Hart, William S

Hart, William S(urrey)

William S. Hart in The Gun Fighter, 1916–17.

(credit: Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive)

(born Dec. 6, 1870, Newburgh, N.Y., U.S.—died June 23, 1946, Newhall, Calif.) U.S. stage and film actor. He made his stage debut in 1889 and portrayed a series of western heroes in the plays The Squaw Man (1905), The Virginian (1907), and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1912/14). In 1914 he went to Hollywood, where his stern, taciturn performances made him a star and the first cowboy hero. Among his numerous films, many of which he wrote and directed, were The Square Deal Man (1917), Wild Bill Hickok (1923), and Tumbleweeds (1925).