Irish-born Owen Moore came to America at age 11, along with his three brothers, Matt, Tom, and Joe -- actors all. At 19, Moore began his theatrical career, abandoning the stage in 1908 to work with D.W. Griffith at the Biograph film studio. Here he met ingénue Mary Pickford, whom he married in secret (a secret that didn't last very long), then divorced in 1920 when both he and Mary found others to fulfill their private lives. Owen Moore's later career was not as successful, though he staged some worthwhile comeback attempts throughout the talkie era: co-starring with his brothers, Matt and Tom, in 1929's Side Street, offering a bizarre and unsettling performance as Mae West's imprisoned ex-boyfriend in She Done Him Wrong, and convincingly portraying a cold-sober movie director in Selznick's A Star is Born (1937).
by Hal Erickson
biography
