House Peters

For his son, see House Peters Jr.

House Peters Sr.
Peters Sr., 1922
Born	Robert House Peters (1880-03-12)12 March 1880 Bristol, England
Died	7 December 1967(1967-12-07) (aged 87) Woodland Hills, California, US
Burial place	Cremated at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1900s–1950s
Spouse	Mae King (m. 1914)

Robert House Peters Sr. (12 March 1880 – 7 December 1967) was a British-born American silent film actor, known to filmgoers of the era as "The Star of a Thousand Emotions".

Biography

Born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, Peters began his career on a high note, playing the handsome leading man in In the Bishop's Carriage (1913), co-starring Mary Pickford. While The Bishop's Carriage was filmed in an East Coast studio, Peters was in Los Angeles by 1914, becoming one of the first screen stars to permanently settle there. Although he stated publicly that he preferred playing villains, Peters, curly haired and pleasantly dimpled, was from the outset typecast as the romantic hero.

Peters lifts Beatriz Michelena onto his horse in Salomy Jane (1914)

After enjoying his greatest success as the good-bad hero of The Girl of the Golden West (1915), Peters' career peaked in the early 1920s. He signed with Universal Studios for six films in 1924, hoping for a comeback. The results, however, were mostly mediocre and he was soon demoted to supporting roles. Retired after 1928's Rose Marie, Peters returned for a guest appearance in The Old West, a 1952 Gene Autry film that also featured his son, House Peters Jr., who subsequently enjoyed a lengthy film career portraying villains as well as Procter and Gamble's Mr. Clean character in cleaning product commercials from the late 1950s into the '60s.

Personal life

Peters was married to actress Mae King in 1914 with whom he had three children, Gregg, Patricia and Robert Jr., who subsequently used the stage name House Peters Jr. Peters was 87 when he died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1913	In the Bishop's Carriage	Obermuller
1913	Chelsea 7750	Prof. Grimble
1913	An Hour Before Dawn	Kate's Father - the Ex-Detective
1913	The Port of Doom	Kate's Father
1913	Leah Kleschna	Paul Sylvain
1913	A Lady of Quality	The Duke of Osmonde
1914	The Pride of Jennico	Basil Jennico
1914	Clothes	Arnold West
1914	The Brute	Billy West	Short
1914	Salomy Jane	The Man
1914	Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch	Bob
1915	The Girl of the Golden West	Ramerrez
1915	Mignon	Wilhelm Meister
1915	The Warrens of Virginia	Ned Burton
1915	The Unafraid	Stefan Balsic	Short
1915	The Captive	Muhamud Hassan
1915	Stolen Goods	Richard Carlton
1915	Between Men	Gregg Lewiston
1915	The Winged Idol	Jack Leonard
1915	The Great Divide	Stephen Ghent
1916	The Hand of Peril	James Kestner
1916	The Closed Road	Frank Sargeant
1916	The Rail Rider	Jim Lewis
1916	The Velvet Paw	Robert Moorehead
1917	Happiness of Three Women	Billy Craig
1917	As Men Love	Paul Russell
1917	The Lonesome Chap	Stuart Kirkwood
1917	The Highway of Hope	Steve King
1917	The Heir of the Ages	Hugh Payne
1919	The Forfeit	Jeffrey Masters
1919	Thunderbolts of Fate	Robert Wingfield
1919	You Never Know Your Luck	J.G. Kerry
1920	The Great Redeemer	Dan Malloy
1920	The Leopard Woman	John Culbertson
1920	Isobel or The Trail's End	Sgt. William MacVeigh
1920	Silk Husbands and Calico Wives	Deane Kendall
1921	Lying Lips	Blair Cornwall
1921	The Invisible Power	Sid Chambers
1921	The Man from Lost River	Barnes
1922	The Storm	Burr Winton
1922	Rich Men's Wives	John Masters
1922	Human Hearts	Tom Logan
1923	Lost and Found on a South Sea Island	Capt. Blackbird
1923	Don't Marry for Money	Peter Smith
1923	Held to Answer	John Hampstead
1924	The Tornado	Tornado
1925	Head Winds	Peter Rosslyn
1925	Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman	Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman
1925	The Storm Breaker	John Strong
1925	Counsel for the Defense	Arnold Peters
1926	The Combat	Blaze Burke
1926	Prisoners of the Storm	'Bucky' Malone
1928	Rose-Marie	Sergeant Malone
1952	The Old West	Parson Jonathan Brooks
1952	O. Henry's Full House	Dave Bascom	(segment "The Clarion Call"), Uncredited
1953	Treasure of the Golden Condor	Magistrate	Uncredited, (final film role)

External links

• House Peters at IMDb