Roy D'Arcy

Infobox actor
name = Roy D'Arcy


imagesize = 240px
caption =
birthdate = 1894
birthplace = San Francisco, U.S.
deathdate = 1969
deathplace =
birthname = Roy Giusti
spouse =
othername =
website =
academyawards =

Roy D'Arcy (1894 - 1969) was an American film actor of the silent film and early sound period of the 1930s noted for his portrayal of flamboyant villains. He appeared in 50 different films between 1925 and 1939, such as "The Temptress" in 1926 with actresses such as Greta Garbo.

Biography

Roy D'Arcy was born Roy Giusti in San Francisco in 1894 but educated in Europe. For a while he traveled with a band of gypsies throughout the Continent, but left to study art and painting in Paris. After several years of traveling and various business ventures in South America and Asia he returned to the United States and decided to become involved in the theater. He was hired as a singer in several touring theatrical companies, and in 1919 made his brief film debut in "Oh Boy!" in a role he had played on the stage. He spent some time in vaudeville as a monologist, and took his act to Europe and Asia.

D'Arcy was performing his show on a Los Angeles stage when he was spotted by director Erich von Stroheim, who thought D'Arcy was just right for the part of the villainous, arrogant Prince Mirko in "The Merry Widow". Von Stroheim had wanted to play the part himself, but was forbidden from doing so by MGM production head Irving Thalberg. It was a troubled production - from which Von Stroheim was fired, brought back, then fired again - but the film was a great critical and financial success, and D'Arcy received wide acclaim for his portrayal of the dissolute Mirko. With the success of film he was cast in several other MGM productions as the head villain, such as "Graustark" (1925), "La Bohème" (1926) and "The Temptress" (1926) alongside Greta Garbo, but he soon appeared in such comedies as "Adam and Evil" (1927) and "On Ze Boulevard" (1927). He developed a revue he took to Broadway in 1928, called "The Greatest Array of Talent Ever Assembled on Any Bill in This Country", which consisted of singers, dancers, and D'Arcy himself walking out into the audience and telling stories of his travels around the world.

D'Arcy made the transition from silent film very well, and played a succession of foreigners, both villainous and otherwise, in films of the early 1930s. However, as acting styles changed because of the introduction of sound, D'Arcy's unique florid style went out of fashion, and in a few years he was reduced to doing small, low-budget pictures for lower independent studios, such as "Broadway to Cheyenne" (1932) for Monogram Pictures and "Discarded Lovers" (1932) for Tower Pictures. He did though have noted roles in a serial for Mascot Pictures Corporation, "The Shadow of the Eagle" (1932), starring a young John Wayne, and in his second serial, "The Whispering Shadow" (1933) with Bela Lugosi.

By the mid '30s he continued playing villainous roles in a number of low-budget productions including "Revolt of the Zombies" (1936), "Captain Calamity" (1936) and "Under Strange Flags" (1937)). His final film was to be a major one, in the Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire musical "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle" in 1939 which received widespread acclaim.

Finishing his film career around the age of 45, D'Arcy retired to his own real estate business. He died in 1969.

External links

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Persondata
NAME= D'Arcy, Roy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Giusti, Roy
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Actor
DATE OF BIRTH= 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH= San Francisco, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH= 1969
PLACE OF DEATH=