House Peters, Sr.

House Peters, Sr.
Born	Robert House Peters 12 March 1880 Bristol, Gloucestershire, England
Died	7 December 1967 (aged 87) Woodland Hills, California, USA
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1900s-1950s
Spouse(s)	Mae King (m. 1914)

Robert House Peters, Sr. (12 March 1880 – 7 December 1967) was a British-born American silent film actor, known to filmgoers of the era as "The Star of a Thousand Emotions."

Biography

Born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, Peters began his career on a high note, playing the handsome leading man in In the Bishop's Carriage (1913), co-starring Mary Pickford. While The Bishop's Carriage was filmed in an East Coast studio, Peters was in Los Angeles by 1914, becoming one of the first screen stars to permanently settle there. Although he stated publicly that he preferred playing villains, Peters, curly haired and pleasantly dimpled, was from the outset typecast as the romantic hero.

Peters lifts Beatriz Michelena onto his horse in 1914's Salomy Jane

After enjoying his greatest success as the good-bad hero of The Girl of the Golden West (1915), Peters found his career at the peak of the early 1920s. He signed with Universal Studios for six films in 1924, hoping for a comeback. The results, however, were mostly mediocre and he was soon demoted to supporting roles. Retired after 1928's Rose Marie, Peters returned for a guest appearance in The Old West, a 1952 Gene Autry film that also featured his son, House Peters, Jr., who subsequently enjoyed a lengthy film career portraying villains as well as Procter and Gamble's Mr. Clean character in cleaning product commercials from the late 1950s into the '60s.

Personal life

Peters was married to actress Mae King in 1914 with whom he had three children, Gregg, Patricia and Robert, Jr. (1916–2008). Peters died at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

Selected filmography

• In the Bishop's Carriage (1913)
• Salomy Jane (1914)
• The Captive (1915)
• The Unafraid (1915)
• The Warrens of Virginia (1915)
• The Girl of the Golden West (1915)
• The Great Divide (1915)
• The Velvet Paw (1916)
• Silk Husbands and Calico Wives (1920)
• The Leopard Woman (1920)
• The Man from Lost River (1921)
• Held to Answer (1923)
• Raffles (1925)
• Counsel for the Defense (1925)
• Rose-Marie (1928)

External links

• House Peters, Sr. at the Internet Movie Database