The August Phillips Sesquicentennial

This day marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of actor Augustus Phillips (1874-1952), who appeared in over 150 films between 1910 and 1921. Do the math! That averages out to about 15 movies a year, though it must be remembered that the first several years of that occurred prior to the advent of feature length movies being the standard. The films were just a few minutes long.

An Indiana native, Phillips worked with regional stock companies before making his way into the infant medium of cinema, first finding local fame in the midwest, and then conquering San Francisco. He contracted with the Edison company starting in 1910. One of his earliest film performances remains one of his best known — he was Dr. Frankenstein in J. Searle Dawley’s 1910 adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere(1914) was what brought him to my attention.

Following The Crimson Cross (1921) Phillips left the film biz, though only 47 years old. At the time of his death nearly three decades later he was living in Milford Pennsylvania, in the Poconos, across the Delaware from New Jersey, close to the New York State line.