Vintage original 8 x 10 in. US double-weight matte photograph of stage and silent film actor and director ARTHUR SHIRLEY c.1915.
 
Taken during his assocation with Thomas H. Ince's unit of the Triangle Film Corporation, he is depicted in a close publicity shot taken by the acclaimed Hollywood photographer, Albert Witzel. It is in fine+ condition as shown.
 
*"Arthur Shirley (31 August 1886 – 24 November 1967) was an Australian actor, writer, producer, and director of theatre and film. He experienced some success as a film actor in Hollywood between 1914 and 1920.
 
In 1904 Shirley moved to Melbourne. For a time he worked as door-to-door salesman for a wholesale grocery firm, then he became a novice in a Sydney seminary, but left it in 1905 to try and break into theatre. His first role was a three-line part in Sweet Nell of Old Drury (1905), starring Nellie Stewart at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. He spent the next two years touring Victoria and New South Wales with the John Cosgrove Company, after which he worked for other theatre entrepreneurs, including William Anderson, George Marlow, Beaumont Smith and George Willoughby. In 1909 he announced he was going to star in a play especially written for him, an early indication of Shirley's later flair for self-promotion.
 
Shirley owed money to a Miss Tindall, a debt which saw him be declared bankrupt at his own petition in December 1913. He struggled with financial difficulties before winning the leads in two films, The Silence of Dean Maitland and The Shepherd of the Southern Cross, both opening in 1914; the first was a success.
 
In June 1914 Shirley and his wife moved to the United States, where he was signed by Kalem Company in their New York studios. He then went to work in their Glendale studio where he played a detective hero. He later signed to Universal Studios. He won roles in One Man's Evil (1915), Bawb O' Blue Ridge (1916), The Fall of a Nation (1916) and Branding Broadway (1918) alongside William S. Hart. Of these movies, The Fall of a Nation is the best known, being a sequel to The Birth of a Nation (1914), but Shirley also acted opposite such stars as Lon Chaney, Sr. and Mae Murray.
 
Shirley also ran a photography business on Hollywood Boulevard, where he was a pioneer in the use of artificial lighting for portraiture, and three-dimensional rather that painted backgrounds. He claimed it was a photograph he took of Rudolph Valentino dancing which helped that actor be cast in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), and thus become a star. Shirley devoted his retirement to archaeology and ancient Egypt. He died at Rose Bay in 1967 and was buried at Waverley Cemetery."
*(source: Wikipedia)
 
YM3RB