Richard Garrick

Richard Garrick (December 27, 1878 – August 21, 1962) was an Irish-born American actor and director. Life and career Garrick was born Richard Thomas O'Brien in the townland of Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland. His father, James E. O'Brien, was a master tailor in that town, counting among his clients Lord Waterford as well as other nobility and landed gentry. In 1882, James left Portlaw for the United States. He landed in North Adams, Massachusetts, where there were cotton mills and the need for a clothesmaker. Two years later, his wife Johanna and children followed. In 1898, Garrick enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served as a corporal in Company M, U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment stationed in Miagao, Iloilo, in the Philippines in 1900 during the Philippine–American War. When he returned to North Adams, he worked for a time in his father's tailor shop, then struck out on his own. He ventured to New York City where he landed roles in stage productions, among them The Boys of Company B (1907), The Flag Lieutenant (1909), The Fourth Estate, (1909), and The Monkey's Paw. By 1912 Garrick was in Los Angeles and became a charter member of The Reel Club. Through the early 1910s, Garrick acted in, as well as directed, silent films, including Colonel Custard's Last Stand (1914). In 1915, he joined the Gaumont Company and was placed in charge of the second Rialto Star Feature Company. By 1916, Garrick was the director general of Gaumont's Jacksonville, Florida, studios. He left Gaumont to open Garrick Studios Company, offering a five-acre (20,000 m2) facility in Jacksonville that would house enough equipment and space for 20 companies to work simultaneously. As the 1916–1917 season approached, however, the mood towards making films in Jacksonville shifted, and many residents opposed the industry's presence.