One of the silent screen's more prominent character villains, Marc MacDermott is today perhaps best remembered as Greta Garbo's cuckolded husband in The Flesh and the Devil. A true veteran by then, MacDermott made his screen debut with the old Edison Company back in 1908. In 1911, he played Cardinal Richelieu in a version of The Three Musketeers that also featured Mrs. MacDermott, the actress Miriam Nesbitt, and he was the Squire of Tralee opposite Theda Bara's Kathleen Mavourneen in 1919. Always a powerful presence, MacDermott was even more so in the episodic While New York Sleeps (1920), in which he played no less than three important roles. A major character star of the 1920s, MacDermott continued to impress in films such as Chaney's He Who Gets Slapped (1924) as the duplicitous baron, Resurrection (1927) as the equally duplicitous Prince Dimitry, and Glorious Betsy (1928) as Marion Davies' haughty father. MacDermott would undoubtedly have scored in sound films as well, had he not died suddenly during a gall bladder operation.
by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
