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Photo of William S. Hart provided by IMDb.
From on Stage to on Set
From on Stage to on Set
Photos of William S. Hart's time in Vaudeville are hard to come by, but his time in Vaudeville and performing on stages and in plays is where he truly got his start to his very successful career in entertainment, and then he made the switch to silent film acting where he only gained more popularity.
Photo above is an except passage from the "San Francisco Dramatic Review" published in 1899, founded on the Media History Digital Library, provided by the Internet Archive on archive.org. This passage talks about the actors that will feature in Ben-Hur, which you can see William S. Hart is the second name listed.
William S. Hart's family moved to New York City when he was a teenager, and while there he worked as a hotel messenger to get money to provide for his family. Sometimes when he would do extra work, he would get extra passes to the theater and go and watch performances, which sparked his want to pursue an acting career ("William S. Hart Museum History"). His debut to the stage came when he got his first role as Friar Laurence from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in 1888. After that he started to land major roles in other classic stage productions such as Much Ado About Nothing, The Queen of Sheba, Othello, and The Man in the Iron Mask. In 1899, he landed what is considered to be one of his most iconic roles from his time as a Vaudeville actor: the character Messala in Ben-Hur ("William S. Hart Museum History").
Photo provided by IMDb. This is William S. Hart in a poster for his final film, which was called "Tumbleweeds".
William S. Hart grew up travelling all around the Old West area, which included states like North and South Dakota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. According Hart himself, he thrived on the West frontier, and even mentioned meeting many of the people that are portrayed in movies about "the West" at this time. These people included cowboys, Civil War veterans, cattle ranchers, gold prospectors, outlaws, and saloon keepers. He also spent a lot of his time there with Sioux children, learning how hunt with a bow and arrow and ride horses (William S. Hart Museum History"). It is here where his love for the West grew. He had an admiration and respect for the Western Frontier and Native American culture. This is important for his transition into silent film.
In 1913, Hart stopped into a nickelodeon to see a film. This film was a Western film. As someone who lived on the Western Frontier for multiple years and experienced their lifestyle, he was reportedly "appalled" by the way the movie portrayed the Old West. This is when he decided to make his venture in to silent films; focusing on making accurate, authentic Western films that had better representation of the Western Frontier lifestyle. With his history in Vaudeville and having already been acting for over two decades by this time, his already experienced acting made him popular quickly, and he rose to stardom ("William S. Hart Museum History").
To hear more about the extent of his stardom as a silent film actor, press on the button below to go to the "Film Stardom" page.
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