A distinguished silver-haired character actor who often played the typical English gentleman, Fred Huntley had made his theatrical debut at London's Covent Garden in 1879. After years in Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire and as a leading man with the Carleton Opera Company, Huntley entered films as a writer/director for the old Selig Polyscope Company in 1912, helming such one-reelers as In the Days of Witchcraft (1913), starring Hobart Bosworth, and The Dream of Dan McGuire (1913). Remaining with Selig until 1916, Huntley later became a favorite of Mary Pickford, who cast him as Pa Renssaller in Johanna Enlists (1918) and as Grandpa Hawn in Heart O' the Hills (1919). Quite elderly by then, Huntley was merely a face in the crowd in his final film, Cecil B. DeMille's gargantuan The King of Kings (1927).
by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
