
Acting
William Elmer
Born — Died
1869-04-25 — 1945-02-24
Place of birth
Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA
Known for
Acting
Credits
60 titles
Known for
7.3The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
The Magnificent Ambersons
1942
6.6A hard-working, white-collar girl falls in love with a young socialite, but meets with his family's disapproval.
Kitty Foyle
1940
7.1In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
Les Misérables
1935
NRIn planning to break into the house of the wealthy Bob Van Dyke, Jenny's stepfather decides that his stepdaughter should do most of the dirty work, and Jenny, not wanting to disappoint him, grudgingly agrees. As soon as she enters the house, Bob catches her, but then goes back to his bedroom after making her give her word not to take anything. Jenny breaks her promise...
The Ragamuffin
1916
6.1Hot-blooded gypsy Carmen attempts to seduce Don Jose, a lawman sent to thwart a gang of illegal smugglers in Spain. Carmen's plan backfires when Don Jose's passion for the gypsy girl escalates into a jealous rage as she spurns him for her bullfighter beau, Escamillo, with tragic results.
Carmen
1915
5.5A saloon hostess loves Ramerrez, a notorious highwayman. Sheriff Jack Rance, who loves the girl too, instigates a card game that will determine the fate of all three of them. If she wins, the girl's lover will go free; but if she loses…
The Girl of the Golden West
1915
Film credits
1940s · 2 titles
1920s · 11 titles
10.0Larry Winthrop, the pampered son of an aristocratic Boston family, is loved by his wife, Eleanor, but she wants him to prove himself to her as a man.
Big Game
1921
7.0After she inherits a fortune, Ann Clemance travels to Paris to indulge herself in frivolity. She meets up with an old friend, writer Adrian Torrens, who disparages her lifestyle. Ann sees him befriend an Apache dancer and she believes he finds women in need of salvation more appealing.
In Search of a Thrill
1923
6.6Suave thief Colman is sent to Devil's Island, where he becomes romantically involved with the wife of sadistic warden Digges.
Condemned!
1929
9.0After graduating from college, rich girl Margery Carr decides to do some good in the world. Much to the chagrin of her father, she decides to open an office to help derelicts. For her secretary, she picks an ex-gangster named Bubbs out of the throng.
The Foolish Age
1921
10.0The very wealthy and very idle Dickey Derrickson is scorned by his fiancée Madge Earle because of his refusal to work. To counter her criticism, he buys a detective agency that has no cases, but Madge discovers the ruse. To create a demand for his services, Dickey hires a group of thugs to steal valuables from his rich friends.
Leave It to Me
1920
8.0Our Western star begins this actioner rather improbably, as a New York City gangster. But soon enough he heads for the more comfortable expanse of the open spaces.
The Night Hawk
1924
7.0Tom Mix played Larry McBride, a cowboy who, "goes to city, dresses up to date and gets into thrilling and humorous adventures."
Big Town Round-Up
1921
8.0Tex Benton (cowboy star Tom Mix) wants to marry Janet McWhorter (Kathleen O'Connor), but her father (Charles K. French) will give his blessings only if Tex works on his sheep ranch. Tex, a cattleman through and through, refuses and gets his aggressions out by stirring things up at the local saloon.
Prairie Trails
1920
8.0"Squint" Taylor owns a ranch and has a much older mining partner. When the partner is fatally wounded, he makes Taylor promise to take care of his daughter Marion. Taylor is more than happy to do his bidding, but Marion and her uncle are both involved with William Carrington, who is trying to cheat them out of her share of the mine.
Forbidden Trails
1920
9.0George Kirby steals a mining claim from Tom Curtis and forces him to become an outlaw. Years later, Curtis comes to the rescue when Anne Kirby is kidnapped by real outlaws, but when he finds out she is married to his enemy, he decides to hold her captive.
Iron to Gold
1922
Prison inmates are leased by the state to a lumber company, which makes them work under atrocious and dangerous conditions and treats them as virtual slave laborers. Based on a real-life incident that happened in Florida.
The Whipping Boss
1924
1910s · 46 titles
NRIn planning to break into the house of the wealthy Bob Van Dyke, Jenny's stepfather decides that his stepdaughter should do most of the dirty work, and Jenny, not wanting to disappoint him, grudgingly agrees. As soon as she enters the house, Bob catches her, but then goes back to his bedroom after making her give her word not to take anything. Jenny breaks her promise...
The Ragamuffin
1916
6.1Hot-blooded gypsy Carmen attempts to seduce Don Jose, a lawman sent to thwart a gang of illegal smugglers in Spain. Carmen's plan backfires when Don Jose's passion for the gypsy girl escalates into a jealous rage as she spurns him for her bullfighter beau, Escamillo, with tragic results.
Carmen
1915
5.5A saloon hostess loves Ramerrez, a notorious highwayman. Sheriff Jack Rance, who loves the girl too, instigates a card game that will determine the fate of all three of them. If she wins, the girl's lover will go free; but if she loses…
The Girl of the Golden West
1915
6.0To save his family from disgrace, Capt. James Wynnegate takes the blame when his brother, Sir Henry, embezzles from a charitable fund. Relocating to America, James purchases a ranch in Wyoming and marries Nat-u-ritch, an indigenous woman. After the birth of the couple's son, James is startled by the arrival of Lady Diana, his brother's wife, who informs him that the nefarious Henry is dead.
The Squaw Man
1914
NRA married couple, each in love with another, attempts to unentangle themselves from their marriage in order to be with the one each truly loves. But the more they untangle one knot, the faster more confusing knots appear.
We Can't Have Everything
1918
NRA young man learns how to open safes to thwart a railroad takeover plot, accidentally forces a conspirator's daughter to marry him during a heist, and ultimately wins her love.
A Burglar for a Night
1918
10.0Dick Tavish, a young New Yorker, decides that there is money in cows, and he buys a western ranch. When the novelty has worn off he decided there is monotony as well. Then he falls in love with a girl on a calendar, and life takes on a new interest, particularly after he discovers who the girl is. The fact that her uncle swindled him on the ranch does not matter. He figures he can take care of the uncle, and he does, but not until he has been forced to masquerade as a woman, and have half the men at a fashionable resort fall in love with him.
The Widow's Might
1918
5.5Jerry Martin quits his dull job as a bank clerk and falls in with a band of hobos. He takes on the guise of Bachelor, the "king of the market," and finds himself pursued by dangerous men who are after the real Bachelor. *Only fragments are known to exist. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.
He Comes Up Smiling
1918
4.0Esra Kincaid takes land by force and, having taken the Espinoza land, his sights are set on the Castro rancho. Government agent Kearney holds him off till the cavalry shows up and he can declare his love for Juanita, called “the Rose of the Rancho.”
The Rose of the Rancho
1914
6.0During the Balkan Wars, Sonia is a young woman living in Montenegro and left to care for her younger brother Milos and the family farm while elder brother Marko goes off to battle. Unable to handle the daily tasks following her brother’s tragic death, help comes in the form of Mahmud Hassan, a captured Turk nobleman, now a prisoner of war. Tasked with helping Sonia, their initial frosty relationship soon melts into romance. As the war rages on Sonia, Mahmud and Milos will face near-insurmountable obstacles in their quest for a better life amidst the hell of war.
The Captive
1915
NRThe "Firefly of France" is an elusive master criminal of uncertain loyalties. When the Firefly disappears from view with a satchel of important government documents in his possession, his sister Esme Falconer is suspected of beings in cahoots with him. Dashing aviator Devereaux Bayne believes in Esme's innocence and accordingly dons civilian garb and heads to Paris' Latin Quarter to get the low-down on the Firefly's whereabouts.
The Firefly of France
1918
6.0An American heiress who goes to Ireland meets a bankrupt lord. She switches places with her maid to avoid fortune hunters.
Castles for Two
1917
6.0Smoky Gap Railroad president Murray Lemantier is fed up with a bandit gang led by Buck Andrade constantly holding up his train and getting away with it. He hires ace detective David Cassidy to track down and get Buck, dead or alive. However, when Buck goes to see his dying mother she makes him promise to reform, and he does. Cassidy, though, doesn't care about that and tries to arrest him. Buck decides to do something that will once and for all show everyone that he has indeed reformed--especially Faith Lawson, a pretty station agent he's in love with.
Wolves of the Rail
1918
NRLord Percy hires attorney John Stoddard to find the missing Brentwood heiress. Failing his mission, John rescues an orphan named Margot and passes her off as the lost granddaughter. As guilt drives them to confess, Margot’s former abuser arrives and reveals a shocking truth: he killed her parents, making Margot the real, legitimate heir.
The Plow Girl
1916
NRJimmie Dexter is on his way to college when his mother discovers that her stocks have stopped paying dividends. Jean Hilton, who has always loved Jimmie, offers to secretly stake him using her own inheritance. So Jimmie goes off to college, none the wiser, and gets tangled up with vampy cabaret singer Diana Parish.
The Girl at Home
1917
NRJust prior to America's declaration of war, Margaret Kenwood of the Kenwood Manufacturing Company determines that the plant should produce munitions to support the Allies. Rodney Sheridan, her sweetheart and a vice president of the company, remains unimpressed with Margaret's patriotism until he begins to suspect that the plant's president is involved with a group of German spies.
The Thing We Love
1918
5.0A potentially violent patient in an insane asylum is calmed when he hears a nurse playing the piano. But shortly afterwards he breaks free, eludes his pursuers, and acquires a gun. He soon comes to a house where a young wife is home alone, and there is a tense confrontation.
The House of Darkness
1913
5.6A young couple struggle to get ahead, the wife always assuaging the troubles of her melancholy husband. As he climbs the ladder of success, he abandons the homely values and begins an affair with a beautiful woman. His wife leaves him, returning to her mother's home where she bears a child. When the husband is abandoned by his lady friend, remorse drives him to find his wife.
The Mothering Heart
1913
NRBobby Burnit, a naïve young man, inherits $300,000 from his father, a hard-working entrepreneur. Because the will specifies that the money must be invested, Agnes Elliston, Bobby's sweetheart, suggests that he take over his father's chain of stores. Soon Bobby becomes the dupe of various swindlers and charlatans, among them Sam Stone and Bobby's shady lawyer. With the help of Bobby's friend Biff Bates and Daniel Johnson, a loyal employee of Bobby's father, the swindlers are exposed in the newspaper and Bobby's inheritance is saved. Finally, after rescuing Agnes from Stone's advances, Bobby proposes to her, thus complying with all of his late father's wishes. -From TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.
The Making of Bobby Burnit
1914
6.0The first movie adaptation of the famous novel where a young man has to spend a fortune on 60 days to inherit an even larger sum of money. Considered to be a lost film.
Brewster's Millions
1914
NRHelen Ainsworth, a young philanthropist, who is interested in a prison reform movement, is engaged to Norman Morris, administrator of the Ainsworth millions and the undiscovered "man higher up," grafting through his influence with prison wardens. He is also having an "affair" with Felice, Helen's maid, an ex-convict.
The Prison Without Walls
1917
NRStanley Jordan, a wealthy young bachelor, attends a Red Cross Benefit at the country club where he meets and falls in love with Betty Lovering and unwittingly offends Mrs. Vandergraft, the social leader.
The Countess Charming
1917
5.6A good-natured but chivalrous cowboy romances the local schoolmarm and leads the posse that brings a gang of rustlers, which includes his best friend, to justice.
The Virginian
1914
NRRussian brothers Count Boris and Alexis Rabourdin obtain a Japanese coastline defense map and plan to sell it to German agents in London. In America, Alexis schemes to marry wealthy Eve Bertram, who loves him. Boris, meanwhile, falls in love with Christine Lesley, Eve's neighbor whom Eve's brother Guy, an amateur inventor experimenting with explosives, also loves.
The Clue
1915
7.0After his father dies amidst rumors that he was an oil swindler, Matthew Denton goes to Texas to discover the truth. But he has been spoiled by his mother and he has a hard time adjusting to his rough surroundings.
His Mother's Boy
1917
NRAfter embezzling a large sum of money from a Chicago firm, Lee Brownell pays an unexpected visit to his brother, Dr. Max Brownell, offering the excuse that he needs a rest. Soon, Lee wins the affections of Coralie Grayson, whom Max had long wished to marry. On the night before Coralie and Lee's wedding, Max discovers his brother's crime, but for Coralie's sake arranges to repay the stolen money. Max is too late, however, because Lee has stolen again. Coralie learns of her husband's true nature after the wedding. On their honeymoon cruise, they accidentally meet Max, who is traveling on the same boat. As the days pass, Lee becomes more depraved until, in a jealous pique, he shoots Max. Max, wounded, crawls to his brother's room, and Lee, confronted by his victim, dies of shock, thus freeing Max and Coralie to begin a new life together. A lost film.
Her Strange Wedding
1917
NRThomas Lattier is a well-to-do westerner in the cattle business. One fine day he sells a herd of cattle, receiving for it cash payment in bills of large denomination. He proceeds to town alone to deposit it in his bank. Two bad men, Bretall and Hayes, have learned of the deal and trail him with a view to securing the money.
Shotgun Jones
1914
7.0When shipping clerk Arthur McArney falls in love with pretty stenographer Elsa Owenson, he finds himself in stiff competition with a fat but wealthy broker named Sankey. Elsa's expensive tastes lead Arthur to spend a week's salary on an evening's entertainment, part with his watch to pay their taxicab fare, and borrow money from his friends to buy her extravagant gifts. Finally, Arthur is forced to take on odd jobs and night duty, which so impresses his employer, Hallet, that he gives the clerk a small raise. After Arthur spends $200 on the proper attire to wear to a lavish Halloween party, Hallet calls him to the office that evening, and Elsa attends the affair with Sankey. To reward his employee's dedication, Hallet promotes Arthur to the post of branch manager. Elsa accepts Arthur's marriage proposal with the promise that she will henceforth economize.
The Way of a Man with a Maid
1918
9.0While traveling out West, John Maddox rescues Beatrice Clive, an English girl, from a dangerous cliff. Six years pass, during which Maddox becomes a wealthy rancher. Upon returning, Maddox finds the Bulverton estate is in jeopardy and Beatrice is engaged to the villainous Sir George Trenery due to financial desperation.
The Usurper
1919
NRMakino works for Kayosho, a Japanese curio dealer in America. To reward Makino's dedication, Kayosho sends for Toki-ye, a picture bride. Upon arrival, she is married to Makino in a civil ceremony. However, Kayosho intends to keep Toki-ye for himself. This angers Goto, another employee. Kayosho was betrothed to Goto's niece, Hana. One day Kayosho is found dead in a pool.
The Honorable Friend
1916
NRNo synopsis available yet.
The Winning of Sally Temple
1917
NREdward Abeles and Theodore Roberts as a couple of prospectors who get involved with greedy city types on a business trip to New York.
Ready Money
1914
NRMillionaire Larry Prentiss inherits a ranch. He decides to visit his new property incognito and gets a job as a ranch-hand. He falls in love with the ranch foreman's daughter and complications ensue.
Playing the Game
1918
NRThe defense attorney who was unable to obtain the acquittal of an innocent young man concocts a complicated and diabolical scheme to get revenge on the prosecutor.
The Master Mind
1914
NRCarmen, a maid, steals a locket belonging to the Aragon princess Maria Theresa and sells it to Gaines, a New York art collector, not knowing that the locket contains the clue to the Aragon family fortune's whereabouts. Based on the 1909 Broadway play of the same name by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard.
The Ghost Breaker
1914
NRTamura, a Japanese man working as a gardener in America, saves his money to marry his girlfriend, Japanese-American Nume Rogers. His friend Watana works for a Japanese businessman named Motoyoshi so that he can get enough money to bring his wife Sat-Su and their children to America. However, on the day that Sat-Su is to arrive, something happens that changes the lives of everyone concerned. A lost film.
The Bravest Way
1918
NRDepartment-store clerk Larry Young is determined to marry a rich girl. He falls for Elaine Debaux, whom he believes to be the daughter of a wealthy shipbuilder. However, when war breaks out Larry is drafted into the army. Before he is taken in, though, he and Elaine are rescued from gangsters by an ex-con named Mike Moran. It turns out that Moran wants to join the army but they won't take him because of his record. Larry, who doesn't want to go into the army because it will interfere with his plans to marry Elaine, comes up with an idea he thinks will work out for all concerned. Complications ensue.
Alias Mike Moran
1919
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Maggie Pepper
1919
NRA young New York society man makes a bet that he can rob a house and get away without being caught by the police. Things turn out to be not as easy as they seem.
A Gentleman of Leisure
1915
The thief was clever and he forged around the girl's sweetheart a chain of circumstantial evidence that seemingly had no flaw. The girl's faith was great and in unraveling the mystery the detective she engaged used the scientific methods of today, making a brilliant detective story.
The Left-Handed Man
1913
NRTomboy Bess Aiken grows up quickly when her mother deserts her father to elope with wealthy Easterner Vernon Treloar. Left alone with her father, Bess begins to long for feminine companionship, and when an opportunity arises for Bess to visit her newly-remarried mother, her father consents. The little girl soon finds herself in a fairytale world of beautiful gowns and extravagant luxury. Believing that anything her mother does must be correct, Bess soon learns to smoke and drink, much to the displeasure of Kirke Livingston, who loves her but fears she has inherited her mother's weaknesses. Bess disregards his warnings until one day she finds her mother embracing another man. Disillusioned, she departs immediately for her father's cabin, traveling through the woods all night. At daybreak, Kirke finds her and wins her hand in marriage.
The Sunset Trail
1917
NRIn Montegro brothers Stefan and Michael kidnap American heiress Delight Warren. Stefan marries her so he can claim her wealth, but then they fall in love.
The Unafraid
1915
NRDavid Jenison, accused of a crime which he did not commit, escapes his guards and joins a traveling circus.
The Circus Man
1914
NRFreckles, a one-armed orphan tired of being tormented by others runs away eventually finding a place as a watchman in the timber camp, The Limberlost. He falls in love with Angel but feeling unworthy of her keeps his feelings silent until a near catastrophic incident reveals the bond between them.
Freckles
1917
Pregnant tenement dweller Maggie Schultz is being used by burglars....
Kindling
1915
NRA young engineer, Tom Morley, is building a railroad through Imperial Valley. Tom's father also wants the job, and tries to persuade his son to give up the work, but Tom refuses. Tom falls for a society girl named Alice Hale, who marries him to bring prestige to her family. Initially, Alice plots against Tom, but Tom wins her over and they work together to defeat those who are plotting to destroy Tom's work.
The Selfish Woman
1916
