Claude King #8

"Claude King's dalmatian is the quietest and most regular attender of Board meetings", the Guild's magazine would declare in 1934. Not much exaggeration--this founder took his beloved canine friend, named "Piper," everywhere he could (Piper's the pup in Claude's head shot!) Trained as an artist before taking to the stage, Claude accumulated over 20 years' theatrical experience before World War I broke, and he enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery in 1914, earning the rank which resulted in his nickname, "The Major." After the war, he came to America in 1920, opening on Broadway with Ethel Barrymore in the hit "Déclassé." A true man of the theatre, his article, "The Place of the Actor in the New Movement" appeared in The Theatre magazine of July 1922. Between stage work, he appeared in several silent films between 1922 and 1925. At 51 years old, in July 1926, he came to Hollywood permanently, playing supporting parts in dozens of silents and talkies. During the summer of 1933, he and Boris Karloff were named to the "Special Committee on Working Conditions" of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.