Lou Tellegen, born Isidor Van Dameler, was a stunningly handsome individual with a life that was marked by turbulence. As a youth, he embarked on a journey across Europe, taking on various occupations such as prizefighting, driving a cab in Brussels, and even joining a Berlin circus as a trapeze artist. His wandering nature led him to spend time in a Russian prison after being caught selling birth-control pamphlets, a stint that lasted for an entire month.
After roaming through the Brazilian jungles and working as a stoker on a French freighter, Tellegen found himself entangled in a romantic scrape that landed him in prison once again, this time in Paris. He managed to send a telegram to his friend, actor Édouard de Max, who secured his release from prison and introduced him to the renowned actress Sarah Bernhardt. She subsequently hired him as her leading man and he accompanied her on tour.
Tellegen went on to star as Lord Essex opposite Bernhardt in the 1912 production of Les amours de la reine Élisabeth. He then enjoyed a brief career as a matinee hero in silent films and married opera star Geraldine Farrar. The couple divorced in 1919, and Tellegen penned his autobiography "Women Have Been Kind" in 1931, a title that Vanity Fair later suggested should have been "Women Have Been Kind of Dumb".
Unfortunately, Tellegen's life took a tragic turn as he struggled with illness and debt. In 1934, he took his own life by stabbing himself with a pair of scissors at the Cudahy mansion near Hollywood & Vine.
