From Wikipedia
Milton George Gustavus Sills (January 12, 1882 – September
15, 1930) was an American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century.
Sills was born in Chicago, Illinois into a wealthy family.
He was the son of William Henry Sills, a successful mineral dealer, and
Josephine Antoinette Troost Sills, an heiress from a prosperous banking family.
Upon completing high school, Sills was offered a one-year scholarship to the
University of Chicago, where he studied psychology and philosophy. After
graduating, he was offered a position at the university as a researcher and
within several years worked his way up to become a professor at the school.
In 1905, stage actor Donald Robertson visited the school to
lecture on author and playwright Henrik Ibsen and suggested to Sills that he
try his hand at acting. On a whim, Sills agreed and left his prestigious
teaching career to embark on a stint in acting. Sills joined Robertson's stock
theater company and began touring the country.
In 1914, Sills decided to conquer the new medium of motion
pictures. He made his film debut the same year in the big-budget drama The Pit
for the World Film Company and was signed to a contract with film producer
William A. Brady. The film was enormously successful, and Sills made three more
films for the company, including another huge box-office draw The Deep Purple
opposite silent screen star Clara Kimball Young. By the late 1910s, Sills had
reached leading man status and parted ways with World Film, taking the then
unusual path of freelancing as an actor.
By the early 1920s, Sills was enjoying a highly successful
acting career and working for such prominent film studios as MGM, Paramount
Pictures, and Pathé Exchange. He was often paired with the most popular leading
ladies of the era, including: Geraldine Farrar, Gloria Swanson and Viola Dana.
His greatest public and commercial successes came with the now lost Flaming
Youth (1923) opposite Colleen Moore, and the enormous box-office hit The Sea
Hawk (1924).
Sills made two sound pictures, showing that he had an
excellent voice. Many may have forgotten that Sills had extensive stage
training before embarking on his career before the cameras. Sills died
unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1930 while playing tennis with his wife at
his Santa Barbara, California home at the age of 48. He was interred at the
Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum in Chicago, Illinois.
