Richard Arlen
Biography
Date of Birth 1 September 1899, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Date of Death 28 March 1976, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (emphysema) Birth Name Sylvanus Richard Van Mattimore Nickname Dick Height 5' 11½" (1.82 m) Mini Biography During World War I, Richard Arlen served in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps as a pilot, but he never saw combat. After the war he drifted round and eventually wound up in Los Angeles, where he got a job as a motorcycle messenger at a film laboratory. When he crashed into the gates of Paramount Pictures and suffered a broken leg, the studio provided prompt medical attention. Impressed by his good looks, executives also gave him a contract after he had recovered. Starting as an extra in 1925, Arlen soon rose to credited roles, but the quality of his work left much to be desired. However, this was the silent era, which was more about looks than substance, and he continued on. His big break came when William A. Wellman cast him as a pilot in the silent film Wings (1927) with Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Clara Bow. The story of fighter aces would win the Oscar for Best Picture and Arlen would continue to play the tough, cynical hero throughout his career. Arlen appeared in three more pictures directed by Wellman, Beggars of Life (1928), Ladies of the Mob (1928) and The Man I Love (1929). In "Wings" he had a scene with a young actor named Gary Cooper. In 1929, he again worked with Cooper in the western The Virginian (1929), only this time Cooper was the star and Arlen was the supporting actor. While Arlen moved easily into sound, his career just bumped along. By 1935 he was working in such "B" pictures as Three Live Ghosts (1936). It was in 1935 that he became a freelance actor and his freelance career soon waned. In 1939, he signed with Universal and began working in its action films. In 1941 he moved to the Pine-Thomas unit at Paramount, where he appeared in adventure films. With the war on, most of his earlier films included war scenarios. By the end of the 1940s Arlen was becoming deaf and this seemed to signal the end of his career. However, he had an operation in 1949 that restored his hearing and he went on making a handful of adventures and westerns through the 1950s and working more in the 1960s. He made 15 westerns for producer A.C. Lyles, who worked with the old western stars.
Island of Lost Souls
Edward Parker
Alice in Wonderland (1933)
Cheshire Cat
Minesweeper
Richard Houston - posing as Jim 'Tennessee' Smith
Aerial Gunner
Sgt / Lt. Jonathan 'Jon' Davis
Identity Unknown
Johnny March
Beggars of Life
The Boy - Jim
Three-Cornered Moon
Dr. Alan Stevens
Die silberne Stadt
Charles Storrs
Thunderbolt
Bob Moran
Tiger Shark
Pipes Boley
Universal Horror
(archive footage)
The Celluloid Closet
David Armstrong (archive footage) (uncredited)
(archive footage)
Joey and the Dolphin
Mr. Monahan
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood
Silent Film Star 2
Portrait eines Produzenten - David O. Selznick in Hollywood
Actor 'Four Feathers' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Anzio
Capt. Gannon (uncredited)
Fort Utah
Sam Tyler
Hostile Guns
Sheriff Travis
Red Tomahawk
Telegrapher
Road to Nashville
Studio Boss
Apache Uprising
Captain Gannon
Bounty Killer
Matthew Ridgeway
Town Tamer
Doctor Kent
Black Spurs
Pete Muchin
FBI jagt Phantom
Lt. Shaw - National Intelligence
Sex and the College Girl
Charles Devon
Law of the Lawless
Ben -- Bartender
The Best Man
Sen. Oscar Anderson
The Crawling Hand
Lee Barrenger
The Last Time I Saw Archie
Col. Edwin Martin
Warlock (59)
Bacon
The Mountain
C. W. Rivial
Hurricane Smith
Brundage
Die roten Teufel von Arizona
Showdown Calhoun
Die silberne Stadt
Charles Storrs
Kansas Raiders
Union Captain
The Return of Wildfire
Dobe Williams
Speed To Spare
Cliff Jordan
Simon Lash
The Phantom Speaks
Matt Fraser
Identity Unknown
Johnny March
Storm Over Lisbon
John Craig
The Lady and the Monster
Dr. Patrick Cory
Timber Queen
Russell Evans
Minesweeper
Richard Houston - posing as Jim 'Tennessee' Smith
Submarine Alert
Lewis J. 'Lee' Deerhold
Woody Ormsby
Aerial Gunner
Sgt / Lt. Jonathan 'Jon' Davis
Wrecking Crew
Matt Carney
Forced Landing
Dan Kendall
"Lucky" Larry Taylor
Clark Manning
Murder in Greenwich Village
Steve Havens Jackson Jr.
Artists and Models
Alan Townsend
False Faces
Mal Stevens
Julian Barrow
Alice in Wonderland (1933)
Cheshire Cat
Walt Martin
Three-Cornered Moon
Dr. Alan Stevens
How to Break 90 #4: Downswing
Self - Dick Arlen (uncredited)
College Humor
Mondrake
Island of Lost Souls
Edward Parker
Tiger Shark
Pipes Boley
Guilty as Hell
Frank C. Marsh
Wayward
David Frost
Tom Blake
The House That Shadows Built
Self
Brad Farley
Larry Payne
The Sea God
Phillip 'Pink' Barker
Paramount on Parade
Hunter - Episode 'Dream Girl'
Two Against Death
Heyst
Lou Larrigan
Steven 'Steve'
Thunderbolt
Bob Moran
Fred Tilden
Beggars of Life
The Boy - Jim
Feel My Pulse
Her Problem
Wings
David Armstrong
The Blood Ship
John Shreve
You'd Be Surprised
Photographer (uncredited)
'Tubby' Clark
Behind The Front
Percy Brown
The Fighting Coward
Minor Role (uncredited)
Flying Blind
Jim Clark
