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This once popular silent screen star and older matinee idol for Paramount Studios is all but forgotten today; however, Thomas "Tommy" Meighan was one of the rulers of the Hollywood roost, between the years 1915 and 1928.

He was born in Pittsburgh, his father a president of a major manufacturing company. Meighan switched interests from medicine to acting during his mid-college years, joining Henrietta Crosman's Pittsburgh stock company as his initiation to professional theater.

During these years he met and married stage actress Frances Ring, who was the sister of actors Blanche Ring and Cyril Ring, enjoying a long and happy wedded life. Having developed a highly respected name for himself on Broadway right after the turn of the century, he decided, at the age of 36, to give up the stage in order to pursue the still-floundering medium of movie-making. It was a wise and prosperous move.

Meighan made his debut opposite Laura Hope Crews in The Fighting Hope (1915) and became a Paramount favorite of producer/director Cecil B. DeMille's with leading man roles in Kindling (1915), The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1916), Male and Female (1919), Why Change Your Wife? (1920), and Manslaughter (1922). Meighan lit up the silver screen time and time again paired up with Hollywood's top echelon of silent female stars including Lila Lee, Blanche Sweet, Lois Wilson, Pauline Frederick, Billie Burke, Norma Talmadge, Charlotte Walker, and Leatrice Joy.

Meighan would make his film masterpiece with The Miracle Man (1919), also starring Lon Chaney, in which he played Tom Burke, a notorious con-man, who tries one last scheme, a faith-healing scam, before going clean. Unfortunately, this 8-reel silent classic is now lost but for a minor portion. Meighan would earn between $5,000 to $10,000 a week during his prime years.

Although his first talking picture, The Argyle Case (1929), was a success, Meighan's career went into a rapid decline come the advent of sound, playing a few fatherly types in support at the very end. His last film was Peck's Bad Boy (1934) starring young Jackie Cooper. At about this time the actor discovered he had cancer and was forced to withdraw from the screen. He died two years later on July 8, 1936. He and wife Frances had no children.

(1900 - 1912) Active on Broadway in the following productions:

(1900) Stage Play: Her Majesty, the Girl Queen of Nordenmark. Melodrama. Written by <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0164795/?ref_=nmwrk">J.I.C. Clarke</a>, from a novel by <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0866996/?ref_=nmwrk">Elizabeth Tompkins</a>. Directed by Frank Hatch (also in cast). Manhattan Theatre: 15 Oct 1900- Dec 1900 (closing date unknown/58 performances). Cast included: May Arthur, Isabelle Bowman, George Conklin, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0167577/?ref_=nmwrk">Frazer Coulter</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0253698/?ref_=nmwrk">Fernanda Eliscu</a>, Alfred Garland, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0313440/?ref_=nmwrk">Grace George</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0387776/?ref_=nmwrk">Emil Hoch</a>, P. James, Louise Lloyd, Agnes Marks, Agnes McCarthy, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0576762/?ref_=nmwrk">Thomas Meighan</a> [Broadway debut], Samuel Michaelson, Annie Mifflin, William Murchison, George Osbourne, Bert W. Parmeter, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0667439/?ref_=nmwrk">George Pauncefort</a> [Broadway debut], Louis Payne, Morton Selton, T. Troy, Marion Walsh, Frank Worthing. Produced by <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0103755/?ref_=nmwrk">William A. Brady</a>.

(1903) Stage Play: Major Andre. Written by <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0280003/?ref_=nmwrk">Clyde Fitch</a>. Savoy Theatre: 11 Nov 1903- Nov 1903 (closing date unknown/12 performances). Cast: <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0126365/?ref_=nmwrk">Arthur Byron</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0198410/?ref_=nmwrk">Arnold Daly</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0248836/?ref_=nmwrk">Wallace Eddinger</a>, Adam Fox, Chrystal Herne, Angela Keir, Allan Kingsberry, Frederick Lane, Ernest Lawford, Frank J. McIntyre, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0576762/?ref_=nmwrk">Thomas Meighan</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0593282/?ref_=nmwrk">Dodson Mitchell</a>, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0692826/?ref_=nmwrk">Guy Bates Post</a> (as &quot;Nathan Goodrich&quot;), <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0698218/?ref_=nmwrk">George Probert</a>, James Ralls, <a class="ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity" href="/name/nm0781431/?ref_=nmwrk">Edward See</a>. Produced by Frank McKee.

(1911) Stage Play: The Return of Peter Grimm.

Other works

Thomas Meighan

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