James Cassady

American character actor of silent films. As a boy, Cassady sang aboard a passenger steamer, the Republic, as it sailed between Cape May and his native Philadelphia. Cassady began his adult career under the vaudeville management of Ed Harrigan, then toured in stock productions for twenty-five years with the Thomas Shea theatrical company. Shea transformed his theatrical troupe into a vaudeville company and Cassady remained with him in that arena for several years. He entered films in 1914 and appeared in nearly thirty roles before returning to the stage in 1916. He died of pneumonia while on tour with the Donald Kerr-Effie Watson company on the Schubert circuit, in Spokane, Washington, in 1928.