Ward Crane on AllMovie

Slick, mustachioed actor Ward Crane was first seen on film in 1919's Dark Star. Comedy fans will recall Crane's assured performance as Buster Keaton's nemesis in the 1924 classic Sherlock, Jr. Depending on which print one sees, Crane also played Count Roboff in Lon Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera (1925); his role was excised from the original release version, then reinstated in the reissue prints. Ward Crane died of pneumonia in 1928, just before Hollywood's switchover to sound.