Got his first job in an iron foundry, then worked as a barker in an amusement park. Acted and danced in vaudeville and early
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. shows in New York before joining
D.W. Griffith at Biograph. Became a noted star of the silent screen, acting opposite the likes of
Mary Pickford and
Norma Talmadge and
Constance Talmadge. At the height of his popularity he made $1,000 a week. By the time he was financially destroyed by the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he had accumulated an estimated fortune of $1 million, much of it in California real estate.