James Otis Barrows (March 29, 1855 - December 7, 1925) was an American stage and film actor. He spent much of his adult life in the legitimate theater from the Victorian to Edwardian to Georgian eras.
Barrows debuted "as a super" at the
California Theatre in San Francisco, after which he acted with a touring stock company in the Northwest before returning to San Francisco to act in stock productions at the
Baldwin Theatre and the Grand Opera House. Later, he acted in Boston with the
Castle Square Theatre's stock company before partnering with John Lancaster and moving into vaudeville to do dramatic sketches. He spent half a dozen years in
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
. In 1919 he began appearing in silent feature films playing elderly roles much like theater colleagues of his generation i.e.
Melbourne MacDowell
Willet Melbourne MacDowell (November 22, 1856 – February 18, 1941) was an American stage and screen actor. He began on the legitimate stage in the 1870s and first appeared on the silent screen in 1917. He used the stage name Virginia Drew Pres ...
,
Ida Waterman
Ida Waterman (born Ida Shaw; March 10, 1852 – May 22, 1941) was a stage and screen actress.
Waterman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She appeared some thirty or more Broadway productions between the late 1880s and early 1920s. She play ...
,
Joseph J. Dowling
Joseph Johnson Dowling (September 4, 1850 – July 8, 1928) was an American stage and silent film actor.
Early life and career
Born in Pittsburgh, the son of James and Fredericka (''nee'' Edstrem) Dowling. His father was a native of Pennsy ...
,
Frank Currier
Frank Currier (September 4, 1857 – April 22, 1928) was an American film and stage actor and director of the silent era.
Career
Similar to Theodore Roberts, Kate Lester, Ida Waterman, and William H. Crane, Currier had a long and succe ...
and
Theodore Roberts
Theodore Roberts (October 8, 1861 – December 14, 1928) was an American film and stage actor.
Early life
Roberts was born in San Francisco, California. He was a cousin of the stage actress Florence Roberts. His choice of a career disapp ...
. Barrows can be seen in several surviving silent films, his last being the 1926 John Barrymore starrer ''
The Sea Beast'' completed just before his death.
Filmography
*''Brothers Divided'' (1919)
* ''
The Lord Loves the Irish
''The Lord Loves the Irish'' is a 1919 American silent film, silent comedy film directed by Ernest C. Warde and starring J. Warren Kerrigan, Aggie Herring and James O. Barrows.Gmür p.381
Cast
* J. Warren Kerrigan as Miles Machree
* Aggie Herring ...
'' (1919)
*''The Inferior Sex'' (1920)
*''
The White Dove'' (1920)
* ''
When Dawn Came'' (1920)
*''
Dangerous to Men'' (1920)
*''The Untamed'' (1920)
*''
Down Home'' (1920)
*''
Unseen Forces
''Unseen Forces'' is an extant 1920 silent film drama directed by Sidney Franklin and starring Sylvia Breamer and Conrad Nagel. It was long thought to be lost until a copy was located in New Zealand. It was produced by the same production comp ...
'' (1920)
* ''
Silent Years'' (1921)
* ''
The Call of Home'' (1922)
*''
Hurricane's Gal
''Hurricane's Gal'' is a 1922 American silent adventure film produced, written and directed by Allen Holubar and starring his wife Dorothy Phillips. It was distributed through Associated First National Pictures.
Cast
*Dorothy Phillips as Lola ...
'' (1922)
*''
White Shoulders
''White Shoulders'' is a lost 1931 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Melville W. Brown and starring Mary Astor and Jack Holt, with major supporting roles by Ricardo Cortez and Sidney Toler. The film was produced and distributed b ...
'' (1922)
*''
Pawned'' (1922)
*''
The Pride of Palomar'' (1922)(*as James Barrows)
*''
When Love Comes
''When Love Comes'' is a 1922 American silent drama film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Helen Jerome Eddy, Harrison Ford and Fanny Midgley.Munden p.885
Cast
* Helen Jerome Eddy as Jane Coleridge
* Harrison Ford as Peter Jamison
* Fa ...
'' (1922)
*''
Shadows of the North'' (1923)
* ''
Cause for Divorce'' (1923)
*''
Stephen Steps Out'' (1923)
* ''
The Old Fool
''The Old Fool'' is a 1923 American silent Western film directed by Edward D. Venturini and starring James O. Barrows, Lloyd Hughes and Jim Mason.Darby, William. ''Masters of Lens and Light: A Checklist of Major Cinematographers and Their Fe ...
'' (1923)
*''Fight and Win'' (1924)
*''
Young Ideas
''Young Ideas'' is a 1943 American romantic comedy film directed by Jules Dassin and starring Susan Peters, Herbert Marshall and Mary Astor
Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American ...
'' (1924)
*''
The Signal Tower
''The Signal Tower'' is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Clarence Brown and produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film stars Virginia Valli, Rockliffe Fellowes, and Wallace Beery.
Cast
*Virginia Valli as Sally Taylor
...
'' (1924)
*''
The Gaiety Girl'' (1924)
*''The Title Holder'' (1924) (*short)
*''
Her Night of Romance
''Her Night of Romance'' is a 1924 American silent film written by Hanns Kräly and directed by Sidney Franklin. The romantic comedy stars Constance Talmadge and Ronald Colman.
Plot
American millionaire Samuel C. Adams brings his daughter Do ...
'' (1924)
*''
The Tomboy
''The Tomboy'' is a 1924 American silent comedy-drama film directed by David Kirkland and starring Herbert Rawlinson and Dorothy Devore.
Plot
As described in a review in a film magazine, Tommy Smith (Devore), the village tomboy, runs a boardin ...
'' (1924)
*''
Daddy's Gone A-Hunting'' (1925)
*''The Price of Pleasure'' (1925)
*''
The Goose Woman
The Goose Woman is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Louise Dresser with Jack Pickford as her son. The film was released by Universal Pictures. '' (1925)
*''
The Sea Beast'' (1926)
References
External links
*
*
portrait of Barrows in his youtho
alternate linkJames O. Barrows
Kinotv)
Barrows
left, with George O'Hara and Dolores Costello
1855 births
1925 deaths
Male actors from California
American male silent film actors
American male stage actors
20th-century American male actors
{{US-stage-actor-stub