Robert Harron

Early life and family

Born in New York City, Harron was second oldest child of nine siblings in a poor, working-class Irish Catholic family. Harron's younger siblings John (nicknamed "Johnnie"), Mary and Charles also became actors while one of his younger sisters, Tessie, was an extra in silent films. Charles was killed in a car accident in December 1915. Tessie died of Spanish influenza in 1918 while Harron's brother John died of spinal meningitis in 1939.

Harron attended the Saint John Parochial School in Greenwich Village. At the age of fourteen, he found work as an errand boy at American Biograph Studios. In addition to cleaning duties, Harron also appeared as an extra in a few shorts for Biograph.

Career

Within a year of working for Biograph, Harron was noticed by newly hired director D.W. Griffith. Harron quickly became a favorite of Griffith and Griffith began to give the 14-year-old increasingly larger film roles. His first film for Griffith was the 1909 short crime drama The Lonely Villa. The teenaged Harron was often cast by Griffith in the role of the "sensitive" and "naïve" boy, who was overwhelmingly sympathetic and appealing to American film-goers in the very early years of American motion pictures and not far removed from Harron's real-life persona; Harron was often described as a quiet and soft-spoken youth. It was these traits that helped garner much public interest in the young actor, especially amongst young female fans. In 1912 alone, Robert Harron appeared in nearly forty films at Biograph.

Harron is probably best recalled for his roles in the three epic Griffith films: 1914's Judith of Bethulia, opposite Blanche Sweet, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall and Dorothy and Lillian Gish, 1915's controversial all-star cast The Birth of a Nation, and 1916's colossal multi-scenario Intolerance opposite such popular stars of the era Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, Wallace Reid, Harold Lockwood, Carol Dempster and Mildred Harris. One of Harron's most popular roles of the era came in 1919 when he starred opposite Lillian Gish in the Griffith directed romantic film True Heart Susie.

Robert Harron's film career continued to flourish throughout the 1910s and he was occasionally paired with leading actresses Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish with romantic plots, often in roles that cemented his "sensitive boy" image. Harron had, in fact, a burgeoning off-screen romantic relationship with Dorothy Gish. By 1920, Harron had grown too old to continue playing the juvenile roles that had launched his career. He began losing leading man roles to Richard Barthelmess. Later that year, D.W. Griffith agreed to loan Harron to Metro Pictures for a four-picture deal. His first film for Metro, also the last film of his career, was the comedy Coincidence. The film was released in 1921, after Harron's death.

Death

In September 1920, Harron traveled from Los Angeles to New York by train to support Lillian Gish at the film premiere of her film Way Down East. He checked into the Hotel Seymour on September 1. He was also there for a preview of Coincidence and was sharing the hotel room with screenwriter and director Victor Heerman. Heerman also attended the preview and later said that the film was not well received.

After the premiere, Harron was alone in his hotel room when a gun in his possession discharged and wounded him. According to published reports, Harron had the gun in a trunk along with other possessions. As he took some clothes out of the trunk, the gun fell to the floor, discharged and hit him in the chest, puncturing his lung. He called the hotel desk for assistance and was still conscious when the hotel manager came to his room. Not realizing he was seriously wounded, Harron joked with the manager that he was in a "devil of a fix" having shot himself. He initially refused to let the manager call an ambulance, only wanting to be examined by a local physician. After a physician could not be found, Harron agreed to allow the manager to call an ambulance. Harron then insisted that he not be taken down by stretcher, but a chair. As Harron had lost a considerable amount of blood, he was finally convinced to be taken downstairs on a stretcher.

Harron was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. While he was being treated, he was arrested for possessing a firearm without a permit under the Sullivan Act and placed in the hospital's prison ward. Shortly after the shooting, rumors arose that Harron had intentionally shot himself. There was speculation that Harron was despondent over being passed over for the leading role in Way Down East (Richard Barthelmess was cast in the lead role). Several of Harron's friends rejected the suicide theory. Harron's friend Victor Heerman, with whom he often went on double dates and was staying with Harron in the Hotel Seymour, later said that he went to see Harron after the shooting and Harron denied that he intentionally shot himself. Harron admitted the gun belonged to him but that he had brought it to New York because he did not want the gun at the family home in Los Angeles. Harron said that his younger brother Johnnie had become "hard to handle" and he feared leaving the gun where Johnnie could find it. Harron told Heerman that he wrapped the gun up in a pair of his trousers and placed them in his suitcase. On the night of the shooting, Harron said he had gone to retrieve the trousers from his suitcase to have them pressed when the gun fell out and discharged.

There were also rumors that Harron had attempted suicide over the breakup of his relationship with Dorothy Gish. Victor Heerman said that Harron was a teetotaler and a virgin because he was a devout Catholic, and for those reasons Heerman rejected claims that Harron had killed himself. Miriam Cooper and Lillian Gish agreed, largely because he was his family's major source of income and he was about to start filming with Elmer Clifton. Harron also told his friend, a priest, that he did not attempt suicide.

Friends who visited Harron in the hospital were optimistic about his recovery as he appeared to be on the mend. However, on September 5, four days after he was shot, Harron died of his wound. He is interred at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, New York City.