Antonio "Tony" Moreno (born Antonio Garrido Monteagudo, September 26,
1887 â€" February 15, 1967) was a Spanish-born American actor and film
director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.Born in Madrid,
Spain, Moreno emigrated to the United States at the age of fourteen
and settled in Massachusetts, where he completed his education.
Although he claimed to have attended Williston Seminary in
Easthampton, Massachusetts, the Archives of the school, now the
Williston Northampton School, have no record of his having done so. He
became a stage actor in regional theater productions. In 1912 he moved
to Hollywood, California and he was signed to Biograph Studios and
began his career in bit parts and as a movie extra. His film debut was
in Iola's Promise (1912).In 1914 Moreno began co-starring in a series
of highly successful serials at Vitagraph opposite popular silent film
actress Norma Talmadge. These appearances helped to increase Moreno's
popularity with the nation's nascent filmgoers, and by 1915 he was a
highly regarded matinee idol, appearing opposite such successful
actors as Tyrone Power, Sr., Gloria Swanson, Blanche Sweet, Pola
Negri, and Dorothy Gish. Moreno was often typecast in his earliest
films as the "Latin Lover", as were other actors of the era with Latin
roots, such as Ramón Novarro and Rudolph Valentino. These roles
predate Valentino's famous breakthrough as a "Latin Lover" in the 1921
film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.By the early 1920s Moreno
joined film mogul Jesse Lasky's Famous Players and became one of the
company's highest paid performers. In 1926 Moreno starred opposite
Swedish acting legend Greta Garbo in The Temptress and the following
year followed up with a starring role in the enormous box-office hit
Clara Bow vehicle It.
1887 â€" February 15, 1967) was a Spanish-born American actor and film
director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.Born in Madrid,
Spain, Moreno emigrated to the United States at the age of fourteen
and settled in Massachusetts, where he completed his education.
Although he claimed to have attended Williston Seminary in
Easthampton, Massachusetts, the Archives of the school, now the
Williston Northampton School, have no record of his having done so. He
became a stage actor in regional theater productions. In 1912 he moved
to Hollywood, California and he was signed to Biograph Studios and
began his career in bit parts and as a movie extra. His film debut was
in Iola's Promise (1912).In 1914 Moreno began co-starring in a series
of highly successful serials at Vitagraph opposite popular silent film
actress Norma Talmadge. These appearances helped to increase Moreno's
popularity with the nation's nascent filmgoers, and by 1915 he was a
highly regarded matinee idol, appearing opposite such successful
actors as Tyrone Power, Sr., Gloria Swanson, Blanche Sweet, Pola
Negri, and Dorothy Gish. Moreno was often typecast in his earliest
films as the "Latin Lover", as were other actors of the era with Latin
roots, such as Ramón Novarro and Rudolph Valentino. These roles
predate Valentino's famous breakthrough as a "Latin Lover" in the 1921
film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.By the early 1920s Moreno
joined film mogul Jesse Lasky's Famous Players and became one of the
company's highest paid performers. In 1926 Moreno starred opposite
Swedish acting legend Greta Garbo in The Temptress and the following
year followed up with a starring role in the enormous box-office hit
Clara Bow vehicle It.
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