Vintage original 8 x 10 in. US double-weight matte photograph of silent film actor JEAN HERSHOLT c.1928.
He is depicted in a very close shot holding a cigar. It is in very fine- condition.
Provenance: The Collection of Jean Hersholt (as indicated by his rubber stamp on the verso); The Collection of Richard McKinney; Larry Edmunds Bookshop.
*"Jean Pierre Carl Buron (12 July 1886 – 2 June 1956), known professionally as Jean Hersholt, was a Danish-American actor. He is best known for starring on the radio series Dr. Christian (1937–1954) and in the film Heidi (1937). Asked how to pronounce his name, he told The Literary Digest, "In English, her'sholt; in Danish, hairs'hult." Of his total credits, 75 were silent films and 65 were sound films (140 total); he directed four.
Hersholt appeared in two of the first short films of Danish film studio Nordisk Film in 1906, but did not find much success in his early years in Denmark. Hersholt emigrated to the United States in 1913, and spent the remainder of his acting career in America.
Hersholt's best-remembered film roles include Marcus Schouler in Erich von Stroheim's 1924 Greed and Shirley Temple's beloved grandfather in the 1937 film version of the 1880 children's book, Heidi, written by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. During his long career in the movies, his roles ran the gamut from early silent villains to secondary parts in which his mild Danish accent and pleasant voice suited him to depict a succession of benevolent fathers, doctors, professors, and European noblemen. Hersholt's last role was in the 1955 movie Run for Cover.
In 1939, Hersholt helped form the Motion Picture Relief Fund to support industry employees with medical care when they were down on their luck. The fund was used to create the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, and it led to the creation in 1956 of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, an honorary Academy Award given to an "individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry".
As president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Hersholt presented American film industry founders Colonel William N. Selig, Albert E. Smith, George K. Spoor, and Thomas Armat with special awards on the 20th anniversary of the academy's founding on March 20, 1948.
Hersholt died of cancer in Hollywood in 1956, and is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. His grave is marked with a statue of Klods-Hans (English: Clumsy Hans), a Hans Christian Andersen character who left home to find his way in the world — much as Hersholt himself had done."
*(source: Wikipedia)
YM3RB