In the USA from 1906, Donald Crisp was a leading man in silents by 1910 and went on to have a long and varied career as an actor, and until 1930 as a director; later featured as a fatherly character performer in allegedly over 400 movies by 1963. At the Biograph studios, Crisp appeared in numerous D.W. Griffith films, portraying General Grant in "Birth of a Nation" (1915), playing Lillian Gish's brutal father in "Broken Blossoms" (1919) and serving as Griffith's assistant director on both. He also directed a good number of silents including "Don Q, Son of Zorro" (1925) starring Douglas Fairbanks and co-directed "The Navigator" (1924) with Buster Keaton.
As a versatile supporting actor, he fought alongside Errol Flynn in "The Charge of the Light Brigade", was a stuffy military man opposite Kay Francis in "The White Angel" (both 1936) and played a judge in "The Oklahoma Kid" (1939); but after winning a supporting Oscar as the head of a Welsh mining family in John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), Crisp was typecast as white-haired, crusty but good-hearted fathers or men of the cloth in a slew of sentimental classics ("Lassie Come Home" 1943, "National Velvet" 1944). Married to screenwriter Jane Murfin from 1932 to 1944.
Family
FATHER: James Crisp.
MOTHER: Elizabeth Crisp.
SISTER: Eliza Matilda Crisp.
Companion
WIFE: Marie Crisp. Divorced.
WIFE: Jane Murfin. Screenwriter. Married in 1932; divorced in 1944; died in 1957; known for stories about a dog named Strongheart.
Milestone
1899 - 1902: Fought in the Boer War as a volunteer
1906: Moved to the USA
1906: Stage acting debut
Toured with minor-league opera companies and served as stage director in New York with Cohan & Harris before entering film
1908: Began making one-reelers with Biograph studios in NY area
1910: Screen acting debut in D.W. Griffith's "Sunshine Sue"
1914: Film directing debut, "Her Father's Silent Partner"
Education
Eton College - Berkshire, England
Oxford University - Oxford, England
For most of his career, Crisp was perceived as Scottish. When the town of Aberfeldy in Scotland dedicated a plaque to him in 1996, a local librarian named Lorna Mitchell did some research and discovered that Crisp had been born not in Aberfeldy but in Bow, a Cockney section of London's East End.
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