Fred Thomson: Silent Movie Cowboy Star [1890-1928] Page at 'Readers of the Purple Sage'

Silent movie cowboy actor Fred Thomson was billed as
'The World's Greatest Western Star'
and rivaled Tom Mix in popularity,
but Thomson died tragically at the age of 38 just before the Talkies arrived.

"The most effective idealist is one who is nine-tenths entertainer."
— Fred C. Thomson

Frederick Clifton Thomson [not to be confused with silent movie director Frederick A. Thomson] was born in Pasadena, California in February 1890. He was a superb athlete, playing football at Occidental College in Los Angeles and at Princeton Theological Seminary, and setting national records in the All-Around meets. He served as a pastor in Washington, D.C. and in Los Angeles; after marrying his college sweetheart Gail Jepson, he was re-assigned to Goldfield, Nevada. Gail died of tuberculosis in 1916, and Fred enlisted in the Army, becoming a lieutenant.

Fred was assigned as technical advisor for a Mary Pickford war movie, "Johanna Enlists", and Mary made a point of introducing the handsome Fred to her best friend, screenwriter Frances Marion. Romance ensued, but the United States entered the World War and Fred was shipped overseas. Frances was sent to Europe as a government correspondent, and they met several times before and after the Armistice, including Christmas in Paris in 1918.

        Fred and Frances were married in November of 1919 in New York City, with screen star Mary Pickford as maid of honor. Fred & Frances honeymooned in Europe, and were joined later by Mary and her new husband, Douglas Fairbanks. Returning from Europe, they lived in rural New York, and Fred found the horse Silver King, a large (17 hands high) dapple-gray hunter, at a riding stable in New York City.
        Fred decided to become a Western director, to provide an example of the value of 'clean living' for boys across America and around the world. Back in Hollywood, Fred studied the cinema business while he trained Silver King. Per Hollywood tradition, a bit player failed to show for Frances's "Just Around The Corner", which she wrote and was directing, and Fred was asked to step in; he was a smash. Westerns were growing in popularity, and soon Fred was signed to contracts with Harry Joe Brown and then Joseph P. Kennedy.
        Fred was ranked the number two box office star in 1926 & 1927.

        But tragedy struck: Fred apparently scratched his foot on a nail while working at his stables and contracted tetanus, which the doctors mis-diagnosed. He died on Christmas Day of 1928. Pallbearers at Fred's funeral included Harold Lloyd, Charles Farrell, Douglas Fairbanks, and George W. Hill; honorary pallbearers included Buster Keaton, movie mogul Joseph M. Schenk, and Harry Chandler (of the Los Angeles Times).
        Memories of Frances' life with Fred at 'Enchanted Hill', their 160-acre estate in Beverly Hills, made living there without him unbearable, so she sold the property, including the stables and Fred's co-star, the horse Silver King; Silver King had a subsequent career as a movie horse on his own.
        Sadly, only one of Fred's 24 feature films is today available to the public.

American Classic Screen Profiles book edited by John C. Tibbetts & James M. Welsh

"American Classic Screen: Profiles" [2010]
Edited by John C. Tibbetts & James M. Welsh, Preface by Ray Bradbury
Scarecrow Press 8¾x6 pb [9/2010] for $40.00
American Classic Screen Magazine [1976-86] was published by The National Film Society; these exclusive profiles have long been difficult or impossible to access, but are now collected by editors Tibbetts & Welsh; the Profiles include: James Cagney and Mae Clarke; George Cukor and Kate Hepburn; Bette Davis and Claude Rains; Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, George Bancroft, Charles T. Barton, Warner Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, Beulah Bondi, George M. Cohan, Cecil B. DeMille, Charlotte 'Alice' Henry, Orval Hixon, Boris Karloff, Barbara La Marr, Elissa Landi, Joseph H. Lewis, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, child star 'Baby Peggy' Montgomery, Walter Plunkett, Eleanor Powell, Robert Redford, Mickey Rooney, Victor Sj๖str๖m, Kenneth Strickfaden, Fred Thomson, Cornel Wilde, and Natalie Wood

"Just Around The Corner"
[silent filmed in 1920, released Dec 1921]
Scenario & direction by Frances Marion
video/DVD not available • full credits from IMDb

"The Eagle's Talons" 15-episode silent serial [Universal April 1923]

publicity photo of Fred Thomson and horse Silver King

Location filming on the Sierra Railway [est. 1897] in California; plot details not found; Chapter Titles: 1. House of Mystery, 2. Edge of Eternity, 3. Hulk of Horror, 4. Daring Hearts, 5. A Deal In Diplomacy, 6. The Flood of Fury, 7. The Road To Doom, 8. Against Odds, 9. A Fighting Chance, 10. Into The Chasm, 11. The Betrayal, 12. The Sacrifice, 13. Dodging The Conspirators, 14. The Inferno, and 15. The Eagle Foiled
Directed by Duke Worne; co-written by Frances Marion; starring Fred Thomson, Ann Little, Al Wilson, Herbert Fortier, Joseph W. Girard, Edith Stayart, Edward Cecil, Roy Tompkins, Joe Bonomo, Albert J. Smith, George Magrill, Tom Tyler
VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb

Fred's Monogram/F.B.O. Westerns
ง = uncredited script work by FM งง = script by FM as 'Frank M. Clifton'

"The Mask of Lopez" [Jan 1924] ง
"North of Nevada" [Feb 1924] ง
"Galloping Gallagher" [filmed 1923, released March 1924] ง
"The Silent Stranger" [April 1924]
"Dangerous Coward" [May 1924]
"The Fighting Sap" [June 1924]

Fred's Robertson-Cole/F.B.O. Westerns
ง = uncredited script work by FM งง = script by FM as 'Frank M. Clifton'

"That Devil Quemado" [April 1925]
"The Bandit's Baby" [May 1925]
"The Wild Bull's Lair" [June 1925] งง
"Ridin' The Wind" [Sept 1925] งง
"All Around Frying Pan" [Nov 1925]
"The Tough Guy" [Feb 1926] งง
"Hands Across The Border" [May 1926] งง
"The Two-Gun Man" [June 1926]
"Lone Hand Saunders" [Sept 1926] งง
"A Regular Scout" [Nov 1926]
"Don Mike" [Feb 1927] งง
"Silver {King} Comes Through" [May 1927] งง

Fred's Paramount-Lasky Westerns
ง = uncredited script work by FM งง = script by FM as 'Frank M. Clifton'

"Jesse James" [Oct 1927]  งง
"Pioneer Scout" [Jan 1928]  งง
"The Sunset Legion" [April 1928]  งง

"Kit Carson" silent feature
[Paramount-Famous-Lasky June 1928] งง

promo poster for Fred Thomson's 1928 "Kit Carson" silent feature film

Plot details uncertain, but seems to be of the romance genre, since prominently-billed Nora Lane portrays Kit Carson's third wife Josefa • Directed by Lloyd Ingraham & Alfred L. Werker; co-written by Frances Marion as 'Frank M. Clifton'; starring {her husband} Fred Thomson {his final film}; also starring Nora Lane, Dorothy Janis, Raoul Paoli, William Courtright, Nelson McDowell & Ray Turner
DVD/Blu-ray not available • credits at IMDb

        Frances Marion Owens was born in San Francisco, California in November of 1886. After a career as an artist and model and writer, she began writing scenarios for Hollywood movies in 1912, where she became fast friends with star Mary Pickford. Frances married Fred Thomson in November of 1919, writing all or part of many of his subsequent silent Western features, mostly under the pseudonym 'Frank M. Clifton'.
        After Fred's tragic death in 1928, Frances continued writing movies and won Oscars for writing in 1930 ("The Big House") and in 1931 ("The Champ"). In 1930, she married George W. Hill, director of "The Big House"; they divorced in 1933; he committed suicide in 1934.
        Mary Pickford stopped making movies at about that time, and Frances's mentor, studio head Irving Thalberg died in 1936, so Frances's Hollywood career waned and she wrote mostly plays and novels from that time.
        Frances died in Los Angeles in May 1973, still a most-respected female writer and director.
        Only eighteen of her 160+ movies are available on video.

"Anne of The Green Gables" silent feature [Realart Pictures Nov 1919]

newspaper ad for 'Anne of Green Gables' 1919 silent feature

Filmed in Dedham, Massachusetts; an orphan taken into the lives of a generous farmer and his sister grows from an adventuresome young lass into a charming and much sought-after young lady; only a few still photos from the movie exist; author Montgomery was outraged by the many major changes made to the story • Directed by Wm. Desmond Taylor; adapted by Frances Marion from the 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery; starring Mary Miles Minter, Paul Kelly, Marcia Harris, Frederick Burton, F.T. Chailee, Leila Romer, Lincoln Stedman, Hazel Sexton, Russell Hewitt, Albert Hackett, Laurie Lovelle, Carolyn Lee, Jack B. Hollis, George Stewart
{this film is considered lost} • credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"Love" [continuity; 1927 silent]
based on Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina"; starring Greta Garbo & John Gilbert
Two endings were filmed, one happy and one sad
video not available • full credits from IMDb

"Min and Bill" [1930 Oscar-winner]
Directed by George W. Hill; script by Frances Marion & Marion Jackson,
based on Lorna Moon's novel "Dark Star"; starring Marie Dressler & Wallace Beery
VHS available • full credits from IMDb

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	Directed by Lloyd Ingraham; written by Hal Conklin, based on the novel by Stewart Edward White; starring Fred Thomson, Nora Lane, J.P. McGowan, William Courtright, Lottie Williams, Merrill McCormick, Dan Peterson & Silver King the Horse {this film is considered lost} • VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • credits at IMDb
	"Arizona Nights" Western novel [1907] by Stewart Edward White [1873-1946] 34 tales told at the evening campfire Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [5/2012] for FREE {sic} Kindle Edition from Pendleton Artists [4/2010] for $2.99 annotated by Linda Pendleton ฦterna 9x6 pb [2/2011] for $10.79 IndyPublish 9¼x6½ hardcover [12/2001] for $24.99 available as free online etext at Project Gutenberg
	original 1907 edition with six illustrations by N.C. Wyeth [1882-1945] McClure original 7½x5¼ hardcover [1907] out of print/used Grosset & Dunlap original 7½x5¼ hardcover [1907] out of print/used available as free online etext with six b&w illustrations at Internet Archive

	"Off With Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood" [1972 novel] by Frances Marion Macmillan hardcover [1972] out of print/used
	"The Women Who Write The Movies: From Frances Marion To Nora Ephron" [1994] by Marsha McCreadie Birch Lane Press 9½x6¼ hardcover [10/94] out of print/used
	"Without Lying Down: Frances Marion & The Powerful Women of Early Hollywood" [1997] by Cari Beauchamp Univ California Press 9x6 pb [5/98] for $13.97 Scribner 9½x6½ hardcover [3/97] out of print/used TV movie [Chaise Lounge/UCLA 2000] Image Ent. b&w/color DVD [3/2003] for $26.99 Milestone color/b&w VHS [11/2001] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb

Readers of the Purple Sage BookstoreSilent Movie Cowboy StarFred Thomson [1890-1928]

Readers of the Purple Sage Bookstore
Silent Movie Cowboy Star
Fred Thomson
[1890-1928]