
Acting
Francis McDonald
Born 1891-08-21 · Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA
Francis McDonald (August 22, 1891 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor whose career spanned 52 years. McDonald's started acting professionally in stock theater with the Forepaugh Stock Company in Cincinnati. Following eight months with it, he worked one season with a stock company in Seattle, after which he performed for three seasons with a troupe in San Diego and Honolulu. He concluded his tenure in stock theater as juvenile leading man with the American Stock Company in Spokane, Washington. By 1913 McDonald began to perform in the rapidly expanding film industry, initially working for Marion Leonard's Monopole Company in Hollywood. He was cast in over 280 films between 1913 and 1965, including The Temptress in 1926 with Greta Garbo. After he was designated "Hollywood's Prettiest Man," McDonald sought a tougher image by shaving his mustache and seeking roles of villains. McDonald was one of Cecil B. DeMille's favorite character actors.[citation needed] DeMille gave him credited supporting roles in six of his films: The Plainsman (1936), The Buccaneer (1938), Union Pacific (1939), North West Mounted Police (1940), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Ten Commandments (1956).
Acting credits
7.8Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.
The Ten Commandments
1956
7.7In order to help bring Nazis to justice, U.S. government agent T.R. Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman, the American daughter of a convicted German war criminal, as a spy. As they begin to fall for one another, Alicia is instructed to win the affections of Alexander Sebastian, a Nazi hiding out in Brazil. When Sebastian becomes serious about his relationship with Alicia, the stakes get higher, and Devlin must watch her slip further undercover.
Notorious
1946
8.0Young Southerners Buck Hineman and Remington Osbury both are in love with the same woman, who promises to marry the one who returns when the Civil War breaks out. On the battlefield, Remington is wounded and left for dead, and Buck returns to marry her. Shortly afterward, Remington returns and contents himself with becoming one of the Hineman family.
The Kentucky Colonel
1920
7.1Professional daredevil and white-suited hero, The Great Leslie, convinces turn-of-the-century auto makers that a race from New York to Paris (westward across America, the Bering Straight and Russia) will help to promote automobile sales. Leslie's arch-rival, the mustached and black-attired Professor Fate vows to beat Leslie to the finish line in a car of Fate's own invention.
The Great Race
1965
7.1The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
6.2Set in Prohibition era Chicago, bootlegger Robbo and his cronies refuse to pay the greedy Guy Gisborne a cut of their profits after Guy shoots mob boss Big Jim and takes over. When Big Jim's daughter, Marian, gives Robbo a large sum, believing he has avenged her father's death, the gangster donates to an orphanage, cementing his reputation as a softhearted hood.
Robin and the 7 Hoods
1964
7.0Brothers Beau, John and Digby Geste join the Foreign Legion, where they fall under the rule of tyrannical Sergeant Markoff. Beau and John are assigned to Fort Zinderneuf, where Markoff tries to break their spirit, aware of a dark family secret concerning a fabulous jewel one of them carries. As tensions rise, Arabs attack the fort and rivalries must be thrown aside in a desperate battle for life.
Beau Geste
1939
6.4Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad.
Duel in the Sun
1946
7.2Shipwrecked fugitives try to escape a brutal sea captain who's losing his mind.
The Sea Wolf
1941
6.6When strongman Samson rejects the love of the beautiful Philistine woman Delilah, she seeks vengeance that brings horrible consequences they both regret.
Samson and Delilah
1949
6.8In 17th century France, young D'Artagnan wants to join the King's Musketeers, but instead befriends three legendary musketeers—Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—and together, they become embroiled in the political intrigue surrounding King Louis XIII and his adversaries, particularly the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.
The Three Musketeers
1948
6.4Mogador, Morocco. Late 1920s. A complex romance develops between a womanizing Legionnaire and a disillusioned Parisian cabaret singer.
Morocco
1930
5.5The coming of the railroad to Cedar City spells the end of the stagecoach as the government gives the mail contract to the fastest means of delivery. McCord loses the stagecoach line gambling with the new buyer, but has enough hidden money to buy a ranch and some cattle. To make more money, he starts a gang to rob the railroad, express offices and steal cattle. But the railroads send out special agent Cameron to end his reign of violence.
Last Stagecoach West
1957
6.5Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Buffalo Bill go up against Indians and a gunrunner.
The Plainsman
1936
5.9When his ward seeks protection with rival cattleman John Stewart, embittered, jealous rancher Wick Campbell hires ten outlaws to help him seize power in the territory.
Ten Wanted Men
1955
6.7One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?
Union Pacific
1939
7.3One-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy steps off a train at the sleepy little town of Black Rock. Once there, he begins to unravel a web of lies, secrecy, and murder.
Bad Day at Black Rock
1955
6.3As far as the rest of the world is concerned, mill heiress Deborah Chandler Clark is dead, killed in a freak auto accident. But Deborah is alive, if not too well. Having discovered a horrible truth about her new husband, Deborah is now a “woman in hiding,” living in mortal fear that someday her husband will catch up with her again. When a returning GI recognizes Deborah, however, she must decide whether or not she can trust him.
Woman in Hiding
1950
7.2Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.
The Sea Hawk
1940
10.0Finding his sweetheart, Christine, in the arms of a German officer, Price joins the French Air Legion. Christine is later revealed to be the spy whom Price has been ordered to drop behind enemy lines. They are reconciled, are captured by the Germans, and are rescued by his unit.
The Legion of the Condemned
1928
8.0Auto race champ Tim Dawson and his brother Billy are fired by boss Turnberg when they won't throw an important race to his son Carl. Pop Reeves, a competitor, finds that Turnberg had bribed his top man, Rogan, to lose, and fires him, and hires the Dawsons. His daughter Ann falls for Tim, yet it's Billy that wants her and proposes to her. She says no and declares herself to Tim. At the next big race, Rogan tries to cause Billy to smash, but he does instead, then accuses Tim of being responsible before dying. A police detective decides that Tim had done it so his brother could win, and leaves him one option, his brother must lose the upcoming Indy 500 or he'll know Tim's guilty.
Straightaway
1933
6.7In 1850s Oregon, a businessman is torn between his love of two very different women and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the line.
Canyon Passage
1946
6.4Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers ("Isn't that a contradiction in terms?", another character asks him) travels to Canada in the 1880s in search of Jacques Corbeau, who is wanted for murder. He wanders into the midst of the Riel Rebellion, in which Métis (people of French and Native heritage) and Natives want a separate nation. Dusty falls for nurse April Logan, who is also loved by Mountie Jim Brett. April's brother is involved with Courbeau's daughter Louvette, which leads to trouble during the battles between the rebels and the Mounties. Through it all Dusty is determined to bring Corbeau back to Texas (and April, too, if he can manage it.)
North West Mounted Police
1940
NRAfter a love triangle results death, St. Elmo falls from grace and is eventually redeemed in this now lost silent film based on the best selling novel by Augusta Jane Wilson.
St. Elmo
1914