One of the most indelible images of the entire silent era is of Burr McIntosh as Squire Bartlett, heartlessly banishing Lillian Gish from his home and into the freezing Maine winter in D.W. Griffith's evocative melodrama Way Down East (1920). A graduate of Princeton, the hefty, 6' McIntosh had starred in the legitimate theater as Svengali in Trilby and on lengthy tours of The Gentleman From Mississippi prior to entering films with All Star in 1914. The following year, he produced and starred in the Civil War drama Colonel Carter of Cartersville but his screen career did not really come alive until Griffith cast him as Squire Bartlett. The role reunited him with Lillian Gish, opposite whom he had appeared in several touring companies almost 20 years earlier. According to Miss Gish, McIntosh was a gentle giant, who "was always apologizing for having to treat me so cruelly in Way Down East." There were many good character roles to come -- including that of General Blythe in the popular WWI romance Lilac Time (1928) -- but his talkie appearances were minor and he retired in 1934. Burr McIntosh died of a heart attack.
by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
