A breezy leading man of silent B-movies, New York-born Charles Delaney had been a stunt flier and vaudeville entertainer prior to entering films in 1922. Through the silent era, the dark-haired and handsome Delaney starred in, produced, and sometimes even wrote scores of low-budget action melodramas, usually portraying a happy-go-lucky entrepreneur ridding society of various ills. Never a major box office attraction but always a welcome name on a neighborhood theater marquee, Delaney belonged in the same category as Johnnie Walker, Glenn Tryon, and Richard Talmadge. All suffered a decline after the changeover to sound but Delaney hung in there and appeared in another 200 or so feature films, most often in bit roles. In the '50s the now veteran performer added a host of television appearances to his growing resumé.
by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
