William Desmond

William Desmond

Nacimiento : 1878-01-23, Horseheads, New York, USA

Muerte : 1949-11-03

Historia

Starting out in dramatic parts, Desmond soon switched to westerns and action serials, and became a major western star. When the sound era began Desmond was almost 50 years old, and was soon relegated to supporting roles.

Perfil

William Desmond

Películas

Savage Fury
Allen (archive footage)
Separately released feature version of the 1935 Serial, Call of the Savage.
El huevo y yo
Spectator at Country Dance (Uncredited)
Basada en la vida real de Betty MacDonald, que es encarnada por Colbert. Una mujer de ciudad accede a ayudar a su marido (MacMurray) a cumplir su sueño de tener un granja y, para ello, procurará adaptarse a las inevitables dificultades de la vida en el campo.
Code of the West
Settler (uncredited)
Knowing the railroad is coming, Carter is after the rancher's land. Bob and Chito return just in time to save Banker Stockton and his money from Carter's men. When Stockton then lends the ranchers money, Carter has them burned out. Bob knows Carter is responsible and when Carter's henchman Saunders is recognized, Bob goes into action.
Strange Confession
Peanut Vendor (uncredited)
A scientist who is working on a cure for influenza is victimized by his unscrupulous boss, who releases the vaccine before it's ready, resulting in the death of the scientist's son.
Tramposos entrampados
Showboat Customer (uncredited)
En la década de 1890, el capitán Sam lleva su barco-teatro River Queen a lo largo del río Mississippi, llevando su espectáculo de entretenimiento a cada pueblo. Durante una de esas escalas, en la ciudad de Ironville, se encuentra con tres granujas, Crawford, Bonita y Bailey, que se esconden de la policía local. Dexter Broadhurst y su jefe Sebastian Dinwiddle, se unen a ellos para jugar una partida de cartas. Después de beber hasta embriagarse, y a resultas de una partida amañada, el capitán pierde su barco. Los nuevos dueños usan su poder para convertir el Showboat en un casino flotante. Pero Dexter y Sebastian ayudarán al capitán a recuperar la propiedad de su buque y expulsar a los delincuentes...
El Climax
Backstage Technician (Uncredited)
El Dr. Hohner (Karloff), médico del teatro en el Teatro Real de Viena, asesina a su amante, la estrella soprano cuando sus celos lo llevan al punto de la loca obsesión. Diez años más tarde, otro joven cantante (Foster) le recuerda a Hohner a la difunta diva, y su vieja manía comienza. Hohner quiere evitar que cante para alguien que no sea él, incluso si eso significa silenciarla para siempre. La novia de la cantante (Bey) se apresura a salvarla en el clímax de la película.
The Lone Star Trail
Bartender Mike
Rancher Blaze Barker returns to Dead Falls after being framed by land-grabbers and spending two years in jail. Paroled, he can't wear a gun, but is aided by Marshal Fargo Steele. The gang is out to gain control of all of the valley land before a dam is constructed. When Blaze raises the money to pay off the taxes on his ranch, he finds it has been marked to incriminate him.
Cheyenne Roundup
Pete
Johnny Mack Brown's Universal western series was drawing to a close when Cheyenne Roundup was released in mid-1943. Brown is herein cast in a dual role, as honest Gils Brandon and his less-than-honest brother Buck. Pursued by lawman Steve Rawlins (Tex Ritter), Buck tries to pass himself off as the upright Gils.
Overland Mail
Williams - Banker
Two investigators for a stagecoach company are assigned to find out why the company's stages keep being ambushed. They discover that the culprits are white men disguised as Indians, and they set out to discover who is behind the plot.
Bala de plata
Townsman
Un vaquero se dirige al pueblo donde asesinaron a su padre para averiguar quién fue el responsable.
Down Rio Grande Way
Townsman
Slightly more elaborate than most Charles Starrett westerns, Down Rio Grande Way is set in the mid-19th century, when the Republic of Texas was poised to join the Union. Starrett plays Texas Ranger Steve Martin (!), who is dispatched to a "renegade" Texas country that refuses to become part of the good old USA. He discovers that the crux of the problem is a local tax collector (Norman Willis) who, with the help of a crooked newspaper editor (Davision Clark), is systematically robbing the citizens of their hard-earned cash, all the while fomenting anti-American sentiments. Britt Wood takes over from Cliff Edwards as Starrett's comical sidekick, while band singer Rose Ann Stevens makes an impressive acting debut as the heroine.
Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
Bartender
A young mining engineer sets out to catch the killers of both his brother and a beautiful young girl's father.
Where Did You Get That Girl?
Tourist
In this musical comedy, a motley band of musicians have only their extreme poverty in common. They end up writing a hit and getting a recording contract. The trouble is, the composer's works are never played without another band member doctoring them up to make them swingier. Fortunately, the composer isn't too averse to the changes as he has just won the heart of the beauty who sings his revamped songs. Songs include: "Where Did You Get That Girl?" (Harry Puck, Bert Kalmar, sung by Helen Parrish), "Sergeant Swing," "Rug-Cuttin' Romeo" (Milton Rosen, Everett Carter).
Winners of the West
Bill Brine
Beyond Hell's Gate Pass is territory controlled by a man who calls himself King Carter; he uses a variety of schemes to prevent the railroad from being built, for fear it will finish his control of (what he considers) his land.
Tim Tyler's Luck
Dock Official
A 12-episode serial in which Tim Tyler goes to Africa in search of his father in gorilla country. He meets up with Laura, who is after Spider Webb who has framed her brother. Webb causes the death of Tim's father, but is eventually tracked down.
Song of the Gringo
Bailiff
In his film debut Ritter is sent to investigate miners being killed and their mines confiscated. The culprit is Evans and after Tex joins the gang, he is sent to kill two more miners. When Estaban is killed, Tex is put on trial for all three murders.
The Vigilantes Are Coming
Anderson, Vigilante Member
A masked hero called "The Eagle" leads California ranchers in a struggle against Russian Cossacks who are plotting to take over California and turn it into a Russian colony.
Hollywood Boulevard
Pago Pago Patron (uncredited)
With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.
Treachery Rides the Range
Bill
The Indians need the Buffalo to survive and the Government has promised to keep the herds free from hunters. But Carter, of Carter and Barton, just signed a big contract for furs and Buffalo meat so they want the herds. The only way they can get them is to rile the Indians up enough to go on the warpath and break the treaty. After the trouble starts, the Indians get the Colonel's daughter and hold her prisoner. Written by Tony Fontana
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
Captain of the 'Viking'
A 12-episode serial in which scholastic sports star Frank Merriwell leaves school to search for his missing father. His adventures involve a mysterious inscription on a ring, buried treasure, kidnaping and Indian raids. He saves his father and returns to school just in time to win a decisive baseball game with his remarkable pitching and hitting.
The Broken Coin
A police chief and two security agencies work to find out who is behind a recent rash of hijackings.
Custer's Last Stand
Wagon Master
Kit Cardigan seeks the killer of his father...among other plot threads leading up to the famous historical incident.
Headin' for the Rio Grande
Mr. Mack (cattle buyer)
Western - Singing cowboy Tex Saunders (Tex Ritter) finds himself in a heap of trouble when he agrees to investigate local gangsters at the behest of a lovely lady (Eleanor Stewart). As payment for his pains, he's framed by a saloon owner (Warner Richmond) for killing bad guy Red Dugan (James Mason) and forced to sweat it out in jail. Will his faithful sidekick, Chilo (Syd Saylor), show up to save his skin … or will Tex have a date with the gallows? - Tex Ritter, Warner Richmond, Eleanor Stewart
Frisco Kid
Vigilante Hangman (uncredited)
En plena fiebre del oro en San Francisco, un hombre llamado Bat Morgan acaba con la vida de un criminal que atemorizaba a toda la región. Gracias a su acción comienza a ganar importantes cuotas de poder dentro, aunque lo que verdaderamente le interesa es el amor por la joven Jean.
Tailspin Tommy in The Great Air Mystery
Foreman Burke
A 12-episode serial in which Tailspin Tommy evades volcanoes, anti-aircraft shells, and time bombs as he foils a plan by corrupt profiteers to steal an island's oil reserves.
Powdersmoke Range
Happy - Bartender
Three cowboys buy a ranch but have to fight off gunmen to keep it.
The Roaring West
Jim Parker
A 15-episode serial involving the land rush, gold mines, stolen maps, etc.
Social Error
Policeman
A wild college student gets in fights, steals cars, is caught by the police and finally expelled from college. Later on, though, he comes to the aid of a kidnapped heiress.
The Ghost Rider
Guard
Jim Bullard escapes from prison and returns to settle matters with the Rascob's that framed him. He kills two of them leaving an ace as his calling card. Bull remembers the deck of cards that fell when he fought Dave had no aces and the Rascob's set out after him. Trapped in a cabin, Dave receives unexpected help from Bullard.
Cyclone of the Saddle
Wagon Master
Sent by the Army, Andy Thomas poses as a renegade to find out who has been harassing the wagon trains.
Marietta, la traviesa
Gendarme Chief (uncredited)
Marie de Namours de la Bonfain es una atractiva, joven y sofisticada princesa francesa de 23 años, que encuentra más interesante el amor que los títulos aristocráticos.
Rustlers of Red Dog
Ira Dale [Chs. 1-4, 6, 10-12]
A movie serial in 12 chapters: After gold is discovered in the town of Nugget, the titular band of thieves and cutthroats inundates the frontier settlement. A group of three compatriots -- upstanding ex-sheriff Jack Woods, his harmonica-playing friend Laramie and tricky, smooth-talking gambler Deacon -- combine their respective skills in a fateful struggle to deceive and disarm the gang.
When Lightning Strikes
Marshal Jack Stevens
Lightning the German Shepherd dog stars in this wilderness melodrama.
The Way of the West
'Cash' Horton (as Wm. Desmond)
Government agent Gordon, working undercover, is investigating a cattleman sheepman war. The Culprit is Horton and when Horton kills Parker he frames Gordon. His identity revealed, the Sheriff lets Gordon escape to go after the real killer.
The Red Rider
Sheriff Campbell
"Red" Davison(Buck Jones), the sheriff of Sun Dog, sacrifices his job and his good name to save his best friend, "Silent" Slade from the hangman's noose, following a framed-up court decision which sentences Slade to hang for the murder of "Scotty McKee (J.P. McGowan). Davidson allows Slade to escape from jail and follows him to aid him in proving his innocence.
The Vanishing Shadow
MacDonald
A 12-episode serial in which a son avenges the death of his father at the hands of corrupt politicians. He develops a wide variety of complex devices in his crusade . . . ray guns, robots and a 'vanishing belt.'
Border Guns
Dr. Jim Wilson
A cowboy drifting around the border gets mixed up with Mexican revolutionary gun smuggling when he becomes friends and rivals with the chief smuggler.
Pirate Treasure
Capt. Jim Carson
An accomplished aviator sets out to locate treasure hidden by one of his ancestors. He encounters interference from various adversaries.
El potro indomable
Colonel Brownlee
Las yeguas que Jim Edwards está perdiendo se atribuyen a un caballo salvaje cuando en realidad es su capataz Hawkins. El coronel Bownlee ofrece su rancho a cualquiera que pueda montar este palomino salvaje. Ken acepta el desafío y también busca al verdadero ladrón.
Mr. Broadway
1st Suitor (archive footage)
Ed Sullivan shows night spots all over New York in this movie, joking and listening to stories the patrons tell.
Gordon of Ghost City
John Mulford
A cowboy is hired to track down a gang of rustlers, but gets involved with a beautiful girl trying to run her grandfather's gold mine and other outlaws who are trying to stop her.
Laughing at Life
Military Cabinet Officer
Easter, a soldier of fortune and gunrunner, leaves his family behind escaping from the authorities and an American detective named Mason. His globe hopping escape leads him finally to South America, where he is hired to organize a band of revolutionaries, unaware that they plan to eliminate him when his job is done. Here, also, he encounters his own son, on track to waste his own life in pursuits similar to Easter's.
The Phantom of the Air
Thomas Edmonds
An adventure serial presented in 12 chapters. Inventor Thomas Edmunds uses a super plane, 'The Phantom,' to protect his new anti-gravity invention, the Contragrav, from theft.
The Rustler's Roundup
San Dimas Sheriff Holden
Winters is after the Brand ranch, and his man Brett who is foreman there is rustling the Brand stock. But Tom is on to their game and breaks up their attempt to buy the ranch. When they plan to rustle their horses, Tom must not only rescue Danny Brand, who is their prisoner, but stop the rustlers.
A Scarlet Week-End
A woman's cheating husband is murdered at their country estate, and suspicion immediately falls on her.
The Last Frontier
General Custer
A frontier newspaper editor Kirby battles outlaw Tiger Morris who is causing indian uprisings to drive away settlers so that he will can claim a gold deposit as his own. With the help of General Custer, right wins out. Presented in serial form in 12 episodes.
The Lightning Warrior
Townsman (uncredited)
A Rin-Tin-Tin serial presented in 12 episodes. The mysterious Wolf Man is terrorizing settlers in a western town. With the help of Rinty, young Jimmy Carter unmasks the Wolf Man and foils his evil plot.
Battling with Buffalo Bill
John Mills
A western adventure serial in 12 episodes. Buffalo Bill battles gambler Jim Rodney who is trying to scare off the townspeople so he can gain possession of a gold strike discovered in the area. A nearby Indian tribe is provoked to attack the town and the cavalry is called in.
The Vanishing Legion
Milesburg Sheriff
A mysterious master criminal known as The Voice plots with his gang to sabotage the Milesburg Oil Company, but the rightful heir has a secret army of her own to protect her rights.
The Phantom of the West
Martin Blair
A young man's father is murdered and the man convicted of the crime escapes prison, leaving a note intimating that seven local men know the real killer's true identity. The murdered man's son sets out to locate the seven men and find his father's slayer.
No Defense
John Harper
No Defense is a 1929 romantic drama directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Monte Blue. It was a silent film with part talking and sound-effects by the Vitaphone Company. It was distributed by Warner Brothers.
No Children
Self
Parents pretend they are in show business and their kids are ventriloquist dummies.
The Mystery Rider
Winthrop Lane / The Mystery Rider
Silent cowboy Western serial.
The Strings of Steel
Ned Brown
The Strings of Steel is a silent Action serial.
The Meddler
Richard Gilmore
Richard Gilmore, a staid Wall Street broker, is jilted by Dot Parkhurst when he fails to provide her with the romance and adventure that she wants out of life. Richard then goes west in an effort to prove himself a man and becomes a highwayman known as "The Meddler," robbing people only to return to them all that he stole, keeping only a valueless memento for himself.
The Burning Trail
Smiling Bill Flannigan
A professional boxer known as "Smiling Bill Flannigan" accidentally kills an opponent in the ring. He gives up the sport and heads west. He gets a job on a ranch as a cook, and before he knows it he finds himself involved in a war between ranchers and sheepherders.
Straight Through
Good Deed O'Day
O'Day, the terror of Red Gulch, wins the entire stake of a gambler named Granger in a poker game but gives it all to Denver Nell, a dancehall girl, when she tells him her sad story. O'Day later discovers that she has returned the money to Granger, and he decides to reform. He goes to another town, where (now known as Good Deed O'Day) he meets an old friend, a wealthy rancher with whose sister, Mary, he is in love. Snowden takes a trip to Denver and returns with Nell, whom he has married.
Barriers of the Law
Rex Brandon
When a woman who belongs to a bootlegging gang asks the gang for help when her father is arrested, they refuse. She quits the gang, but the gang's leader locks her up in a brothel. She escapes and hides in the apartment of a man who turns out to be the chief of the government agents pursuing her gang. Complications ensue.
Ridin' Pretty
Sky Parker
A red-blooded romance of a millionaire cowboy and a city girl with stirring chase after a racing express that'll hold you spellbound.
Outwitted
Jack Blaisdel
After being captured by T-Man Jack Blaisdell and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor on a counterfeiting rap, Tiger McGuire is sprung from jail by his old gang. Vowing to get even with Jack, Tiger kidnaps the young man's fiancée, Helen (Holmes), bringing the girl to his hideout, a fancy yacht owned by Lucy Carlisle.
The Sunset Trail
Happy Hobo
On a passenger train passing through the desert, Louise offers to pay the fares of Happy Hobo and Collie. The boy Collie accepts, but Happy continues on foot and finds on a dying man a map to a gold mine and a photograph of his daughter, who is none other than Louise.
Hello, 'Frisco
William Desmond
A comedy short directed by character Slim Summerville.
McGuire of the Mounted
Bob McGuire
A film about a man named McGuire of the Royal Mounted Police.
Night Life in Hollywood
Self
A picture depicting the engrossing adventures of a small town youth in Hollywood and showing the intimate home life of some of the screen's greatest stars.
Perils of the Yukon
Jack Merrill Sr. / Jack Merrill Jr.
A silent serial with the following chapter titles: 1. Fangs of Jealous; 2. Doomed; 3. Tricked by Fate; 4. Master and Man; 5. Terrors of the North; 6. Menace of Death; 7. Trapped by Fire; 8. Hurled into Space; 9. The Gold Rush; 10. Valley of Death; 11. A Race for Life; 12. The Path of Doom; 13. Martial Law; 14. Trail of Vengeance; 15. The Final Reckoning.
Fightin' Mad
Bud McGraw
Returning to his father's cattle ranch after the excitement of serving in combat overseas, Bud McGraw becomes restless, and his father decides to send him to an old friend who commands the Border Police in Texas. On the way he meets Peggy Hughes, accompanying her Uncle Graham, a customs inspector, and he retrieves her hat from the rails of a train. At the headquarters, numerous scrapes and fights win him the admiration of, and friendship with, the men. Lazaro, a Secret Service agent, invites Mrs. Graham and Peggy, who are staying at the border station, for an automobile ride, and they are captured by bandits and held for ransom. Bud and his pals deliver the ransom and discover that Lazaro is the bandit chief. Lazaro refuses to release Peggy, but a jealous rival, Nita de Garma, causes his downfall and shoots him as the Border Police arrive to rescue the party.
The Child Thou Gavest Me
Tom Marshall
Un marido cree haber matado al vil seductor de su joven mujer, quien le confiesa haber tenido con él un hijo ilegítimo. De hecho no solo hay un error en la persona, sino que resulta que el padre del niño es el propio marido: durante la guerra había violado a su futura mujer en Bélgica
The Prince and Betty
John Maude
Young American John Maude is forced to find a job when he falls in love with society girl Betty Keith. He accepts a sudden offer to go to Mervo, a tiny island country, where he is hired by Benjamin Scobell to pose as the lost prince of Mervo as an attraction to bolster the Mervo casino as a rival of Monte Carlo. Scobell also wants John to marry his stepdaughter, who turns out to be Betty. When Betty accuses John of being simply a shill for a gambling house, John closes the casino and tries to stage a revolution to make Mervo a republic.
A Sage Brush Hamlet
Larry Lang
Larry Lang is out to get desperado Claude Dutton (Ed Piel), the man who killed his father, which is why he is known as a sagebrush Hamlet.
Society for Sale
Honorable Billy
Successful model, Phyllis Clyne, convinces a down-and-out nobleman, Billy, to pass her off in society as titled gentry. They fall in love and when it turns out that her late father actually was a lord, they decide they now can marry.
Captain of His Soul
Paws of the Bear
Ray Bourke
In Belgium, at the outbreak of the war, Russian agent Olga Raminoff shoots at a German general when the enemy enters town. Ray Bourke, an American traveler, gives her the protection of his name, but nevertheless both are sentenced to death. They are rescued by an allied rescue plane and later, bound for home, Ray meets an old college friend, Curt Schreiber, who is in the service of the German government. Schreiber has important papers to be delivered to Washington and, knowing that he will be searched on board ship, gives them to Ray. Olga beseeches Ray to give the papers up for her sake, but his word to Schreiber is sacred. Nearing America, Ray tells her that he will make an effort to return the papers if she will marry him.
The Last of the Ingrams
Jules Ingram
Jules Ingram ( William Desmond ), the sole survivor of an old Puritan family, seeks solace and forgetfulness in drink. Unable to pay his debts, Jules is driven from his house when banker Rufus Moore ( Robert McKim ) forecloses on the mortgage. Offered shelter by Mercy Reed ( Margery Wilson ), a woman who in her youth naively sinned and has remained rejected by the community ever since, Jules begins to reform. Climbing his way back to respectability, Jules attends church with Mercy, causing a storm of protest. Moore's wife Agnes urges the mob to violence, and as they attempt to tar and feather Jules and Mercy, Mercy delivers an eloquent speech condemning Moore as her betrayer. The mob then takes Moore as their victim, leaving Jules and Mercy in peace.
The Iced Bullet
The Author / Horace Lee
A "scientific detective" story about the attempted murder of a wealthy New Yorker in his mountain lodge is framed with a satire of Hollywood as the writer of the story comically tries to get the script read and accepted by a studio.
A Gamble in Souls
The Dawn Maker
Bruce Smithson
Half-breed Joe Elk wavers between the "civilized" nature of his white father and the passion of his Indian mother. He falls in love with Alice McRae, but Alice is in love with Bruce Smithson, who is an officer at the Hudson Bay Trading Company.
Peggy
Rev. Donald Bruce
The heroine, Peggy Cameron, is a high-society debutante with a mind of her own. After making a public spectacle of herself once too often, Peggy is bundled off to Scotland, where she is to be looked after by her no-nonsense uncle Andrew Cameron (William H. Thompson). If Peggy's family had hoped that she would straighten up and behave herself in Scotland, they were sorely mistaken. Restored in 2018 by the Academy Film Archive with restoration funding provided by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.
Peer Gynt
The Parson
A fantasy from Ibsen's verse drama. Ne'er-do-well and braggart Peer Gynt has many adventures in varied countries, making and losing money, gaining fortune at others' expense, until he finds salvation in the love of Solveig.
The Majesty of the Law
The story of a Virginia judge who sternly hands down severe sentences while in court only to later help the families of those he condemns
Kilmeny
Bob Meredith
Little Doris Calhoun, of a wealthy English family, makes a playmate of Pierre, a crippled gypsy boy, and drifts away with him and the gypsy band on their wanderings and is seen no more. In twelve years she becomes a great favorite with the gypsies, who have named her Kilmeny, but rather than be married to a brutal fellow, Barouche, she flees the camp.
Her Code of Honor
Eugene La Salle
A man brings up, on Long Island, the illegitimate daughter of a deceased woman who'd been an art student in love with a married Parisian. Is a French man the daughter, now grown up, attracted to a descendant of that same Parisian as well?