Melbourne MacDowell

Acting

Melbourne MacDowell

Born 1856-11-11 · South River, New Jersey, USA

From Wikipedia He was born Willet Melbourne MacDowell in Little Washington, New Jersey (now South River, New Jersey). MacDowell began appearing in silent films in 1917 by which time he was long a stage veteran. His co-stars were such actors as William S. Hart, Lon Chaney, Charles Ray, Enid Bennett and numerous others. Though he lived until the early 1940s, his film career ended in 1928 with the end of silent films. He returned for one sound film short in 1932, A Fool About Women with Andy Clyde and Vernon Dent. Several films that Melbourne MacDowell appeared in survive today and can be found on DVD, particularly two of his outing with Lon Chaney, Nomads of the North and Outside the Law.

Acting credits

King Spruce poster
9.0

"King Spruce" is personified in John Barrett, lumber magnate of the North woods. His domineering character is shown when his daughter Elva falls in love with a school teacher, Dwight Wade. Barrett conspires with his foreman, McLeod, to entice Wade away to the lumber camps, and finally decides to accompany the gang of men himself. He starts in to eject and burn out all "skeeters" who have settled on the land without domiciliary rights. Wade has shown his fighting blood by thrashing McLeod for an act of cruelty, and he now vainly opposes Barrett from motives of humanity. From the first shack burned emerges a wild girl, Kate Arden, who sets the forest afire in revenge.

King Spruce

1920

Speed Mad poster
7.0

Bill Sanford (William Fairbanks), a daredevil race-car driver, is abducted by his main competitor Alan Lawson (Lloyd Whitlock) and his henchmen, on the eve of a race he hopes will win him $5,000. But he escapes his captors and arrives ate the race track just in time to drive his speedster to victory. With the prize money, he saves the father, Charles Hampton (Charles K. French) of his sweetheart Betty Hampton (Edith Roberts) from losing the family.

Speed Mad

1925

The Iron Heart poster
8.0

Upon her father's death, Esther Regan promises to carry out his wishes that she protect his workers and manage the Regan Steel Mills as well as he. The Associated Trust has been trying to gain control of the Regan plant, but has always met with resistance from Regan. Now that he is dead, they see their opportunity for a coup and send Darwin McAllister to accomplish the deed.

The Iron Heart

1920

Miss Nobody poster
5.5

A raft carrying a little girl and a dead woman drifts in from a shipwreck to Devil's Island. There, a band of thieves and smugglers name the girl Rose Marie, though she grows up as "nobody's girl."

Miss Nobody

1920

The Patent Leather Pug poster
8.0

The morning after his engagement party, wealthy young New York playboy Billy Hepburn awakens, battered and bruised, but without any memory of what happened the night before. Billy's valet then informs him that he and prize fighter Battling Burke had gotten into a brawl over Billy's fiancée, and Burke won. Determined to regain his honor, Billy goes into training, with his valet's help.

The Patent Leather Pug

1925

The Love Pirate poster
9.0

Steve Carnan, secret owner of a notorious café, while attempting to seduce budding musician Ruth Revere, is shot and killed in a struggle with Ruth's sweetheart, Chief Deputy Hugh Waring. An unexpected confession from Ruth's father, whom Carnan had double-crossed, saves Waring.

The Love Pirate

1923

Outside the Law poster
6.2

Silent Madden and his daughter Molly have left the criminal underworld of San Francisco thanks to the wise teachings of Chang Low, a Confucian master. But the evil Black Mike Sylva is determined to frame Madden to avenge a mistake from the past…

Outside the Law

1921

No artwork available
NR

An Indian girl is in love with French trapper Pierre, but he is interested in a French orphan, Marie.

The Old Code

1928

Bond of Fear poster
NR

When stern Judge McClure gets into an argument with his younger brother John, a physical fight ensues in which the judge apparently kills John. In fear of the consequences, he runs off to the West and hires guide Cal Nelson to take him far into the desert. Along the way they meet Mary Jackson, and the judge, overcome by heat prostration, babbles out his secret.

Bond of Fear

1917

No artwork available
8.0

Society girl Eva Ricardo is sent to a seaside New England village to live with her maiden aunt by her father after he loses all his money in speculation. There she falls in love..

Eve in Exile

1919

The Boomerang poster
NR

Millionaire meat packer Peter Cameron, greedy for more money and power, maneuvers an alliance between his daughter Rose and George Gray, the son of Cameron's business rival Max Gray, in order to increase his control of the food industry. George, a lawyer, opposes the trust, and as a result is professionally ruined by Cameron, disinherited by his father, and jilted by his fiancée. Out on his own, George gets a job at a mill and starts at the bottom. When an epidemic breaks out among his fellow laborers due to their eating spoiled meat from the trust, George secures evidence of criminal practices which ultimately brings about the conviction of Cameron and the trust. In championing the rights of the downtrodden, George wins back Rose and reforms Cameron.

The Boomerang

1919

The Vamp poster
NR

Nancy, a naive young girl who works backstage at a musical-comedy theatre, learns from the chorus girls the notion of winning a man by the seductive method of "vamping" him. She tries the method on the shy minister she loves, and it works.

The Vamp

1918

No artwork available
NR

Allaine Grandet lives with her father in the barren land of the north, where women are nothing more than mere chattels. She is sold by her father to Jules Latour, a brutal and primitive trapper, who subsequently gambles her away to James Dermot, the keeper of a den in the gold settlement. She is here befriended by a besotted pianist, who has seen better days, but whose manhood revives in Allaine's environment.

Tyrant Fear

1918

Forsaking All Others poster
7.0

Jealous of her son Oliver's interest in Penelope Mason, Mrs. Newell takes him to a resort where he is easy prey for designing Enid Morton. After some near-disastrous situations with Enid's suspicious husband, Penelope comes to Oliver's rescue at Mrs. Newell's request.

Forsaking All Others

1922

The Keys of the Righteous poster
7.0

Mary Manning lives in the Wisconsin woods with her stern old grandfather, an uncle, and her mother who, for eighteen years has daily looked for the return of her husband. Into the drab life comes Tom Gale, who gives the girl her first taste of pleasure.

The Keys of the Righteous

1918

The Biggest Show on Earth poster
NR

Raised in a circus company, a young girl finds herself unhappily out of place at an upper class finishing school. She struggles to fit in with the young ladies of society, but it is her handiness with dangerous animals that finally breaks her through.

The Biggest Show on Earth

1918

The Golden Snare poster
7.0

Sgt. Philip Raine of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police is sent to the mountains to capture killer Bram Johnson.

The Golden Snare

1921

No artwork available
10.0

After Rex leaves his father to follow his dream of being a professional boxer, he becomes the trainer at a women's gym owned by his girlfriend.

The Winning Wallop

1926

The Infidel poster
8.0

Lola Daintry (MacDonald) is an actress who's mad at the world, and especially ministers, one of whom -- her father -- was so cruel that he drove her mother out of the house. When Bully Haynes (Melbourne MacDonald) wants her help in showing up a group of South Seas missionaries, she's more than happy to assist. But Lola doesn't realize she's being used so that Haynes can gain control over the copra trade from his rival, Cyrus Flint (Robert Ellis).

The Infidel

1922

The Lamb and the Lion poster
9.0

A girl known as "Boots," who keeps house for a band of crooks led by her kind guardian, Uncle Ben, called "The Lion," demands that she be allowed to accompany them on a burglary. Dressed in boy's clothes, Boots is caught by Mrs. Kathryn Sylvester, a rich society widow, who, upon learning that Boots is a girl, resolves to avenge herself on James Graham, who refused to marry her stating that he wanted no stain on his lineage.

The Lamb and the Lion

1919

He Raised Kane poster
NR

Kane, who does not want his father to know he is a fighter, thinking he objects, nearly loses the fight when he sees him at the ringside. In the end, it is the words of encouragement from his father which causes him to win. It develops that the "Kid's" father has known it all the time and has been getting reports on his son's prowess in the ring. Eighth episode in the first 'Leather Pushers' series of two-reel boxing shorts.

He Raised Kane

1922

What Happened to Jones? poster
6.6

On the night before his wedding, a young man plays poker with friends. When the game is raided by the police, he escapes into a Turkish bath on ladies night, ending up disguised in drag and with difficult explanations to make.

What Happened to Jones?

1926

Go West, Young Man poster
NR

Wealthy Easterner Dick Latham, determined to disprove his father Amos' accusation that he is an idler, rides the rails West to the mining town of Twin Bridges. Hugh Godson, the town's corrupt political boss, appoints Dick sheriff, supposing him an easily manipulated tenderfoot. To Godson's dismay, Dick proceeds to clean up Twin Bridges, closing the saloons and gambling dens, and forcing even the most hardened miners to attend church.

Go West, Young Man

1918

The Gift Supreme poster
7.0

Bradford Vinton falls in love with a girl singer from the slums, but his father makes plans to break the relationship; when the plans fail, he disinherits his son.

The Gift Supreme

1920