Thomas "Tommy" Meighan, a once renowned silent screen star and older matinee idol for Paramount Studios, is now largely forgotten, yet he ruled the Hollywood roost between 1915 and 1928.
Born in Pittsburgh, his father was the president of a major manufacturing company. Meighan initially pursued medicine, but switched to acting during his mid-college years, joining Henrietta Crosman's Pittsburgh stock company as his introduction to professional theater.
During this period, he met and married stage actress Frances Ring, who was the sister of actors Blanche Ring and Cyril Ring, and enjoyed a long and happy married life. Having established himself as a respected name on Broadway after the turn of the century, he decided at the age of 36 to leave the stage to pursue the still-developing medium of movie-making, a wise and prosperous decision.
Meighan made his debut opposite Laura Hope Crews in The Fighting Hope (1915) and became a Paramount favorite of producer/director Cecil B. DeMille's, starring in leading man roles in Kindling (1915),The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1916),Male and Female (1919),Why Change Your Wife? (1920),and Manslaughter (1922).
He lit up the silver screen numerous times, paired up with Hollywood's top echelon of silent female stars, including Lila Lee, Blanche Sweet, Lois Wilson, Pauline Frederick, Billie Burke, Norma Talmadge, Charlotte Walker, and Leatrice Joy.
Meighan's film masterpiece was The Miracle Man (1919),also starring Lon Chaney, in which he played Tom Burke, a notorious con-man, who tries one last scheme, a faith-healing scam, before going clean. Unfortunately, this 8-reel silent classic is now lost, except for a minor portion.
During his prime years, Meighan earned between $5,000 to $10,000 a week. Although his first talking picture, The Argyle Case (1929),was a success, his career declined rapidly with the advent of sound, and he played a few fatherly types in supporting roles towards the end.
His last film was Peck's Bad Boy (1934) starring young Jackie Cooper. At about this time, the actor discovered he had cancer and was forced to withdraw from the screen. He died two years later on July 8, 1936. Meighan and his wife Frances had no children.
