FRANCIS X. BUSHMAN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Francis X. Bushman was born on January 10th, 1883 in Baltimore, Maryland with the birth name Francis Xavier Bushman.  He became a well known American actor as well as a film director and screenwriter.  He was also the first film actor to be known as, "The King of the Movies" before later in film history this title went to, Clark Gable. 
 
As a young adult he decided to join the Maryland Athletic Club and began focusing on body building and then lived in New York working as a sculptor's model.  His career began like many as working as a stage actor and he was represented by agent, Harry Reichenbach.
 
He entered the film industry in 1911 with Essanay Studios and his most well known silent film role was as the Roman Massala in, "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" (1925).  Other then these two silent films, many of his early work has been lost.  He was almost always cast as the romantic lead and was highly popular amongst with female fans.
 
Francis later also donated the land where his home was located on Hollywood Boulevard to Sid Grauman which now has the well known Chinese Theater built there.  He was once also advertised during the course of his career as, "The Most Handsome Man in the World".   

His popularity did take a hit when the media publicized that he had been secretly married to actress, Beverly Bayne who he had worked with on a number of films such as, "Romeo and Juliet" (1916). 
 
Over the course of his career he would appear in more than two hundred films.  Upon the Great Crash in 1929, sadly, Bushman lost all is fortune and working in the industry for him had slowly started to come to an end.    

He did continue to work on radio on the serial, "Those We Love" and followed with making quite a decent living as a star of radio soap operas.  He also entered into a number of business ventures as well as took on some television roles on such series as, "Peter Gunn", "Make Room for Daddy", "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", "Perry Mason", "Dr. Kildare" and even an episode of, "Batman" in 1966.  His final role was in, "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" (1966).         

Francis X. Bushman married a total of four times throughout the course of his lifetime.  His first wife was Josephine Fladine Duval in 1902 and they had five children together before his film career began, however he had an affair on his current wife with Beverly Bayne and so when the first marriage ended in divorce in 1918 he married Beverly right away and they had a child together also before this marriage also came to an end in 1925.  He then wed Norma Emily Atkin in 1932 and they were together until she passed away in 1956.  Bushman then chose to marry for a fourth time to Iva Millicient Richardson in 1956 and they were together until he passed away on August 23rd, 1966 in Pacific Palisades from a heart attack.  His remains are interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery. 

Filmography

1966 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1966 Batman
1966 The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini 
1965 Dr. Kildare 
1960-1964 Perry Mason 
1960-1961 G.E. True Theater 
1961 The Phantom Planet
1961 Peter Gunn 
1960 12 to the Moon 
1960 Shotgun Slade
1960 The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis 
1959 The Danny Thomas Show 
1958 77 Sunset Strip
1958 The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet 
1958 The Court of Last Resort
1957 The Story of Mankind
1957 Official Detective 
1956 The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
1954 Schlitz Playhouse
1954 Sabrina 
1954 The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse 
1952 The Bad and the Beautiful 
1952 Apache Country 
1951 David and Bathsheba
1951 Hollywood Story
1944 Wilson 
1942 Silver Queen 
1941 Mr. Celebrity
1941 Peer Gynt
1937 Thoroughbreds Don't Cry
1937 Dick Tracy 
1936 Hollywood Boulevard 
1932 Watch Beverly
1930 Once a Gentleman
1930 The Dude Wrangler
1930 Call of the Circus
1928 Midnight Life
1928 Say It with Sables 
1928 The Grip of the Yukon
1928 Una nueva y gloriosa nación 
1928 The Man Higher Up 
1927 The Thirteenth Juror 
1927 The Flag: A Story Inspired by the Tradition of Betsy Ross
1927 The Lady in Ermine 
1926 The Marriage Clause 
1926 Playing the Swell
1925 Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1925 The Masked Bride
1923 Modern Marriage
1922 According to Hoyle 
1922 Making the Grade 
1920 Smiling All the Way 
1919 Daring Hearts 
1919 God's Outlaw
1918 The Poor Rich Man 
1918 A Pair of Cupids
1918 Social Quicksands
1918 Cyclone Higgins, D.D. 
1918 With Neatness and Dispatch 
1918 The Brass Check 
1918 Under Suspicion 
1917 Red, White and Blue Blood 
1917 The Voice of Conscience 
1917 The Adopted Son
1917 Their Compact
1917 The Great Secret 
1916 Romeo and Juliet
1916 In the Diplomatic Service 
1916 A Virginia Romance
1916 The Voice in the Darkness
1916 A Million a Minute 
1916 The Wall Between 
1916 The Red Mouse 
1916 Man and His Soul 
1915 Pennington's Choice 
1915 The Silent Voice 
1915 The Second in Command 
1915 Providence and Mrs. Urmy 
1915 The Slim Princess 
1915 Thirty
1915 The Return of Richard Neal 
1915 Graustark 
1915 The Great Silence 
1915 Stars Their Courses Change
1915 The Accounting 
1915 Thirteen Down 
1915 The Ambition of the Baron
1915 The Gallantry of Jimmy Rodgers
1915 The Shanty at Trembling Hill
1914 Any Woman's Choice 
1914 The Battle of Love
1914 Every Inch a King
1914 The Fable of the Bush League Lover Who Failed to Qualify
1914 Scars of Possession
1914 The Prince Party
1914 The Unplanned Elopement 
1914 The Private Officer
1914 In the Glare of the Lights
1914 The Other Man 
1914 A Splendid Dishonor
1914 Sparks of Fate
1914 The Plum Tree 
1914 Under Royal Patronage 
1914 Ambushed
1914 The Masked Wrestler
1914 The Motor Buccaneers
1914 One Wonderful Night 
1914 His Stolen Fortune
1914 The Night Hawks 
1914 A Night with a Million 
1914 Trinkets of Tragedy 
1914 The Countess 
1914 Finger Prints 
1914 Jane 
1914 The Elder Brother
1914 Blood Will Tell
1914 The Voice in the Wilderness
1914 Ashes of Hope 
1914 The Mystery of Room 643 
1914 Yarn a-Tangle
1914 The Man for A' That
1914 In the Moon's Ray
1914 The Three Scratch Clue
1914 Shadows
1914 The Other Girl
1914 Mongrel and Master
1914 Dawn and Twilight
1914 The Girl at the Curtain
1914 Through the Storm 
1914 The Hour and the Man 
1914 Hearts and Flowers
1913 The Stigma
1913 The Little Substitute 
1913 The Toll of the Marshes
1913 The Way Perilous
1913 Dear Old Girl
1913 Tony, the Fiddler 
1913 For Old Time's Sake 
1913 The Right of Way
1913 Sunlight
1913 The Hermit of Lonely Gulch 
1913 The Power of Conscience
1913 The Whip Hand
1913 A Brother's Loyalty 
1913 Let No Man Put Asunder
1913 The Spy's Defeat 
1913 The Pathway of Years
1913 A Mistaken Accusation
1913 The Discovery 
1913 The Farmer's Daughter 
1913 The Thirteenth Man 
1913 When Soul Meets Soul 
1913 Little Ned
1912 Requited Love 
1912 The Cat's Paw
1912 The Virtue of Rags 
1912 The Error of Omission
1912 The Iron Heel
1912 The Penitent 
1912 The House of Pride 
1912 When Wealth Torments 
1912 Chains 
1912 The Warning Hand
1912 The End of the Feud 
1912 The Voice of Conscience
1912 Neptune's Daughter
1912 The Fall of Montezuma
1912 Twilight
1912 The Magic Wand
1912 The Old Wedding Dress
1912 The New Church Organ 
1912 Her Hour of Triumph
1912 The Understudy
1912 Signal Lights 
1912 The Butterfly Net
1912 White Roses
1912 Billy and the Butler
1912 Return of William Marr
1912 The Passing Shadow 
1912 The Mis-Sent Letter 
1912 A Good Catch 
1912 The Eye That Never Sleeps
1912 Out of the Night 
1912 Napatia, the Greek Singe
1912 The Rivals 
1912 Lonesome Robert
1912 Teaching a Liar a Lesson 
1912 At the End of the Trail 
1912 Out of the Depths
1912 The Turning Point 
1912 The Little Black Box 
1912 Tracked Down 
1912 Her Boys 
1912 The Melody of Love
1912 The Hospital Baby
1912 A Brother's Error 
1912 Alias Billy Sargent 
1912 The Little Poet
1912 The Old Florist 
1912 The Mail Order Wife
1912 Daydream of a Photoplay Artist
1911 The Goodfellow's Christmas Eve 
1911 The Long Strike
1911 The Madman
1911 The Quinceville Raffle 
1911 Too Much Turkey
1911 The Empty Saddle 
1911 He Fought for the U.S.A.
1911 Bill Bumper's Bargain 
1911 Pals
1911 A False Suspicion
1911 Reparation 
1911 Lost Years  
1911 Saved from the Torrents
1911 The Burglarized Burglar 
1911 Two Men and a Girl  
1911 The Dark Romance of a Tobacco Tin
1911 Putting It Over 
1911 The Playwright
1911 Fate's Funny Frolic 
1911 Live, Love and Believe 
1911 The Gordian Knot
1911 The New Manager 
1911 God's Inn by the Sea 
1911 Her Dad the Constable 
1911 The Rosary
1911 His Friend's Wife