Lou Tellegen

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Lou Tellegen
Lou Tellegen in 1916
Born	Isidore Louis Bernard Edmon van Dommelen November 26, 1883(1883-11-26) Sint-Oedenrode, The Netherlands
Died	October 29, 1934 (aged 50) Hollywood, California, United States
Other name(s)	Lou-Tellegen
Years active	1967-1983
Spouse(s)	Countess Jeanne de Brockere (1903 - 1905) Geraldine Farrar (1916 - 1920) Nina Romano (1923 - 1928) Eve Casanova (1930 - 1932)

Lou Tellegen (November 26, 1883^[1] – October 29, 1934) was a Dutch-born silent film and stage actor.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Move to the United States 3 Later Career and Suicide 4 Memoirs 5 Reference 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Born Isidore Louis Bernard Edmon van Dommelen, he was the illegitimate child of the army lieutenant Isidore Louis Bernard Edmon Tellegen (1836 - 1902) and Anna Maria van Dommelen.

He made his stage debut in Amsterdam in 1903, and over the next few years built a reputation to the point where he was invited to perform in Paris, France, eventually co-starring in several roles with Sarah Bernhardt, with whom he was involved romantically. In 1910, he made his motion picture debut alongside Bernhardt in La dame aux camélias, a silent film made in France based on the play by Alexandre Dumas, fils.

[edit] Move to the United States

In 1910, he and Bernhardt travelled to the United States, where The New York Times first published, and then retracted, the announcement of their impending marriage. (She was thirty-seven years older than he.) Back in France, in 1912 they made their second film together, Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (Queen Elizabeth), and the following year, Adrienne Lecouvreur. The latter is considered a lost film.

In the summer of 1913, Tellegen went to London where he produced and starred in the Oscar Wilde play, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Invited back to the United States, Tellegen worked in theatre and made his first American film in 1915, titled The Explorer, followed by The Unknown, both with Dorothy Davenport as his co-star. Considered one of the best-looking actors on screen, he followed up with three straight films starring opposite Geraldine Farrar. In 1916, he married Farrar, a well-known opera diva turned film actress, who was herself known to be the lover of Germany's Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany.

Tellegen's marriage to Farrar did not last (they divorced in 1923), and he would go on to marry a total of four times, the first being a countess, the second was Miss Farrar. He became an American citizen in 1918.^[2]

[edit] Later Career and Suicide

He had appeared in numerous films when his face was damaged in a fire. Fame faded, employment was not forthcoming, and he went bankrupt. He was diagnosed with cancer, though this information was kept from him, and he became despondent.

In 1934, Tellegen committed suicide by stabbing himself in the chest with a pair of scissors seven times (supposedly while surrounded by newspaper clippings of his career^[3]), resulting in lurid press coverage.^[4]

[edit] Memoirs

His 1930 memoirs, Women Have Been Kind (to which title reviewer Dorothy Parker suggested appending "of Dumb"), is, at best, unreliable. It contains many false claims, one of which is that he posed for Auguste Rodin's sculpture, Eternal Spring.

[edit] Reference

• The Divine Sarah, by Arthur Gold & Robert Fizdale, Vintage Books, 1991. ISBN 0-679-74185-2

[edit] External links

• Lou Tellegen at the Internet Movie Database
• Lou Tellegen at the Internet Broadway Database
• Extensive biography (Dutch)
• Lou Tellegen at Find A Grave

Persondata
NAME	Tellegen, Lou
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dommelen, Isidore Louis Bernard Edmon van
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Silent film and stage actor
DATE OF BIRTH	November 26, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sint-Oedenrode, The Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH	October 29, 1934
PLACE OF DEATH	Hollywood, California, United States