From Wikipedia
Robert House Peters, Sr. (12 March 1880 – 7 December 1967)
was a British-born American silent film actor, known to filmgoers of the era as
"The Star of a Thousand Emotions."
Born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, Peters began his
career on a high note, playing the handsome leading man in In the Bishop's
Carriage (1913), co-starring Mary Pickford. While The Bishop's Carriage was
filmed in an East Coast studio, Peters was in Los Angeles by 1914, becoming one
of the first screen stars to permanently settle there. Although he stated
publicly that he preferred playing villains, Peters, curly haired and
pleasantly dimpled, was from the outset typecast as the romantic hero.
Peters lifts Beatriz Michelena onto his horse in 1914's
Salomy Jane
After enjoying his greatest success as the good-bad hero of
The Girl of the Golden West (1915), Peters found his career at the peak of the
early 1920s. He signed with Universal Studios for six films in 1924, hoping for
a comeback. The results, however, were mostly mediocre and he was soon demoted
to supporting roles. Retired after 1928's Rose Marie, Peters returned for a
guest appearance in The Old West, a 1952 Gene Autry film that also featured his
son, House Peters, Jr., who subsequently enjoyed a lengthy film career
portraying villains as well as Procter and Gamble's Mr. Clean character in
cleaning product commercials from the late 1950s into the '60s.
Peters was married to actress Mae King in 1914 with whom he
had three children, Gregg, Patricia and Robert, Jr. (1916–2008). Peters died at
the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.
