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BILL HART
ment of fame and fortune as one of the five most popular stars
in the history of motion pictures.
"On the stage, he was the leading man for such famous
actresses as Mme. Modjeska, Mme. Rhea and Julia Arthur.
He played 'Armand' to Modjeska's 'Camille' and 'Romeo' to
Julia Arthur's 'Juliet.' He was the original 'Messala' in 'Ben
Hur,' the greatest stage production of its time; he won stardom
in 'The Man In the Iron Mask.' He made westerns popular on
the stage with his performance of 'Cash Hawkins' in 'The
Squaw Man,' as 'The Virginian' and in other roles.
"Nature gave Bill Hart a matchless physique and figure,
straight as an arrow, six feet one and one-half inches tall in
his stocking feet, lean and powerful. In his younger days he
was an outstanding athlete for the Manhattan Athletic Club
in New York. All through his life he was extremely proud of
his robust health and physique.
"He had a long, strong face with craggy features, a face
that could be grim and saturnine, or gentle and kindly. His
small, twinkling, blue eyes, amazingly expressive, could glitter
with all the traditional deadliness of the western two-gun
men he so often portrayed.
"Bill was uncommonly graceful in his movements for
so big a man. He never got over his Indian habit of movement,
silent and graceful.
"He became a superlative actor, much finer than his mo-
tion picture audiences or his screen colleagues ever knew.
Possibly he lived before his time because he had a superb
speaking voice.
"Few people associated the W. S. Hart or the William S.
Hart of the Broadway stage with the Bill Hart, two-gun man
of the movies, so completely did Bill submerge himself in the
character he played in the western movies.
"He played the part to the hilt in real life, and people
loved it. His 'Yes, Ma'am' and 'Thank you, Ma'am' became
as natural to him when speaking to a woman as it was to say
'Hello' and 'How are you?' He dressed in what the country
westerner calls 'store clothes,' ready-made suits and shirts,
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