House Peters

Famous as "The Star of a Thousand Emotions," British-born American silent screen actor House Peters began his screen career on a high note, playing the handsome theatrical agent who saves Mary Pickford from a life of crime in The Bishop's Carriage (1913). That was filmed in the East, but Peters was in Los Angeles already by 1914, one of the first screen stars to permanently settle there. Although he publicly stated that he preferred playing villains, Peters, curly haired and pleasantly dimpled, was from the outset typecast as the romantic hero. (Ironically, his son with actress Mae King, House Jr., would become an effective B-Western menace in the sound era.) After enjoying his greatest success as the good-bad hero of The Girl of the Golden West (1918), Peters found his career on the wane by the early '20s. He signed with Universal for six pictures in 1924, hoping for a comeback, but the results were mostly mediocre and he was soon demoted to supporting roles. Retired after 1928's Rose Marie, Peters returned for a guest appearance in The Old West, a 1952 Gene Autry vehicle that also featured his son, House Peters Jr. House Sr. died at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA.

~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide