J. Warren Kerrigan on AllMovie

Although rather effete in appearance, J. Warren Kerrigan became a star as a leading man of outdoor melodramas and Westerns, and by 1914, was America's most popular screen actor. Prior to his film debut in 1909, Kerrigan had been a stage juvenile in such successes as Brown of Harvard and The Road to Yesterday. He signed a contract with the Chicago-based Essanay Co. and was one of the first actors hired by legendary Bronco Billy Anderson, who had the idea of making Westerns in the real Wild West. Kerrigan left Essanay in 1910, in favor of the American Film Co. of Santa Barbara, CA, for whom he headlined literally hundreds of one- and two-reel Western melodramas. By 1914, he was working for Universal, where he later became his own producer. Kerrigan's popularity, however, took a nosedive with his refusal to serve in World War I -- he reportedly did not want to leave his ailing mother -- and by 1922, his career had practically come to an end. Why director James Cruze chose Kerrigan to star in the epic The Covered Wagon (1923) remains a mystery, but the enormous appeal of the movie resurrected his career, at least for a little while. The Girl of the Golden West (1923), with newcomer Sylvia Breamer, followed and he was the screen's first Captain Blood (1924). Critics, however, complained of miscasting and Kerrigan's screen career came to an abrupt halt. At the height of his popularity in 1914, J. Warren Kerrigan published How I Became a Successful Moving Picture Star, a tome which the lifelong bachelor dedicated to his mother.