Taking Matthew Betz

It’s surely not necessary for you to remember the name Matthew Betz (1881-1938), particularly since he himself used a variety of professional aliases, like M.C. Von Betz, Matthew Von Betz, et al. Further, he was usually a supporting player in films, although he did play the lead in at least one feature, Broadway after Midnight, a.k.a. Gangsters on Broadway (1927) with Priscilla Bonner and Cullen Landis, who were stars in their own right. A homely, tough looking guy, he usually played detectives and crooks and other intimidating characters.

Originally from St. Louis, Betz was a U.S. army regular for many years before spending almost a decade in vaudeville and stock theatre. He broke into the movies at Essanay in Chicago, then drifted out to Hollywood with the rest of the industry after a couple of years. Some of his better known features include: both 1921 and 1931 versions of Salvation Nell, Burn ’em Up Barnes (1921) with Johnny Hines, Boomerang Bill (1922) with Lionel Barrymore, Anna Christie (1923), White Fang (1925), The Unholy Three (1925), Oh What a Nurse! (1926) with Sydney Chaplin and Louise Fazenda,The Shepherd of the Hills (1928), and The Terror (1928), the first semi-talking horror movie.

In the sound era his parts tended to be smaller and the films tended to be B pictures, but you can still catch him in things like Mystery at the Wax Museum (1933), Tarzan the Fearless (1933), and Mississippi (1935). His last credit, of nearly 150, was in the Columbia serial Jungle Menace (1937) starring Frank Buck.

 For more on vaudeville please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, and for more on silent film read Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.