Philippe De Lacy
Philippe De Lacy a.k.a. Philippe deLacy (July 25, 1917 – July 29, 1995) was a former silent film era child actor.
Born during World War I, the already fatherless Philippe lost his mother and five siblings when a German shell devastated the family home. Only two days old at the time of tragedy, the boy was kept alive, but barely, in the basement of his grandmother's house. He was adopted by Mrs. Edith De Lacy, who was associated with the U.S. Woman's Overseas Hospital. After the war ended, Mrs. De Lacy brought Philippe to America, where his stunning looks soon created opportunities for him as a model for magazine advertisements. His modeling assignments brought him to the attention of Hollywood, and he appeared in his first film in a bit part at the age of four.
Phillipe's childhood story was used as the subject of a fictional children's book, Little Philippe of Belgium, written by Madeline Brandeis as part of her "Children of the World" series.
De Lacy freelanced for several studios in the 1920s, but mostly for Paramount. In 1924 he played the role of Michael Darling in the classic silent version of Peter Pan, with Betty Bronson. He played the young Don Juan at ten years of age in John Barrymore's Don Juan (1926), and in 1927 he played the young prince Karl Heinrich in Ernst Lubitsch's memorable The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, which also starred Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer. Also in 1927 he starred with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in Love, an updated version of the Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina in which he played the young son of Anna, Serezha Karenin. When the sound era arrived De Lacy's acting career was declining, and he never made the transition from child actor to adult. Apart from his films, De Lacy also did some work in the theatre. However he had lost his boyish charm by his early teens and retired from the screen in the early 1930s.
De Lacy concentrated on the production end of films as a producer, director and cinematographer. He became an assistant to director Louis De Rochemont and worked with him in the 1940 film The Ramparts We Watch. Eventually he became an executive with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, a position he held for over 25 years. De Lacy’s first credit was in 1942 as an editorial associate for the US armed forces propaganda film We Are The Marines. Radio and television announcer Westbrook Van Voorhis provided the narration for the documentary, which was effectively a full-length fighting feature. In 1944 De Lacy was involved in another documentary, this time for the US Navy, filmed aboard the carrier Yorktown. The narrators in this documentary were actors Robert Taylor (who was actually a lieutenant in the navy at the time) and Charles Boyer who supplied the French narration. De Lacy was the cinematographer in The Fighting Lady and had three real life naval commanders to assist him. This film won the 1945 Oscar for Best Documentary. De Lacy then turned his hand to directing a television series in 1950, and in addition, he also became manager of a local Hollywood television station.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 0.3676 |
| Birthday | 1917-07-25 |
| Place of Birth | Nancy, France |
| Also Known As | Philippe De Lacey, Philip De Lacy, Phillippe De Lacy, Philipe de Lacy, Philippe deLacy, |
1927
Is Zat So?
9/1
A rich man hires a pair of brothers, one to teach him to box and the other to manage him. Meanwhile, the rich man must fend off his brother-in-law, wh...
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Is Zat So?
1927
The Tigress
8/1
In Spain, a band of gypsies poach the deer in a neighboring estate. The gypsy chief, Tser (Harold Truesdale), is murdered in cold blood, and the estat...
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The Tigress
1925
The Happy Warrior
10/1
Malcolm McGregor joins the circus and falls in love with Olive Borden but his life changes when he finds out he is a titled Lord.
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The Happy Warrior
1926
Beau Geste
6.4/15
Brothers Beau, John and Digby Geste join the Foreign Legion, where they fall under the rule of tyrannical Sergeant Markoff. Beau and John are assigned...
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Beau Geste
1928
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
7.221/34
A young prince falls in love with a beautiful barmaid while at university in old Heidelberg.
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The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
1924
Peter Pan
6.875/48
Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefario...
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Peter Pan
1927
The Magic Garden
8/1
Story about a little boy and girl that meet in a beautiful garden and the little girl promises the boy that some day she would meet him there again. H...
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The Magic Garden
1929
General Crack
10/1
The film takes place in the 18th century Austria and revolves around Prince Christian, commonly known as General Crack. His father had been a respecta...
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General Crack
1929
The Royal Rider
7/1
Dick Scott takes his Wild West show to the Balkan kingdom of Alvania where the boy king of the country commands the troupe to give a performance. The...
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The Royal Rider
1927
Love
5.686/35
In Imperial Russia, Anna Karenina falls in love with the dashing military officer Count Vronsky and abandons her husband and child to become his mistr...
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Love
1930
The Sins of the Children
4.65/10
A barber turns down a promising business venture in order to take his sick son to a drier climate out west.
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The Sins of the Children
1922
A Doll's House
10/1
Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed.
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A Doll's House
1929
The Four Feathers
5/8
An Englishman (Richard Arlen) fights in the Sudan after receiving white feathers of cowardice from his fiancee (Fay Wray) and friends.
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The Four Feathers
1928
The Broken Mask
7/1
Pertio, an Argentine dancer, has a severely scarred face that has kept him from succeeding in his chosen career. He is persuaded by Caricia, an Argent...
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The Broken Mask
1923
Rosita
6.591/11
The King tosses Rosita in jail and when Don Diego, who Rosita loves, tries to defend her, he too is thrown in jail. While Don Diego is sentenced to be...
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Rosita
1927
Mother Machree
6.6/10
Ellen McHugh, a poor Irish immigrant to America, finds work in a carnival and is thus able to send her son Brian to a fine school. But when her positi...
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Mother Machree
1927
The Way of All Flesh
6.5/9
The story takes place in Milwaukee during the early 1900s with a bank clerk named August Schiller who is happy with both his job and his family. He is...
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The Way of All Flesh
1930
Sarah and Son
5.462/13
A ne'er-do-well husband, after years of abusing his wife, disappears with their son, and winds up selling him to a wealthy family. Years later, the wi...
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Sarah and Son
1930
One Romantic Night
5.75/4
A princess is forced to choose between a charming tutor and a rakish prince.
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One Romantic Night
1929
Square Shoulders
8/1
Tad's dream is to attend a military academy so he can grow up to be a great soldier and a war hero, like his father. What he doesn't know is that his...
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Square Shoulders
1920
The Riddle: Woman
8/1
Lilla Gravert falls into the clutches of a master blackmailer, Eric Helsingor.
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The Riddle: Woman
1925
A Lover's Oath
7/2
"The plot introduces Omar as a leader of his people but deals rather with the love of his nephew, Ben Ali, for the fairest daughter of the tribe" (Var...
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A Lover's Oath
1928
Napoleon's Barber
6/2
Arthur Caesar's classic about the barber who held the fate of France in his hands, has been produced on lavish feature-film scale by John Ford, the ma...
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Napoleon's Barber
1929
The Marriage Playground
6/5
A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their int...
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The Marriage Playground
1926
Flesh and the Devil
7.18/64
When lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home after completing their military training, Leo meets the stunning Felicitas at a railway station...
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Flesh and the Devil
1929
The Redeeming Sin
7/1
The Redeeming Sin (1929) is a crime drama part-talking silent film with Vitaphone music and sound effects. It was produced and distributed by Warner B...
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The Redeeming Sin
1926
Don Juan
6.6/15
If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things - life, disillusionment and d...
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Don Juan
1923
The Wheel of Fortune
7/1
A man who is erroneously told he has only a short time to live after doctors misdiagnose a bee's buzzing as a heart condition.
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The Wheel of Fortune
1926
Faithful Wives
10/1
The title tells it all. Faithful wives perhaps but can the same be said for their husbands?
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Faithful Wives
1928
4 Devils
7.6/5
Four orphans, raised by an aging clown, becomes a high wire act in a circus. Lost film.
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4 Devils
1927
The Elegy
9/1
Directorial debut of Andrew L. Stone.
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The Elegy
1922
Is Matrimony a Failure?
10/1
Mr. and Mrs. Amos Saxby's silver wedding anniversary is interrupted by the surprise elopement of their daughter Margaret with bank clerk Arthur Havila...
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Is Matrimony a Failure?
1921
What's a Wife Worth?
8/1
After Bruce Morrison marries Rose Kendall, he receives information that his father is gravely ill, and not to tell him of Bruce's marriage because the...
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What's a Wife Worth?
1922
Thelma
7/1
Though loved by many in her Norwegian village home, Thelma herself does not know love until she meets Sir Phillip Errington. They are married and go t...
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Thelma
1923
Divorce
9/1
While Jane and Jim Parker witness the divorce proceedings of Jane's parents, the George Reeds, they resolve that such a disaster will never occur in t...
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Divorce
1925
My Neighbor's Wife
9/1
1925 American silent comedy film directed by Clarence Geldart.
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