
Acting
Philippe De Lacy
Born 1917-07-25 · Nancy, France
Philippe De Lacy a.k.a. Philippe deLacy (July 25, 1917 – July 29, 1995) was a former silent film era child actor. Born during World War I, the already fatherless Philippe lost his mother and five siblings when a German shell devastated the family home. Only two days old at the time of tragedy, the boy was kept alive, but barely, in the basement of his grandmother's house. He was adopted by Mrs. Edith De Lacy, who was associated with the U.S. Woman's Overseas Hospital. After the war ended, Mrs. De Lacy brought Philippe to America, where his stunning looks soon created opportunities for him as a model for magazine advertisements. His modeling assignments brought him to the attention of Hollywood, and he appeared in his first film in a bit part at the age of four. Phillipe's childhood story was used as the subject of a fictional children's book, Little Philippe of Belgium, written by Madeline Brandeis as part of her "Children of the World" series. De Lacy freelanced for several studios in the 1920s, but mostly for Paramount. In 1924 he played the role of Michael Darling in the classic silent version of Peter Pan, with Betty Bronson. He played the young Don Juan at ten years of age in John Barrymore's Don Juan (1926), and in 1927 he played the young prince Karl Heinrich in Ernst Lubitsch's memorable The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, which also starred Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer. Also in 1927 he starred with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in Love, an updated version of the Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina in which he played the young son of Anna, Serezha Karenin. When the sound era arrived De Lacy's acting career was declining, and he never made the transition from child actor to adult. Apart from his films, De Lacy also did some work in the theatre. However he had lost his boyish charm by his early teens and retired from the screen in the early 1930s. De Lacy concentrated on the production end of films as a producer, director and cinematographer. He became an assistant to director Louis De Rochemont and worked with him in the 1940 film The Ramparts We Watch. Eventually he became an executive with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, a position he held for over 25 years. De Lacy’s first credit was in 1942 as an editorial associate for the US armed forces propaganda film We Are The Marines. Radio and television announcer Westbrook Van Voorhis provided the narration for the documentary, which was effectively a full-length fighting feature. In 1944 De Lacy was involved in another documentary, this time for the US Navy, filmed aboard the carrier Yorktown. The narrators in this documentary were actors Robert Taylor (who was actually a lieutenant in the navy at the time) and Charles Boyer who supplied the French narration. De Lacy was the cinematographer in The Fighting Lady and had three real life naval commanders to assist him. This film won the 1945 Oscar for Best Documentary. De Lacy then turned his hand to directing a television series in 1950, and in addition, he also became manager of a local Hollywood television station.
Acting credits
7.2When lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home after completing their military training, Leo meets the stunning Felicitas at a railway station and is mesmerized by her beauty. A scandal follows, for which Leo is sent away. Returning home three years later, he discovers that much has changed.
Flesh and the Devil
1926
6.6If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things - life, disillusionment and death. In his father's case it was his wife, Donna Isobel, and Donna Elvira who supplied the latter. Don Juan settled in Rome after attending the University of Pisa. Rome was run by the tyrannical Borgia family consisting of Caesar, Lucrezia and the Count Donati. Juan has his way with and was pursued by many women, but it is the one that he could not have that haunts him. It will be for her that he suffers the wrath of Borgia for ignoring Lucrezia and then killing Count Donati in a duel. For Adriana, they will both be condemned to death in the prison on the river Tigre.
Don Juan
1926
4.0Though loved by many in her Norwegian village home, Thelma herself does not know love until she meets Sir Phillip Errington. They are married and go to London, where she is well received except by Phillip's jealous "friends." Lady Clara and Lennox plot to make Phillip appear to be unfaithful, and Thelma returns to Norway. Phillip, however, pursues her and proves his innocence.
Thelma
1922
5.5A ne'er-do-well husband, after years of abusing his wife, disappears with their son, and winds up selling him to a wealthy family. Years later, the wife, now a world-famous opera singer, finally has enough time and money to begin a search for him.
Sarah and Son
1930
10.0Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed.
A Doll's House
1922
9.0While Jane and Jim Parker witness the divorce proceedings of Jane's parents, the George Reeds, they resolve that such a disaster will never occur in their happy lives. But when Jim achieves success in Reed's company, he becomes increasingly interested in his new fast friends, especially vamp Gloria Gayne; and he asks Jane for a divorce.
Divorce
1923
10.0Malcolm McGregor joins the circus and falls in love with Olive Borden but his life changes when he finds out he is a titled Lord.
The Happy Warrior
1925
6.5The story takes place in Milwaukee during the early 1900s with a bank clerk named August Schiller who is happy with both his job and his family. He is tasked with transporting $1,000 in securities to Chicago. On the train he meets a blond seductress who convinces him to buy her a bottle of champagne, and takes him to a saloon. The next morning he awakes alone in a dilapidated bedroom and without the securities.
The Way of All Flesh
1927
8.0After Bruce Morrison marries Rose Kendall, he receives information that his father is gravely ill, and not to tell him of Bruce's marriage because the father has picked Jane Penfield to be his son's wife. Jane's brother Murray, however, learns of the marriage and demands money to keep the news from Bruce's father.
What's a Wife Worth?
1921
6.9Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.
Peter Pan
1924
6.6Ellen McHugh, a poor Irish immigrant to America, finds work in a carnival and is thus able to send her son Brian to a fine school. But when her position is found out, the school expels Brian. Mrs. McHugh feels compelled to allow the school principal and his wife to adopt Brian. The widow McHugh becomes a housekeeper and raises her employer's daughter Edith, who grows up to fall in love with Brian McHugh.
Mother Machree
1927
6.4Brothers 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
1926
5.7In Imperial Russia, Anna Karenina falls in love with the dashing military officer Count Vronsky and abandons her husband and child to become his mistress.
Love
1927
5.0An Englishman (Richard Arlen) fights in the Sudan after receiving white feathers of cowardice from his fiancee (Fay Wray) and friends.
The Four Feathers
1929
7.2A young prince falls in love with a beautiful barmaid while at university in old Heidelberg.
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
1928
8.0Story about a little boy and girl that meet in a beautiful garden and the little girl promises the boy that some day she would meet him there again. He goes off to study the violin in Italy and when he returns he finds the girl in the garden.
The Magic Garden
1927
6.6The King tosses Rosita in jail and when Don Diego, who Rosita loves, tries to defend her, he too is thrown in jail. While Don Diego is sentenced to be executed, the King lusts after Rosita and decides to put her up in a luxurious villa. To give her a title, he marries her to a masked nobleman, who turns out to be Don Diego.
Rosita
1923
6.0Arthur Caesar's classic about the barber who held the fate of France in his hands, has been produced on lavish feature-film scale by John Ford, the man who made The Iron Horse and Four Sons.
Napoleon's Barber
1928
Millionaire's son Jack Newberry is determined to make it in the motion picture industry on his own terms. To accomplish this, he invests all of his money into a film project and borrows an additional $40,000 from his sweetheart's father to finance the production. He hires a foreign director, Eric von Greed, to direct the film. To the surprise of everyone, the film becomes a massive success. Having firmly proven his business acumen and earning the respect of his future father-in-law, Jack marries his sweetheart.
My Neighbor's Wife
1925
7.6Four orphans, raised by an aging clown, becomes a high wire act in a circus. Lost film.
4 Devils
1928
7.0Dick Scott takes his Wild West show to the Balkan kingdom of Alvania where the boy king of the country commands the troupe to give a performance. The king is greatly impressed with the American cowboys and makes them his palace guard. The prime minister starts a revolution, and Dick and the Americans put it down. The boy king sanctions a romance between Scott and Ruth Elliott, the royal governess.
The Royal Rider
1929
5.8A princess is forced to choose between a charming tutor and a rakish prince.
One Romantic Night
1930
6.0A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their intermarriages and blend thoroughly, and you have a mixture a too-young-to-believe Frederic March will try to straighten out.
The Marriage Playground
1929
7.0"The plot introduces Omar as a leader of his people but deals rather with the love of his nephew, Ben Ali, for the fairest daughter of the tribe" (Variety, 7 Oct 1925, p44).
A Lover's Oath
1925

