27 Facts About Laurence Trimble

Laurence Norwood Trimble was an American silent film director, writer and actor.

Laurence Trimble made his acting debut in the 1910 silent Saved by the Flag, directed scores of films for Vitagraph and other studios, and became head of production for Florence Turner's independent film company in England.

Laurence Trimble was most widely known for his four films starring Strongheart, a German Shepherd dog he discovered and trained that became the first major canine film star.

Laurence Norwood Trimble was born February 15,1885, in Robbinston, Maine.

Laurence Trimble grew up on a rocky farm near the Bay of Fundy.

Laurence Trimble began to write adventure fiction, and sold an animal story to a New York magazine around 1908.

Laurence Trimble scanned the script and said he could train any dog to do what was needed.

Laurence Trimble asked if there were any dogs around, and was told about a stray that hid in the garage and came out only to snatch scraps left by members of the crew.

Laurence Trimble spent an hour coaxing the frightened dog out of hiding, and another half-hour winning his confidence.

Laurence Trimble began his film career at Vitagraph in the spring of 1910.

Laurence Trimble became one of the studio's leading directors, responsible for all of Jean's films and most of those made by Florence Turner, John Bunny and Flora Finch.

Laurence Trimble was married to concert singer Louise Trenton; their daughter, Janet, was born in September 1912.

Laurence Trimble was head of production at Turner Films, released by Cecil Hepworth, and over the next three years he wrote and directed some of Britain's most highly regarded films of the period.

In Hollywood from 1917, Laurence Trimble joined the newly formed Goldwyn Pictures.

Laurence Trimble directed Fool's Gold, an independent production partially filmed in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state, in which Turner tried to return to starring roles in American motion pictures.

Laurence Trimble was trained in Berlin as a police dog and served in the German Red Cross during World War I At age three the dog was brought to the United States to be sold.

Laurence Trimble recognized Etzel's potential and persuaded Jane Murfin, a screenwriter for his films, to buy the dog.

Laurence Trimble trained the dog and directed him in four rugged outdoor adventure pictures that were shot on location: The Silent Call, Brawn of the North, The Love Master and White Fang.

Laurence Trimble was able to keep McDonald Island, an island he had purchased on the Saint Lawrence River, and in February 1930 he began writing an occasional feature "about dogs, horses, and other people" for The American Boy magazine.

Laurence Trimble became president of the dog education foundation that supplied dogs for the Hazel Hurst Foundation of Monrovia, California, and spoke to clubs and community service organizations about the work of the foundation and the need for service dogs.

In 1941, Trimble married Marian Constance Blackton, a daughter of J Stuart Blackton, one of the founders of Vitagraph Studios.

In 1950, the Los Angeles Times reported on one of the presentations on dog training that Laurence Trimble gave to Sunday-school classes.

Laurence Trimble would take his one-year-old German Shepherd, Bambi, or one of his other five dogs, and tell the children about dogs and how to care for them.

Laurence Trimble told this particular group of young people at Mount Hollywood Congregational Church how he made friends with dogs, and how dogs could help them make friends with other people.

Laurence Trimble died from a heart ailment on February 8,1954, at age 68, at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

Laurence Trimble was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8,1960.

Larry Laurence Trimble served as director of these motion pictures unless otherwise noted.