period ; The Wolf Man, not a horror film, the story of a man who believes he murdered his fiancee's brother while drunk and many others.

At the time, Gilbert did not sport his famous mustache, and this made his features more uneven and a little less handsome, and Fox plainly did not realize what huge potential he had.