Slim Cole

Last updated
Slim Cole
Born
Nathan Cole Hebert

May 6, 1892
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
DiedUnknown
Other namesKing Cole
Occupation(s)Actor, stuntman
Years active1915–1932
SpouseKatherine Fay (m. 1915-1921)
Family Nathan Cole (grandfather)

Slim Cole (born Nathan Cole Hebert, and sometimes credited as King Cole) [1] was an American actor and stuntman who appeared in a string of B-movie westerns during Hollywood's silent era. [2]

Contents

Biography

Early years

Slim was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Joseph Hebert and Hallie Cole. [3] His mother's father, Nathan Cole, was once mayor of St. Louis. [4] Joseph Hebert, Slim's father, died when Slim was a toddler, and he was raised by his mother in the Los Angeles area. [5] [6] [7]

Career as a forest ranger

While working as a forest ranger in the San Bernardino Mountains, he learned how to ride a motorcycle, a skill that would serve him well when he entered the motion picture industry around 1915. [8] "They laughed at me when I started patrolling the forests on motorcycle, but after I got the knack for following old trails and making new ones, I showed them that I could cover as much territory as four rangers on mounted horses." [1]

Career in Hollywood

After being spotted by a motion picture director, Slim was soon in demand for his willingness to perform all sorts of death-defying stunts. He often worked with fellow stunt performer and actress Grace Cunard. Early on, he was employed by Charlie Chaplin's studio. [9]

In 1922, he briefly returned to St. Louis with the ambition of starting a motion picture industry in his hometown. He also aimed to give his body a rest after years of being roughed up on the job. "I'm getting too old for the business," he told a reporter with The St. Louis Post Dispatch . "I'm only 29, but I've been through a lot, and I don't have to wait for a psychic hunch."

He did continue to act, but his roles got smaller and smaller until he was pretty much only landing bit parts. [6]

Personal life

Cole married Katherine Fay in 1915; the couple divorced in 1921. [10] After his last film was released in 1932, it's unknown what happened to Cole.

Partial filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Baggot</span> American actor and director (1879–1948)

William King Baggot was an American actor, film director and screenwriter. He was an internationally famous movie star of the silent film era. The first individually publicized leading man in America, Baggot was referred to as "King of the Movies," "The Most Photographed Man in the World" and "The Man Whose Face Is As Familiar As The Man In The Moon."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Crosland</span> American actor and film director

Frederick Alan Crosland was an American stage actor and film director. He is noted for having directed the first feature film using spoken dialogue, The Jazz Singer (1927).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine MacDonald</span> American actress (1891–1956)

Katherine Agnew MacDonald was an American stage and film actress, film producer, and model. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was the older sister of actresses Miriam MacDonald and Mary MacLaren.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Kerry</span> American actor (1894–1956)

Norman Kerry was an American actor whose career in the motion picture industry spanned twenty-five years, beginning in 1916 and peaking during the silent era of the 1920s. Changing his name from the unmistakably German "Kaiser" at the onset of World War I, he rose quickly in his field, becoming "the Clark Gable of the [1920s]."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Brabin</span> British-American film director (1882–1957)

Charles Brabin was a British-American film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Kirkwood Sr.</span> American actor and film director

James Cornelius Kirkwood Sr. was an American actor and director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naomi Childers</span> American actress

Naomi Weston Childers, was an American silent film actress whose career lasted until the mid-20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Price (actress)</span> Irish-American actress (1872–1943)

Katherine Duffy, known professionally as Kate Price, was an Irish-American actress. She is known for playing the role of Mrs. Kelly in the comedy series The Cohens and Kellys, made by Universal Pictures between 1926 and 1932. Price appeared in 296 movies from 1910 to 1937.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunt Stromberg</span> American film director

Hunt Stromberg was a film producer during Hollywood's Golden Age. In a prolific 30-year career beginning in 1921, Stromberg produced, wrote, and directed some of Hollywood's most profitable and enduring films, including The Thin Man series, the Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald operettas, The Women, and The Great Ziegfeld, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Lanning</span> American actor

Frank Lanning was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 84 films between 1910 and 1934. He was born in Marion, Iowa and died in Los Angeles, California. Lanning's film debut came in The Mended Lute. He acted for Biograph, Kalem, Universal and Pathe studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Le Moyne (actor)</span> American actor

Charles Le Moyne was an American motion picture actor of the silent era. He appeared in 73 films between 1915 and 1937.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Cobb</span> American actor (1892–1974)

Edmund Fessenden Cobb was an American actor who appeared in more than 620 films between 1912 and 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklyn Farnum</span> American actor (1878–1961)

Franklyn Farnum was an American character actor and Hollywood extra who appeared in at least 1,100 films. He was also cast in more films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture than any other performer in American film industry. He was also credited as Frank Farnum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Walker (actor, born 1888)</span> American actor

Robert Donald Walker was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1913 and 1953. He was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and died in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallam Cooley</span> American actor

Hallam Burr, known by his stage name Hallam Cooley, was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1913 and 1936. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Tiburon, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peggy O'Day</span> American actress

Peggy O'Day was an American actress, film editor, screenwriter, and stuntwoman active during the 1920s and 1930s. She was sometimes credited under her birth name. and she is often confused with fellow silent-era actress Peggy O'Dare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Robert Merrell</span> American diplomat

George Robert Merrell Jr. was an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Ethiopia and United States Ambassador to Afghanistan. During his diplomatic career he served in Haiti, China, India, and Afghanistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. Guy Wilky</span> American cinematographer

Leslie Guy Wilky (1888–1971) was an American cinematographer who worked in Hollywood in the 1910s and the 1920s. He often collaborated with director William C. deMille. Wilky was born in Phoenix, Arizona, to William Wilky and Emma Mosier. He later attended the University of Arizona, where he studied engineering, before moving to Santa Barbara, California, and finding work as a cinematographer at Flying A Studios. Eventually he ended up in Los Angeles, where he had a substantial career at Paramount. He was also a founding member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

Jay Gelzer was an American writer. She wrote novels and short stories, including several that were adapted into films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvonne Gardelle</span> American actress

Yvonne Gardelle, born Alice Yvonne Clark, also known as Alice Y. Gardner, Yvonne Chappelle, or Yvonne Riddle, was an American actress in silent films, a dancer and an artist's model.

References

  1. 1 2 "St. Louisan Quitting a Career in Which a Man Is Old at 29". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 5 Nov 1922. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  2. Katchmer, George A. (2015-05-20). A Biographical Dictionary of Silent Film Western Actors and Actresses. McFarland. ISBN   978-1-4766-0905-8.
  3. "Rotogravure Picture Section". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 18 Apr 1920. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  4. "St. Louisan Star in 'The Shiek' Movie Play". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 29 Nov 1921. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  5. "Cole Heir in Need, Heart Is Broken". The St. Louis Star and Times. 16 May 1913. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  6. 1 2 "Screen Life in Hollywood". The Morning Union. 27 Sep 1932. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  7. "Adventurer of Films Added to Gish Cast". The Los Angeles Times. 18 Jul 1926. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  8. "'The Texas Bad Man' Now Showing at Seltzer Theatre". The Daily News. 12 Nov 1932. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  9. "Out of Luck". The Los Angeles Times. 13 Jan 1918. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  10. "Says Husband Spurned Meal; Divorces Him". The Los Angeles Times. May 21, 1921. p. 15. Retrieved 2020-03-17.