Share:

People: Famous People born in the 1880s (1880-1889)

People in chronological context: The 1880s (pronounced "eighteen-eighties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1880, and ended on December 31, 1889. The period was characterized in general by economic growth and prosperity in many parts of the world, especially Europe and the Americas, with the emergence of modern cities signified by the foundation of many long-lived corporations, franchises, and brands and the introduction of the skyscraper. The decade was a part of the Gilded Age (1874–1907) in the United States, the Victorian Era in the British Empire and the Belle Époque in France. It also occurred at the height of the Second Industrial Revolution and saw numerous developments in science and a sudden proliferation of electrical technologies, particularly in mass transit and telecommunications. ()

People born in year: 1880 | 1881 | 1882 | 1883 | 1884 | 1885 | 1886 | 1887 | 1888 | 1889


Sort by:
738 people found (page 1/25):

Dot Farley(† 90)

Actress | Chicago, Illinois (US)

Dorothea "Dot" Farley (February 6, 1881 – May 2, 1971) was an American film actress who appeared in 280 motion pictures from 1910 to 1950. She was also known as Dorothy Farley.

* 02/06/1881

Sarah Padden(† 86)

Actress | England (GB)

Sarah Padden was a character actress in theater and vaudeville from Chicago, Illinois. She performed on stage in the early 20th century. She is noted for her expressive voice and for her psychological studies of the characters she portrayed. Her finest single-act performance was in The Clod, a stage production in which she played an uneducated woman who lived on a farm during the American Civil War. Padden was a featured player on the Orpheum Circuit, Inc.. She had a role in His Grace de Grammont, a romantic comedy by Clyde Fitch which came to the Park Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts in September 1905. The production starred Skinner and was based on the life of a chevalier in the court of Charles II. Padden appeared again with Skinner in a four-act play produced by Charles Frohman, The Honor of the Family, by Emile Fabre, which was presented in New Rochelle, New York in September 1907. Another of her theatrical parts was in Hell-Bent Fer Heaven, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Hatcher Hughes. It was performed at the Wilkes Orange Grove Theater (Majestic Theater), 845 South Broadway (Los Angeles), in November 1925. She was also an active screen actress from 1926 to 1958, appearing in 178 films and TV shows. In 1938, she played Ma Thayer in MGM's Rich Man Poor Girl, directed by Reinhold Schunzel and starring Robert Young, Ruth Hussey, and Lana Turner. Bill Harrison (Robert Young) a wealthy young businessman moves in with secretary girlfriend Joan Thayer's (Ruth Hussey) eccentric family to convince her they can make their marriage work. In 1941, she played wealthy spinster Aunt Cassandra ("Cassie") Hildegarde Denham in Murder by Invitation, directed by Phil Rosen and starring Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh. In this "closed room" murder comedy, after they unsuccessfully attempt to have her declared legally insane to gain control of her fortune, her nephews and nieces are invited to a week's visit at her mansion where they are murdered one by one.

* 10/16/1881

W.C. Fields(† 66)

Actor | Darby, Pennsylvania (US)

William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American actor, comedian, juggler, and writer. Fields's career in show business began in vaudeville, where he attained international success as a silent juggler. He began to incorporate comedy into his act and was a featured comedian in the Ziegfeld Follies for several years. He became a star in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy (1923), in which he played a colorful small-time con man. His subsequent stage and film roles were often similar scoundrels or henpecked everyman characters. Among his trademarks were his raspy drawl and grandiloquent vocabulary. His film and radio persona was generally identified with Fields himself. It was maintained by the publicity departments at Fields's studios (Paramount and Universal) and was further reinforced by Robert Lewis Taylor's 1949 biography W. C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes. Beginning in 1973, with the publication of Fields's letters, photos, and personal notes in grandson Ronald Fields's book W. C. Fields by Himself, it was shown that Fields was married (and subsequently estranged from his wife), financially supported their son, and loved his grandchildren.

* 01/29/1880

Edward José(† 50)

Crew | Antwerpen, Flanders (BE)

Edward José (5 July 1865 – 18 December 1930) was a Belgian film director and actor of the silent era. He directed 42 films between 1915 and 1925. He also performed in 12 films between 1910 and 1916.

* 01/01/1880

Boyd Irwin(† 76)

Actor | Brighton, East Sussex, England (GB)

Boyd Irwin (12 March 1880 – 22 January 1957) was an English stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1915 and 1948, both silent and "talkies", including a starring role in Australian film For Australia in 1915. He was born in Brighton, Sussex and died in Los Angeles, California.

* 03/12/1880

Leon Errol(† 70)

Actor | Sydney, Australia (AU)

Leon Errol (born Leonce Errol Sims, July 3, 1881 – October 12, 1951) was an Australian-American comedian and actor in the United States, popular in the first half of the 20th century for his appearances in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in films.

* 07/03/1881

Marie Shotwell(† 54)

Actress | New York City, New York (US)

Marie Shotwell (March 21, 1880 – September 18, 1934) was an American actress of the stage and screen.

* 03/21/1880

Wallace Bosco(† 92)

Actor | Pancras, London, England (GB)

Wallace Charles Bosco (31 January 1880 in St Pancras, London – 17 April 1973 in Richmond upon Thames, Surrey) was an English film actor and screenwriter.

* 01/30/1880

Tom Mix(† 60)

Actor | Pennsylvania (US)

The native of Mix Run, Pa., became a star with his first feature, 1910’s “Ranch Life in the Great Southwest.” An expert shot, cattle wrangler and horseman, Mix made some 160 cowboy silent Saturday matinee films in the 1920s always playing the man in the white hat who saved the day. Even his trusty steed Tony “The Wonder Horse” became a superstar receiving countless fan mail from kids.In 1932, he returned to films, making nine talkies at Universal. His last screen appearance was in the 1935 15-part serial, “The Miracle Rider.” In 1940, he died at age 60 in a car crash in Arizona. A memorial is at the site of his death on California 79 near Florence. “The Wonder Horse” died two years later.

* 01/06/1880

Crauford Kent(† 71)

Actor | London, England (GB)

Crauford Kent (12 October 1881 – 14 May 1953) was an English character actor based in the United States. He has also been credited as Craufurd Kent and Crawford Kent.

* 10/12/1881

Gerald Beaumont(† 46)

Crew | London, England (GB)

- No description / details available yet. -

* 01/01/1880

Lawson Butt(† 75)

Actor | Bristol, England (GB)

W. Lawson Butt (4 March 1880 – 14 January 1956) was a British actor and film director of the silent era. His sister was opera singer Clara Butt.

* 03/04/1880
Ad Protect Your Online Privacy with a VPN

Don't risk your personal information and online activities being exposed to hackers, government surveillance, and other online threats. A VPN encrypts your internet connection and hides your IP, giving you maximum security and privacy. Take control of your online safety, switch to a VPN now. Choose one of these services to learn more:

Cecil B. DeMille(† 77)

Crew | Ashfield, Massachusetts (US)

Cecil Blount DeMille (August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. His films were distinguished by their epic scale and by his cinematic showmanship. His silent films included social dramas, comedies, Westerns, farces, morality plays, and historical pageants. DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, and grew up in New York City. He began his career as a stage actor in 1900. He later moved to writing and directing stage productions, some with Jesse Lasky, who was then a vaudeville producer. DeMille's first film, The Squaw Man (1914), was also the first full-length feature film shot in Hollywood. Its interracial love story made it commercially successful, and it first publicized Hollywood as the home of the U.S. film industry. The continued success of his productions led to the founding of Paramount Pictures with Lasky and Adolph Zukor. His first biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), was both a critical and commercial success; it held the Paramount revenue record for twenty-five years. DeMille directed The King of Kings (1927), a biography of Jesus, which gained approval for its sensitivity and reached more than 800 million viewers. The Sign of the Cross (1932) is said to be the first sound film to integrate all aspects of cinematic technique. Cleopatra (1934) was his first film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. After more than thirty years in film production, DeMille reached a pinnacle in his career with Samson and Delilah (1949), a biblical epic that became the highest-grossing film of 1950. Along with biblical and historical narratives, he also directed films oriented toward "neo-naturalism", which tried to portray the laws of man fighting the forces of nature. He received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for his circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. His last and best known film, The Ten Commandments (1956), also a Best Picture Academy Award nominee, is currently the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. In addition to his Best Picture Awards, he received an Academy Honorary Award for his film contributions, the Palme d'Or (posthumously) for Union Pacific (1939), a DGA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, which was named in his honor. DeMille's reputation had a renaissance in the 2010s, and his work has influenced numerous other films and directors.

* 08/12/1881

Mary Boland(† 85)

Actress | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)

Mary Boland (born Marie Anne Boland; January 28, 1882 – June 23, 1965) was an American stage and film actress.

* 01/28/1880

Frank Orth(† 82)

Actor | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)

Frank Orth was an American actor born in Philadelphia. He is probably best remembered for his portrayal of Inspector Faraday in the 1951-1953 television series “Boston Blackie”. By 1897, Orth was performing in vaudeville with his wife, Ann Codee, in an act called “Codee and Orth.” In 1909, he expanded into song writing, with songs such as “The Phone Bell Rang” and “Meet Me on the Boardwalk, Dearie.” His first contact with motion pictures was in 1928, when he was part of the first foreign-language shorts in sound produced by Warner Bros. He and his wife also appeared together in a series of two-reel comedies in the early 1930s. Orth's first major screen credit was in “Prairie Thunder,” a Dick Foran western, in 1937. From then on, he was often cast as bartenders, pharmacists, and grocery clerks, and always distinctly Irish. He had a recurring role in the Dr. Kildare series of films and also in the Nancy Drew series as the befuddled Officer Tweedy. Among his better roles were the newspaper man Cary Grant telephones early in “His Girl Friday,” one of the quartet singing “Gary Owen” in “They Died with Their Boots On” (thereby giving Errol Flynn as Gen. Custer the idea of associating the tune with the 7th Cavalry), and as the little man carrying the sign reading “The End Is Near” throughout Colonel Effingham's Raid. However, Orth is probably best remembered for his portrayal of Inspector Faraday in the 1951-1953 television series “Boston Blackie.” A short, plump, round-faced man, often smoking a cigar, Orth as Faraday wore his own dark-rimmed spectacles, though rarely in feature films. In 1959, Orth retired from show business after throat surgery. His wife died in 1961 after around fifty years of marriage. Orth died on March 17, 1962. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills next to his wife.

* 02/21/1880

Douglas MacArthur(† 84)

Actor | Little Rock, Arkansas (US)

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He served with distinction in World War I, was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. MacArthur was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times, and received it for his service in the Philippines campaign. This made him along with his father Arthur MacArthur Jr. the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of only five men to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the U.S. Army, and the only one conferred the rank of field marshal in the Philippine Army. Raised in a military family in the American Old West, MacArthur was valedictorian at the West Texas Military Academy and First Captain at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated top of the class of 1903. During the 1914 United States occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission, for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. In 1917, he was promoted from major to colonel and became chief of staff of the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. On the Western Front during World War I, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and the Silver Star seven times. From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, where he attempted a series of reforms. His next assignment was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, he became the Army's youngest major general. He served on the court-martial of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell and was president of the American Olympic Committee during the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. In 1930, he became Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. As such, he was involved in the expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters from Washington, D.C., in 1932, and the establishment and organization of the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1935 he became Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. He retired from the Army in 1937 and continued as chief military advisor to the Philippines. MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with a large portion of his air forces being destroyed on 8 December 1941 in the attack on Clark Field and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. MacArthur's forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left nearby Corregidor Island and escaped to Australia, where MacArthur became supreme commander, Southwest Pacific Area. Upon his arrival, MacArthur gave a speech in which he promised "I shall return" to the Philippines. After more than two years of fighting, he fulfilled that promise. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. He officially accepted the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945 and oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political and social changes. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War with initial success; however, the invasion of North Korea led the Chinese to enter the war, causing a series of major defeats. MacArthur was contentiously removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on 11 April 1951. He later became chairman of the board of Remington Rand. He died in Washington, D.C., on 5 April 1964.

* 01/26/1880

Coit Albertson(† 73)

Actor | Reading, Pennsylvania (US)

Fom WikipediaCoit Albertson (October 14, 1880 – December 13, 1953) was an American silent film actor.Edward Coit Albertson was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, the son of George and Elizabeth (née Stock) Albertson, and began his acting career on Broadway, where, among other productions, he played in Stubborn Cinderella. Eventually he became a leading man of the 1920s, and was well known for his many character roles in motion pictures. He became one of the large number of silent movie actors who either would not or could not make the transition to the talkie era.

* 10/14/1880

Léonce Perret(† 55)

Crew | Niort (FR)

Léonce Joseph Perret (14 March 1880 – 12 August 1935) was a prolific and innovative French film actor, director and producer. He also worked as a stage actor and director. Often described as avant-garde for his unorthodox directing methods, Perret introduced innovative camera, lighting and film scoring techniques to French cinema. Perret began his career as a relatively undistinguished stage actor. He was recruited to the film industry by the Gaumont Film Company. His numerous short films gained significant accolade in French cinematography. Until his emigration to the United States in 1917, he was a fixture of the Gaumont Film Company. On American soil, he produced several popular films, the most notable being Lest We Forget (N'oublions jamais) in 1918. After returning to France, he directed the successful Koenigsmark in 1923. His film Madame Sans-Gêne (1925), starring Gloria Swanson, was the first joint Franco-American film production. In addition, Perret collaborated with many of the French and American idols of his generation such as Abel Gance, Gloria Swanson, Gaby Morlay, René Cresté, Arletty, Suzanne Grandais, Mae Murray, and Huguette Duflos.

* 03/14/1880

J. Morris Foster(† 84)

Actor

J. Morris Foster (September 9, 1881 – April 24, 1966) was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1914 and 1923. He was born in Foxbert, Pennsylvania and died in Burbank, California.

Known for: The Secret Man
* 09/09/1881

Ivan Hedqvist(† 55)

Actor | Gottröra (SE)

Ivan Hedqvist (8 June 1880 – 23 August 1935) was a Swedish stage and film actor. He also directed four silent films.

* 06/08/1880

Arthur Maude(† 69)

Actor | Pontefract, Yorkshire, England (GB)

Arthur John Maude (23 July 1880 – 9 January 1950) was an English actor, screenwriter, and film director.

* 07/23/1880

Gabrielle Dorziat(† 99)

Actress | Epernay (FR)

Gabrielle Dorziat (25 January 1880 – 30 November 1979) was a French stage and film actress. Dorziat was a fashion trend setter in Paris and helped popularize the designs of Coco Chanel. The Théâtre Gabrielle-Dorziat in Épernay, France is named for her.

* 01/15/1880

Una O'Connor(† 78)

Actress | Belfast, Ireland, UK [now Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK]

Una O'Connor (born Agnes Teresa McGlade, 23 October 1880 – 4 February 1959) was an Irish-American actress who worked extensively in theatre before becoming a character actress in film and in television. She often portrayed comical wives, housekeepers and servants.

* 10/22/1880

Davy Burnaby(† 68)

Actor | Buckland, Hertfordshire, England (GB)

George Davy Burnaby (7 April 1881 – 18 April 1949) was a British actor who appeared in more than thirty films between 1929 and 1948. He was born in Buckland, Hertfordshire and made his screen debut in the 1929 film The Devil's Maze. He died on 18 April 1949, age 68, the same date as comedian Will Hay with whom he had previously acted.

* 04/07/1881

Norbert Jacques(† 73)

Crew | Eich (LU)

Norbert Jacques (6 June 1880 – 15 May 1954) was a Luxembourgish novelist, journalist, screenwriter, and translator who wrote in German. He was born in Luxembourg-Eich, Luxembourg and died in Koblenz, West Germany. He created the character Dr. Mabuse, who was a feature of some of his novels. Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, the first novel to feature Mabuse, was one of the bestsellers of its time; it sold over 500,000 copies in Germany. Today, Jacques is known best for Dr. Mabuse. In 1922, he received German citizenship.

* 06/06/1880

Herbert Brenon(† 78)

Crew | Dublin (IE)

Irish filmmaker.

* 01/13/1880

Bertram Bracken(† 72)

Crew | San Antonio, Texas (US)

Bertram Bracken (August 10, 1879 – November 1, 1952) was an American silent screen actor, scenarist, and director who worked on at least sixty-five films between 1910 and 1932.

* 01/01/1880

Pablo Picasso(† 91)

Actor | Málaga (ES)

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art. Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles. Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.

* 10/25/1881

Camille Bert(† 89)

Actor | Orléans, Loiret (FR)

Camille Bert (1880–1970) was a French actor. Born Camille Léon Louis Bertrand in Orléans, he died in Paris in 1970.

* 12/27/1880

Tramel(† 67)

Actor | Toulon (FR)

Félicien Tramel, often known simply as Tramel, (1880–1948) was a French film actor.

* 04/18/1880
previous page
next page