Sidney Blackmer ✝

Sidney Alderman Blackmer (July 13, 1895 – October 6, 1973) was an American Broadway and film actor active between 1914 and 1971, usually in major supporting roles. Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina, the son of Clara Deroulhac (née Alderman) and Walter Steele Blackmer. He started in the insurance and financial counseling business but abandoned it. While working as a construction laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately decided to pursue acting as a career. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Blackmer went to New York, hoping to act on the stage. While in the city, he took jobs and extra work at various film studios at the then motion picture capital, Fort Lee, New Jersey,[citation needed] including a small role in the highly popular serial The Perils of Pauline (1914), his film debut. He made his Broadway debut in 1917, but his career was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army during World War I. After the war, he returned to the theatre. In 1919, Blackmer played a major role in the strike that led to the formation of the Actors' Equity Association.[citation needed] In 1929 he returned to motion pictures and went on to appear as a major character actor in more than 120 films.