William Stanley Blystone (1894-1956) had a proper job in the mining industry as a young man, before he switched to the cinema. During the silent era he started out working behind the camera, including as an assistant director, making his first appearance onscreen in 1924. In thirty-three years, he was in well over 500 pictures.
Blystone was usually uncredited, though he had a few featured roles, mostly in ‘B’ westerns. He was most prominent in Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936), where he played Paulette Goddard’s father, shot and killed during the street protest.
He was also pitted against the Three Stooges in a number of their short films, and also appeared with Laurel and Hardy. He made a fleeting appearance in John Ford’s The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), but his career was generally very much in the lower half of a double bill.
Blystone made uncredited contributions to nine MGM musicals: Dancing Lady, A Night at the Opera, Swiss Miss, Born to Sing, Big City, Words and Music, That Midnight Kiss, Rich, Young and Pretty and Jupiter’s Darling.
Leave a Reply