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- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Composer chiefly remembered for his symphonic poems -the first of that genre to be written by a Frenchman- and for his opera 'Samson et Dalila'. Notable for his pioneering efforts on behalf of French music, he was also a gifted pianist and organist, and a writer of criticism, poetry, essays, and plays. Of his concerti and symphonies, in which he adapted the virtuosity of Franz Liszt's style to French traditions of harmony and form, his 'Third Symphony' is most often performed.- An actress best known for her death, her controversial demise occurred the day after being discovered in a hotel bedroom during a party that involved a large amount of alcohol consumption. Actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was the last person seen with Rappe before she was found seriously injured. After her death, Arbuckle went through a murder trial and retrials before being found not guilty. The trials severely damaged the reputations of both Arbuckle and Rappe, and Arbuckle's career never recovered from the scandal.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Enrico Caruso (b. Errico Caruso) was born on February 25, 1873, in Naples, Italy. He was the third of seven children to a poor alcoholic father. He received little primary education and briefly studied music with conductor Vicenzo Lombardini. His early income was from singing serenades.
Caruso made his operatic debut on March 15, 1895 at a back street theatre in Naples. After a two-year stint on the South Italian circuit he auditioned for Giacomo Puccini in the summer of 1897. Puccini was looking for a leading tenor for a performance of 'La Boheme' in Livorno. Puccini was so impressed with the range and tone of the young Caruso's voice, that he reportedly mumbled in awe, "Who sent you to me? God himself?" After an unfriendly reception of his performance in Naples, Caruso vowed to never sing in Naples again, and he never did.
His first major role creations were in operas 'Il Voto', composed by Umberto Giordano, on November 10, 1897, and 'L'Arlesiana' by Francesco Cilea on November 27, 1897, at the Teatro Lirico di Milano. Next season Caruso started with a role creation in 'Fedora', composed by Umberto Giordano, performed on the same stage on November 17, 1898. His first recording contract was signed in 1902, in London, with the Gramophone and Typewriter Company for ten arias at the rate of 10 pounds per take. In May, 1902, Caruso debuted at the Covent Garden Opera in 'Rigoletto' by Giuseppe Verdi. With the help of the banker Pasquale Simonelli, he went to New York. There Caruso made his Metropolitan Opera debut in November 1903. He performed for the Met the next eighteen seasons, making 607 appearances in 37 different operatic productions.
Caruso was the first recording star in history, who sold more than a million records with his 1902 recording of 'Vesti le gubba' from 'Pagliacci' (Clowns) by 'Leoncavallo'. His voice had a combination of the full baritone-like character with the smooth and brilliant tenor qualities. His range was broadened into baritone at the expense of the higher tenor notes, Caruso never sang the high C, and often transposed in order to avoid it. He was a master of interpretation, having a rare gift of portamento and legato, and a superior command of phrasing. His legendary 1904 Victor recording of 'Una furtiva lagrima', by Gaetano Donizetti is used in many film soundtracks.
He contracted pneumonia and developed a complication in the form of pleural inflammation (plerisy), followed by abscesses in his lungs. After a series of unsuccessful surgeries Enrico Caruso died on August 2, 1921, in Naples, Italy. He was laid to rest in Naples, Italy.- Billie Ritchie was born in Scotland in 1874 and joined the world-renowned Karno Fun Factory and Comedy Troupe traveling the world with Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, among others. In 1914 he left Karno and began making silent films for director Henry "Pathe" Lehrman's L-Ko Comedy studios and then his Fox/Sunshine Studios. Ritchie always claimed that Charlie Chaplin imitated his on-stage character of a rag-bedecked "little tramp," although he himself was saddled with the description of being one of the many Chaplin imitators. In late 1919 Ritchie was injured while making a Lehrmann comedy when several ostriches used in filming attacked the unfortunate actor. He was severely injured, and over the next two years was confined to his bed with serious back and internal injuries. He eventually succumbed to his injuries on July 6, 1921, dying in bed at his Hollywood home at 1200 North McCadden Place. He was only 42.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Séverin-Mars was born on 21 February 1873 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. He was an actor and director, known for The Wheel (1923), Macbeth (1915) and La dixième symphonie (1918). He died on 17 July 1921 in Courgent, Yvelines, France.- Georges Feydeau was born on 8 December 1862 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for Ooh La La! (1968), The Girl from Maxim's (1933) and La vida en broma (1950). He was married to Marie-Anne Carolus-Duran. He died on 5 June 1921 in Paris, France.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
A longtime and respected stage actor, Van Dyke Brooke went into the film business in 1909. A prolific actor, writer and director for Vitagraph, he stayed with the company until 1916, when the studio cleaned house and fired many of its "old-timers". He stayed in the business as an actor until his death in 1921.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
A former railroad clerk, Tucker made a name for himself in 1913 with a film entitled Traffic in Souls (1913), a six-reel expose of white slavery. Tucker and Carl Laemmle financed the sum of $57,000 to make the film in New York, the film ultimately grossed $450,000. The success of the film enabled Laemmle, under pressure from Thomas Edison's Patent Trust, to follow the exodus to Hollywood and create his own studio, Universal City. Tucker was married to actress Elisabeth Risdon.- Born in Illinois in 1855, William Barclay Masterson, nicknamed "Bat", drifted westward as a teenager and tried his hand at such professions as buffalo hunter, army scout and gunfighter. While visiting his brother Jim in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1876, he was offered a job as deputy city marshal by the assistant city marshal, Wyatt Earp. Since Jim Masterson was already a deputy marshal, Bat took the job. His instincts as a lawman and gunfighter were so good that the next year he was elected sheriff of Ford County, which included Dodge City, where his brother was still a marshal. However, two years later he ran for re-election as county sheriff and lost. He left Kansas and traveled to Arizona, where he spent much time as a professional gambler in the Tombstone vicinity, returning to Dodge City in 1882 to help his brother Jim in a business dispute. For the next ten years Masterson divided his time between being a professional gambler and short stints as a lawman in various small towns in Colorado. His reputation often preceded him, however; in Denver the local sheriff, after being advised that Masterson was in town and drinking heavily, demanded that he either surrender his guns or leave town. Not wanting to go unarmed in a town where he had a lot of enemies, Masterson was forced to leave. The incident apparently did no lasting damage to his reputation, however, as in 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Masterson as United States Marshal for the Southern District of New York State. Although he was also offered an appointment as marshal of the Oklahoma Territory, Masterson said that because of his reputation anyone wanting to make a reputation for himself would come after him, and since he saw no use in getting caught up in a kill-or-be-killed situation, he turned it down. He remained U.S. Marshal in New York State for two years, resigning in 1907 to take a job he had never done before: a sportswriter with a New York City newspaper, the Morning Telegraph. He kept that job for the rest of his life, and in fact was at his desk working on October 25, 1921, when he dropped dead.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Engelbert Humperdinck was born on 1 September 1854 in Siegburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was a composer and writer, known for Hannibal Rising (2007), Lore (2012) and Hänsel und Gretel (2015). He was married to Hedwig Taxer. He died on 27 September 1921 in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.- Katherine Griffith was born on 30 September 1876 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913), Huckleberry Finn (1920) and A Little Princess (1917). She was married to Harry Griffith. She died on 17 October 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Fred Starr was born in 1878 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Riders of the Dawn (1920), Man of the Forest (1921) and The Lure of the Circus (1918). He died on 20 August 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
William Friese-Greene was a prolific English inventor and professional photographer born in Bristol, England. He studied at the Queen Elizabeth's Hospital school. In 1871, he was apprenticed to the Bristol photographer Marcus Guttenberg, but later successfully went to court to be freed early from the indentures of his seven-year apprenticeship. He married the Swiss, Helena Friese, on 24 March 1874 and, in a remarkable move for the era, decided to add her maiden name to his surname. In 1876, he set up his own studio in Bath and, by 1881, had expanded his business, having more studios in Bath, Bristol and Plymouth. In Bath he came into contact with John Arthur Roebuck Rudge, a scientific instrument maker, who built what he called the Biophantic Lantern, which could display seven photographic slides in rapid succession, producing the illusion of movement. Friese-Greene was fascinated by the machine and worked with Rudge on a variety of devices over the 1880s, various of which Rudge called the Biophantascope. Moving his base to London in 1885, Friese-Greene realised that glass plates would never be a practical medium for continuously capturing life as it happens. Hence he began experiments with the new Eastman paper roll film before turning his attention to experimenting with celluloid as a medium for motion picture cameras. In 1888, he had some form of moving picture camera constructed, the nature of which is not known. On 21 June 1889, he was issued patent no. 10131 for a motion-picture camera, in collaboration with a civil engineer, Mortimer Evans. It was apparently capable of taking up to ten photographs per second using paper and celluloid film. In 1890 he developed a camera with Frederick Varley to shoot stereoscopic moving images. This ran at a slower frame rate, and although the 3D arrangement worked, there are no records of projection. He worked on a series of moving picture cameras into 1891, but although many individuals recount seeing his projected images privately, he never gave a successful public projection of moving pictures. His experiments with motion pictures were to the detriment of his other business interests and in 1891 he was declared bankrupt. From 1904 he lived in Brighton and, in 1905, he patented a two-colour moving picture system using prisms. Eventually, the arrival of the war and personal poverty meant there was nothing more to be done with colour for some years. On 5 May 1921, Friese-Greene, then a largely forgotten figure, attended a stormy meeting of the cinema trade at the Connaught Rooms in London to discuss the current poor state of British film distribution. Disturbed by the tone of the proceedings, Friese-Greene got to his feet to speak. The chairman asked him to come forward onto the platform to be heard better, which he did, appealing for the two sides to come together. Shortly after returning to his seat, he collapsed. People went to his aid and took him outside, but he died almost immediately of heart failure.- Composer
- Soundtrack
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was born on 13 December 1877 in Monastyrok, Podolia, Russian Empire [now Monastyrok, Vinnytsia Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine]. Mykola Dmytrovych was a composer, known for Die Hard 2 (1990), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) and C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005). Mykola Dmytrovych died on 23 January 1921 in Markivka, Podolian Governorate, Ukrainian SSR [now Markivka, Haisin Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine].- Rudolph Christians was born on 15 January 1869 in Middoge/Oldenburg, Germany. He was an actor, known for Foolish Wives (1922), Deep Waters (1920) and Dissonanzen des Lebens (1913). He was married to Bertha Klein (opera and concert singer). He died on 2 February 1921 in Pasadena, California, USA.
- George Foottit was born in Manchester, England. His parents were George Foottit and Sarah Crockett, both circus performers. He began his career at the age of twelve. He went into exile in France where he quickly established himself as a clown. In 1895, the clown duo, Foottit & Chocolat (Chocolat) was formed. The two played together for twenty years. After retiring, he ran a bar and restaurant near the Rond Point des Champs-Élysées. He died from cancer in Paris on 21 September 1921.
- E.W. Hornung was born on 7 June 1866 in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Raffles (1939), Raffles (1930) and Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (1925). He was married to Constance Conan Doyle. He died on 22 March 1921 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
- Beatrice Dominguez born in San Bernardino in California in 1896. A exotic dancer, first working in vaudeville under the name of 'La Bella Sevilla'. dark-haired genuine beauty who appeared in a handful of melodrama and western movies, making her film debut in 1914 under the direction of Burton L. King in 'The Masked Dancer' at Vitagraph studios, later became popular in Art Acord westerns such as 'The Moon Rider' in 1920. She made screen history when she danced the Tango with Rudolph Valentino in 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' in 1921 the scene captivated audiences and made Valentino a star it is still one of the most famous moments of silent film history. sadly in 1921 she collapsed from a ruptured appendix and died of peritonitis after surgery, she was only 24
- Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko was born July 27, 1853, into the family of a district judge in Zhitomir, Ukraine, Russian Empire. He studied at the St. Petersburg College of Technology, then at the Moscow Academy of Agriculture. In 1876 he was expelled from college for his revolutionary activities, and imprisoned in Kronstadt, St. Petersburg. In 1877-79 he was a student at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. In 1879 he was arrested again on false political accusations and exiled to Siberia, but returned and settled in the city of Perm.
Korolenko published his first stories in 1879, calling for social justice in the Russian Empire. In 1881 he refused to pledge to the new Russian Tsar Alexander III and was sentenced to his second exile in Siberia, where he spent 3 years. After the Siberian exile he was allowed to settle in Nizhni Novgorod on the Volga river. There he got married and had a daughter. His impressions from his life in exile and his life in several provincial cities provided him with rich material for his writings. His story "Makar's Dream" (1885) about the dying peasant's dream of heaven was translated and published in English in 1891, bringing him international recognition. His masterpiece novel "The Blind Musician" (1886) was published in English in 1892, and made him the internationally renown writer.
Korolenko made a trip to United States in 1893, visiting the Chicago World Exibition. There Korolenko met recent immigrants from Russia, which gave him material for the short novel "Without a Language", a story of an uneducated Ukrainian peasant, who struggles in America without ability to speak a word in English. After 1900 Korolenko turned from fiction to journalism. In 1902 Korolenko together with Anton Chekhov resigned from the Russian Academy of Sciences in solidarity with Maxim Gorky. He regarded writers Nikolay Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai A. Nekrasov, and Lev Tolstoy as his most important influences.
Korolenko was a human rights advocate and a prominent journalist. He took strong public stand against the anti-Semitic Beilis trial and wrote the powerful essay "Call to the Russian People in regard to the blood libel of the Jews" (1911-13). His historic description of the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 was also published in English. During the Russian Revolution and the following Civil War Korolenko opposed to the bloody methods of the communist regime, and called against the terror and destruction. He died in Poltava, Ukraine on December 25, 1921, after being ignored by the communist leaders of that time.
In his story "Paradox", a cripple, born without arms, says, "Man is created for happiness, as a bird for flight." - Frank Mills was born on 24 January 1868 in Kendall, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), The Unchastened Woman (1918) and The House of Mirrors (1916). He was married to Helen McBeth. He died on 11 June 1921 in Galesburg, Michigan, USA.
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Louis Reeves Harrison was born in 1857. He was a writer and assistant director, known for Love's Flame (1920), Shore Acres (1914) and Paid in Full (1914). He died on 8 May 1921 in Hempstead, Long Island, New York, USA.- Kate Adams Keller was born on 12 October 1856 in Arkansas, USA. She died on 15 November 1921 in Montgomery, Montgomery County, Alabama, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Hayward Mack was born on 20 March 1882 in Albany, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Oliver Twist, Jr. (1921), By the House That Jack Built (1911) and Frau Van Vinkle's Crullers (1913). He was married to Marjorie Ellison. He died on 24 December 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- King Ludwig III of Bavaria was born on 7 January 1845 in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria [now Bavaria, Germany]. He was married to Maria-Theresia von Habsburg. He died on 18 October 1921 in Sarvar, Hungary.
- Eunice Woodruff was born on 12 December 1910 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Virtuous Sinners (1919), The Lady of Red Butte (1919) and Vive la France! (1918). She died on 15 July 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Prince Louis of Battenberg was born on 24 May 1854 in Graz, Styria, Austria. He was married to Victoria Mountbatten. He died on 11 September 1921 in Naval & Military Club, London, England.
- Henry Hallam was born in 1867 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Evil Thereof (1916), Uncle Tom's Cabin (1913) and Gloria's Romance (1916). He was married to Josephine Stanton (opera singer). He died on 9 November 1921.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Willis Robards was born on 1 January 1873 in Texas, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Three Musketeers (1921), When Shadows Fall (1916) and Mothers of Men (1917). He was married to Grace Blake. He died on 3 November 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Ludwig Thoma was born on 21 January 1867 in Oberammergau, Kingdom of Bavaria [now Bavaria, Germany]. He was a writer, known for Moral (1928), Moral (1936) and Oh, diese Bayern! (1960). He was married to Marietta di Rigardo. He died on 26 August 1921 in Rottach, Bavaria, Germany.
- Joseph Hart was born on 8 June 1861 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Foxy Grandpa Shows Boys He Is a Magician (1902), Foxy Grandpa Shows the Boys a Trick or Two with the Tramp (1902) and Boys Take Grandpa's Cigars with Distressing Results (1902). He was married to Carrie DeMar. He died on 3 October 1921 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actress
- Writer
Zelda Crosby was born on 16 August 1898 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Marriage Price (1919), Wedding Bells (1921) and The Desperate Hero (1920). She died on 19 June 1921 in New York City, New York, USA.- John Cook was born on 1 October 1876 in New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Girl from Nowhere (1919), Gloriana (1916) and The Right to Be Happy (1916). He died on 2 October 1921.
- Robert Broderick was born in 1864 in Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Redemption of David Corson (1914), Just for Tonight (1918) and The Dictator (1915). He was married to Maureen Broderick. He died on 9 July 1921 in New York City, New York, USA.
- 'La Belle' Fatima born Fatima Djemille in Syria in 1870. Began working as a dancer in American vaudeville from the late 1880's, the original 'Little Egypt' became America's first renown belly-dancer she was seen as something of a curiosity after appearing at the St. Louis World's Exhibition Fair in 1893, Thomas Edison asked her to perform her belly-dancing act for the movie camera in 1896 and 1897 at the Black Maria studio in West Orange and in 1903 she is seen performing her Turkic-inspired Couchee Dance, also referred to as a 'Muscle dance' for the American Mutoscope Film Co, this film was to be censored in Chicago in 1907 - part of Fatima's body were covered by blind-out tags. Her last stage appearance as a Harem dancer was at William and Oscar Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre in 1913. She sadly died from a heart attack in 1921 age 51 in Venice, California.
- Caroline Fowler was born on 16 April 1859 in Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Undine (1916), Birds of a Feather (1916) and The Power of Fascination (1915). She died on 19 August 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Richard Foster Baker was born on 25 January 1857 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Little Girl Next Door (1916), A Bunch of Keys (1915) and Kidder and Ko (1918). He died on 21 February 1921 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- George Formby was born James Booth in 1875 in Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire. He began his career, as a singer, in 1899 as one half of the Brothers Glenray. Three years later when his voice was changing, he added comedy to the act. While waiting for a train to an engagement, he noticed a passing freight with a number of cars labelled Formby, the name of a small town for which they were bound. Booth liked the sound of the name, added George & became George Formby star of the British Music Halls. The same year that he began his career, he met & married Eliza Hoy who bore him a son in 1904 who took the name of George Hoy. Formby made his first recordings in 1907 but, unlike other Music Hall stars of the day, he found no trouble in performing for just the microphone & no audience. He even conversed with the microphone as if it were a living person.
In 1914, he made his only screen appearance in 'No Fool Like an Old Fool' & the following years his son made his screen début in 'By the Shortest of Heads' as George Formby Jnr. Formby was plagued with ill health early in life which led to one of his opening lines, 'I'm coughing better today' & 'It's not the coughin' that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in!' Few people were aware that he had been stricken with consumption. In 1920, while performing in a Xmas pantomime in Newcastle, George Formby collapsed. He was taken to his hôme in Warrington where he died on February 8, 1921. He was survived by his wife & son. - Henry Starr was born on 2 December 1873 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. He was married to Martha "Hulda" Llewellyn and Olive F. Griffin. He died on 22 February 1921 in Harrison, Arkansas, USA.
- John Charles was born in 1885. He was an actor, known for Sogarth Aroon (1912), Mates and Mis-Mates (1912) and A Texas Steer (1915). He died on 7 November 1921 in Whitestone, New York, USA.
- Born in 1858 to Duke Friedrich of Schleswig-Holstein and his wife, Princess Adelheid zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Augusta-Victoria's family was uprooted from their hereditary fief due to war, and as a consequence she lived throughout Europe as a girl. She met then-Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany in 1879 and married him two years later; she was a dutiful wife and mother, and posed no challenge to her husband's dominating personality. When his father died in 1888, Wilhelm became Kaiser of Germany. After World War I, she followed her husband into exile in the Netherlands, where she died in 1921.
- George Howard was born in 1866. He was an actor, known for The Blasphemer (1921), The Whisper Market (1920) and I Want My Man (1925). He was married to Clara Earle (actress). He died on 17 March 1921 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- Jean Cavendish was born on 21 December 1888 in Folkestone, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress, known for What Would a Gentleman Do? (1918). She died on 19 June 1921 in Hawridge, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
- Juhani Aho was born on 11 September 1861 in Lapinlahti, Finland. He was a writer, known for Juha (1937), Johan (1921) and Juha (1999). He was married to Venny Soldan. He died on 8 August 1921 in Helsinki, Finland.
- Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born on 4 July 1868 in Lancaster, Massachusetts, USA. She died on 12 December 1921 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
Son of Dr.Cornelius Herz (1845-1898), famous politician and electrician of Jewish German origin, and of Bianca Saroni (1855-1939) from Boston; he was born in Paris where the family emigrated in 1877. Ralph studied at Ecole Alsatienne and later at Eton and Trinity college. When his father lost his fortune through an investment with Ferdinand De Lesseps in the building of the Panama Canal, he was brought up by his aunt Mathilda Herz, wife of Italian baritone Napoleone Zardo. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he turned to the stage; his first stage appearance was at Haymarket, London, in "The School for scandal" in 1900; in 1902 he went to the USA with Mrs. Pat Campbell's company.- Sound Department
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tony Jackson was born on 25 October 1882 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for The Shape of Water (2017), Father of the Bride Part II (1995) and Chain Lightning (1950). He died on 20 April 1921 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Matthias Erzberger was born on 20 September 1875 in Buttenhausen, Germany. He died on 26 August 1921 in Bad Griesbach, Germany.
- Leonard Boncza-Stepinski was born on 31 October 1876 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Cud nad Wisla (1921). He died on 21 August 1921 in Drohobycz, Lwowskie, Poland [now Drohobych, Ukraine].
- Devil Anse Hatfield was born on 9 September 1839. He was an actor, known for Vendettas (2002). He was married to Levicy Chafin. He died on 6 January 1921 in Island Creek, Logan County, West Virginia, USA.
- Sid Hatfield grew up in poverty in Blackberry, Kentucky, one of Jacob and Rebecca Hatfield's 9 surviving (of 12) children. A miner in his teens, he then became a blacksmith. He was nicknamed 'Smilin' Sid' because of his distinctive grin, showing gold-capped teeth. Despite his boyish appearance - he was small and slight, but wiry - he had a tough reputation. However, in 1919, when the mining community of Matewan came under threat from the Baldwin-Felts Agency, the mayor, Cabell Cornelis Testerman, appointed him police chief.
Hatfield was an effective lawman, keeping order in the mining town and standing up to the coal companies and the Baldwin-Felts agents as the miners fought for their right to organise. The Baldwin-Felts Agency offered him substantial bribes if he would permit them to station machine-guns in the town. He refused. On 19 May 1920, he and Testerman resisted the Baldwin-Felts agents' forcible evictions of unionised miners. In the gun battle, known as the battle of Matewan or the Matewan Massacre, 7 of the 13 Baldwin-Felts men were killed, included Albert and Lee Felts, brothers of the agency's head. Two miners were killed, and Mayor Testerman was mortally wounded, apparently by Albert Felts. Several more men, on both sides, were wounded.
Sid Hatfield married Testerman's widow, Jessie, only a couple of weeks after her first husband's death. Tom Felts (and, later, the agency spy Charles Everett Lively) claimed that this proved that he, not Albert Felts, had shot her husband in order to marry her. However, they had been friends for a long time: according to Jessie, the Mayor had asked Sid to look after her and their young son if anything were to befall him, given the dangers they knew they faced. The trial over the Matewan gunfight took place in spring 1921, with the acquittal of Hatfield and the miners.
Hatfield was filmed, playing himself, in 'Smilin' Sid' (1920), a short film re-enactment of the battle made by and for the United Mine Workers of America, and became a local celebrity: the miners' hero. But he knew himself to be a marked man. As the struggle continued, the new local authorities in Matewan were less supportive of the union. Martial law was declared in the summer of 1921. Hatfield lost his post as Chief of Police in Matewan, but was elected Constable for Magnolia District.
He was unarmed and accompanied by Jessie when he arrived in Welch on 1 August 1921 for trial for his alleged involvement in other mining-related disturbances. His friend and deputy Edward Chambers, and his wife, Sallie, were with them, too, as Ed was also charged. As they began to climb the steps to the courthouse, the two young men were gunned down by Baldwin-Felts agents, including Charlie Lively. Sid Hatfield died almost instantly from three or four chest wounds; Lively finished off Chambers with a shot in the head, despite his wife's protestations. Although the killers were charged, none was ever convicted of the murders.
For the second time in 14 months, Jessie was a widow. Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers were buried as heroes. Outrage at their murder fuelled the miners' uprising, culminating in the battle of Blair Mountain.