Billy Sullivan on AllMovie

A nephew of legendary prize fighter John L. Sullivan, lanky Billy Sullivan had appeared in vaudeville with Gordon Hollingshead, the future head of the Warner Bros. short subject department, before entering films with the New York and Florida-based Thanhouser Company in 1914. Sullivan appeared in the company's flagship production, the serial The Million Dollar Mystery (1914), and directed Falstaff comedies but he was let go in an economy move in 1916. Sullivan's chief claim to fame came in the 1920s, however, when, trading on his kinship to John L., he starred in a series of 19 mostly boxing melodramas released by low-budget corporation Rayart as the "Leather Pushers." At least two of the programmers are known to have survived: One Punch O' Day (1926) and Speedy Smith (1927). Sullivan was reduced to bit parts and walk-ons after the advent of sound.