Harry Benham

Indiana-born Harry Benham grew up in Chicago, Illinois. As a child he was possessed of a fine singing voice and sang in the local church choir. In 1904 the traveling musical "Peggy from Paris" was playing in Chicago and he got a job in the chorus. He soon graduated to singing the lead role. His success in that production led to roles in other plays, such as "The Sultan of Sulu", "Woodland" and "Marrying Mary". He joined the Thanhouser film company in 1910 and stayed there five years, appearing in dozens of the company's productions while continuing his stage work. After leaving Thanhouser he went over to Famous Players, then signed with Universal Pictures, for whom he made such films as The Doll Doctor (1916), Love's Masquerade (1916) and The Capital Prize (1916). He also appeared in productions for other studios, such as Pathe's The Last of the Carnabys (1917), Warren Productions' The Warfare of the Flesh (1917) and American's The Frame-Up (1917). After leaving Universal he freelanced for quite a few studios, both minor and major, including Select's Cecilia of the Pink Roses (1918) (which was Marion Davies' second film), Paramount's Hush Money (1921) and Vitagraph's The Prey (1920). He made his final film in 1922, after which he retired from the movie industry and went into the clothing business. His wife, actress Ethyle Cooke, died in 1949, and Harry remarried four years later to a widow he met in Florida. He died on July 17, 1969, in Sarasota, Florida, after a long illness.