1. Maurice George Costello was a prominent American vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s who later played a principal role in early American films as leading man, supporting player, and director.
12 Facts About Maurice Costello
1. 2.
Maurice Costello had a strongly Irish upbringing, living with his mother, her Irish brother, and many Irish immigrant boarders.
3.
Maurice Costello made his film debut in 1908, but was long believed to have debuted in Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom, supposedly playing the lead in what is regarded as the first serious film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, since it was preceded only by the 30-second comedy film Sherlock Holmes Baffled.
4.
Maurice Costello joined Vitagraph, being a member of the first motion picture stock company ever formed, playing opposite Florence Turner.
5.
Maurice Costello was notorious for his refusal to help build sets, insisting that he was "hired as an actor and nothing else", despite the common practice of the time.
6.
From this and his role as the creator of the first known school of screen acting, Maurice Costello is sometimes credited as "the father of screen acting".
7.
Maurice Costello was one of the world's first leading men in early American cinema, but like a lot of other silent screen stars, he found the transition to "talkies" extremely difficult.
8.
Maurice Costello discovered Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, who, as a teenager, ran errands and got lunches for the actors at the Vitagraph Studios at no charge.
9.
On November 23,1913, Maurice Costello was arrested for beating his wife Mae.
10.
On November 25,1913, Maurice Costello admitted that he had beaten his wife while intoxicated.
11.
Mae Maurice Costello requested that the charges be dropped to disorderly conduct, and Maurice Costello was given six months probation by Magistrate Geisner of the Coney Island Police Court.
12.
Maurice Costello died at the age of 73 in 1950 in Los Angeles, California of a heart problem.