Occupation Actor Name House Sr. Spouse Mae King (m. 1914) | Years active 1900s-1950s Role Film actor | |
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Full Name Robert House Peters Born 12 March 1880 ( 1880-03-12 ) Bristol, Gloucestershire, England Died December 7, 1967, Woodland Hills, California, United States Movies Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman Children House Peters, Jr., Gregg Peters, Patricia Peters, Ian Peters Grandchildren Bob Peters, Kathy Peters, Jon Peters Similar People House Peters - Jr, King Baggot, Maurice Tourneur, J Searle Dawley, William Desmond Taylor | ||
Robert House Peters Sr. (12 March 1880 – 7 December 1967) was a British-born American silent film actor, known to filmgoers of the era as "The Star of a Thousand Emotions."
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Biography
Born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, Peters began his career on a high note, playing the handsome leading man in In the Bishop's Carriage (1913), co-starring Mary Pickford. While The Bishop's Carriage was filmed in an East Coast studio, Peters was in Los Angeles by 1914, becoming one of the first screen stars to permanently settle there. Although he stated publicly that he preferred playing villains, Peters, curly haired and pleasantly dimpled, was from the outset typecast as the romantic hero.
After enjoying his greatest success as the good-bad hero of The Girl of the Golden West (1915), Peters found his career at the peak of the early 1920s. He signed with Universal Studios for six films in 1924, hoping for a comeback. The results, however, were mostly mediocre and he was soon demoted to supporting roles. Retired after 1928's Rose Marie, Peters returned for a guest appearance in The Old West, a 1952 Gene Autry film that also featured his son, House Peters Jr., who subsequently enjoyed a lengthy film career portraying villains as well as Procter and Gamble's Mr. Clean character in cleaning product commercials from the late 1950s into the '60s.
Personal life
Peters was married to actress Mae King in 1914 with whom he had three children, Gregg, Patricia and Robert Jr. (1916–2008). Peters died at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.