{{short description|Australian actor (1893–1973)}} {{Use Australian English|date=April 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Infobox person | image = GeorgeBeranger.jpg | caption = Beranger in D. W. Griffith's ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' (1915) | name = George Beranger | birth_name = George Augustus Beringer | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1893|3|27}} | birth_place = [[Enmore, New South Wales]], Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1973|3|8|1893|3|27}} | death_place = [[Laguna Beach]], California | occupation = Actor, film director, film writer | years_active = 1913–1950 }} '''George Beranger''' (27 March 1893 – 8 March 1973), was an Australian-born [[silent film]] actor, director and film writer in New York and [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]].<ref name="Naturalization">Naturalization Records of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of [[California]], Central Division (Los Angeles), 1887–1940; Microfilm Serial: M1524; Microfilm Roll: 2.</ref> He is also sometimes credited under the pseudonym '''George Andre de Beranger'''<ref>{{Cite web|title=George Beranger|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0073239/|access-date=2022-02-11|website=IMDb}}</ref> and multiple variations of the same.
==Early life== Beranger was born George Augustus Beringer<ref name="Naturalization" /> in [[Enmore, New South Wales]], Australia, the youngest of five sons of Caroline Mondientz and Adam Beringer, a German engine fitter. His mother committed suicide when he was three years old and he left home at the age of 14.<ref name="Cosgrove">{{cite news|url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-stuff-of-silent-legend-20120302-1u7jf.html|title=The stuff of silent legend|last=Cosgrove|first=Bryony|date=3 March 2012|work=Brisbane Times|access-date=14 November 2012}}</ref> He studied acting at the College of Elocution and Dramatic Art founded by Scottish actor [[Walter Bentley (actor)|Walter Bentley]].<ref name="Cosgrove" />
==Career== Beranger began playing Shakespearean roles at the age of sixteen with the Walter Bentley Players. He then emigrated from Australia to [[California, United States]] in 1912<ref name="Naturalization" /> and worked in the silent film industry in Hollywood. According to a researcher, he "reinvented himself in Hollywood, claiming French parentage, birth on a French ocean liner off the coast of Australia and a Paris education."<ref name="Cosgrove" /> Beranger worked under the name George Andre de Beranger and multiple variations of the same pseudonym.
By the 1920s, Beranger had become a star, appearing in the movies of [[Ernst Lubitsch]] and [[D. W. Griffith]].<ref name="Cosgrove" /> He also directed sixteen films between 1914 and 1924. Beranger owned a large Spanish-style home in Laguna Beach, rented a room at the Hollywood Athletic Club and owned an apartment in [[Paris, France]].<ref name="Cosgrove" />
Beranger eventually appeared in more than 160 films between 1913 and 1950. Beranger's career declined following the 1930s [[Great Depression]] and the advent of sound film. He supplemented his income as a draftsman for the Los Angeles City Council. He sold his large properties and moved into a modest cottage beside his house in Laguna Beach.<ref name="Cosgrove" />
Beranger's silent roles had often been sophisticates or dandy types, and in early sound films he was often relegated to non-speaking walk-ons or bit parts as hairdressers, concierges, florists and the like. However, in the mid and late 1940s, he played interesting speaking bit parts in three [[20th century Fox|20th Century-Fox]] (his main studio) film noirs: ''[[The Spider (1945 film)|The Spider]]'' (a B noir in which he has several lines as a nosy apartment manager), ''[[Nightmare Alley (1947 film)|Nightmare Alley]]'' (an all-time classic noir, playing the geek in the first act and singing the Irish drinking song "[[The Boston Burglar]]") and ''[[Road House (1948 film)|Road House]]'' (for which he received a rare screen credit, in spite of having only two lines of dialogue as [[Richard Widmark]]'s bespectacled fishing buddy, "Lefty").<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Calderwood|first=Brent|date=December 2021|title=Step Right Up: The World of Carnival Noir|url=https://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/noircitymagazine.html|journal=Noir City Magazine|volume=33|pages=26}}</ref>
Beranger entered into a "[[lavender marriage]]" with a neighbouring woman who was a widow, but they never shared the same house and he continued to have sexual relationships with men unabated.<ref>{{cite news|first=Bryony|last=Cosgrove|title=The stuff of silent legend|newspaper=[[The Saturday Age]]|date=3 March 2012|page=18}}</ref>
Beranger retired in 1952 and lived his later years in seclusion.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://lagunabeach.patch.com/articles/a-laguna-beach-silent-film-star-s-story-sounds-a-lot-like-the-artist#photo-first |title=A Laguna Beach Silent Film Star's Story Sounds a Lot Like "The Artist" |last=Kane |first=Rich |date=6 March 2012 |work=Laguna Beach Patch |access-date=14 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308141812/http://lagunabeach.patch.com/articles/a-laguna-beach-silent-film-star-s-story-sounds-a-lot-like-the-artist#photo-first |archivedate=8 March 2012 }}</ref> He was found dead of natural causes in his home on 8 March 1973.<ref>{{cite news|title=Film Maker G A Beranger Dies in Laguna|date=9 March 1973|work=Los Angeles Times|page=Obituary|location=Laguna Beach}}</ref>
==Selected filmography== {{div col|colwidth=25em}} * ''[[The Well (1913 film)|The Well]]'' (1913 short) as The Accomplice * ''[[The Switch Tower]]'' (1913 short) as A Tramp * ''[[When Love Forgives]]'' (1913 short) as The Bartender<ref name=":90">{{Cite book |last=Usai |first=Paolo Cherchi |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Griffith_Project_Volume_6/u1jyDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22When+Love+Forgives%22+%22Harry+Carey%22&pg=RA1-PT470&printsec=frontcover |title=The Griffith Project, Volume 6: Films Produced in 1912 |date=2019-07-25 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83902-013-1 |language=en}}</ref> * ''[[Almost a Wild Man]]'' (1913) as In Audience (uncredited) * ''[[Home, Sweet Home (1914 film)|Home, Sweet Home]]'' (1914) as The Accordion Player * ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' (1915) as Wade Cameron – Second Son * ''[[The Absentee (1915 film)|The Absentee]]'' (1915) as Tom Burke / Ambition * ''[[Let Katie Do It]]'' (1916) as Witness to Accident (uncredited) * ''[[The Good Bad-Man]]'' (1916) as Thomas Stuart * ''[[Flirting with Fate (1916 film)|Flirting with Fate]]'' (1916) as Automatic Joe * ''[[The Half-Breed (1916 film)|The Half-Breed]]'' (1916) as Jack Brace * ''Pillars of Society'' (1916) as Johan Tonnesen * ''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'' (1916) as High Priest of Bel * ''[[Manhattan Madness (1916 film)|Manhattan Madness]]'' (1916) as The Butler * ''[[Mixed Blood (1916 film)|Mixed Blood]]'' (1916) as Carlos * ''[[Those Without Sin]]'' (1917) as Chester Wallace * ''[[A Love Sublime]]'' (1917) as Her Husband * ''[[A Daughter of the Poor]]'' (1917) as Rudolph Creig * ''[[Time Locks and Diamonds]]'' (1917) as Ramon Mendoza * ''[[The Spotted Lily]]'' (1917) as Captain Franz * ''[[Sandy (1918 film)|Sandy]]'' (1918) as Carter Nelson * ''[[Broken Blossoms]]'' (1919) as The Spying One * ''[[A Manhattan Knight]]'' (1920, director) * ''[[Burn 'Em Up Barnes (1921 film)|Burn 'Em Up Barnes]]'' (1921, director) * ''[[Sinister Street (film)|Sinister Street]]'' (1922, director) * ''[[Was She Guilty?]]'' (1922, director) * ''[[The Leopardess]]'' (1923) as Pepe * ''[[The Bright Shawl]]'' (1923) as Andre Escobar * ''[[Ashes of Vengeance]]'' (1923) as Charles IX * ''[[Dulcy (1923 film)|Dulcy]]'' (1923) as Vincent Leach * ''[[The Extra Girl]]'' (1923) as Actor in Wardrobe Line * ''[[Tiger Rose (1923 film)|Tiger Rose]]'' (1923) as Pierre * ''The Man Life Passed By'' (1923) as Leo Friend * ''[[Poisoned Paradise: The Forbidden Story of Monte Carlo]]'' (1924) as Krantz * ''[[Beau Brummel (1924 film)|Beau Brummel]]'' (1924) as Lord Byron * ''[[His Hour]]'' (1924) as English Nobleman * ''[[Beauty and the Bad Man]]'' (1925) as L.I.B. Bell * ''[[Confessions of a Queen]]'' (1925) as Lewin * ''[[Are Parents People?]]'' (1925) as Maurice Mansfield * ''[[The Man in Blue (1925 film)|The Man in Blue]]'' (1925) as Carlo Guido * ''[[Grounds for Divorce (1925 film)|Grounds for Divorce]]'' (1925) as Guido * ''A Woman's Faith'' (1925) as Leandre Turcott * ''[[The Big Parade]]'' (1925) as Patriotic Letter Reader (uncredited) * ''[[The Grand Duchess and the Waiter]]'' (1926) as The Grand Duke Paul * ''[[Miss Brewster's Millions]]'' (1926) as Mr. Brent * ''[[The Bat (1926 film)|The Bat]]'' (1926) as Gideon Bell * ''[[So This Is Paris (1926 film)|So This Is Paris]]'' (1926) as Maurice Lalle * ''[[Fig Leaves]]'' (1926) as Josef André * ''[[The Eagle of the Sea]]'' (1926) as John Jarvis * ''[[The Lady of the Harem]]'' (1926) as Selim * ''[[The Popular Sin]]'' (1926) as Alphonse Martin * ''[[Paradise for Two (1927 film)|Paradise for Two]]'' (1927) as Maurice * ''[[Altars of Desire]]'' (1927) as Count André D'Orville * ''[[The Small Bachelor (film)|The Small Bachelor]]'' (1927) as Finch * ''[[If I Were Single]]'' (1927) as Claude * ''[[Powder My Back]]'' (1928) as Claude * ''[[Five and Ten Cent Annie]]'' (1928) as Orchestra Leader * ''[[Beware of Bachelors]]'' (1928) as Claude de Brie * ''[[Stark Mad]]'' (1929) as Simpson – Guide * ''[[Strange Cargo (1929 film)|Strange Cargo]]'' (1929) as First Stranger * ''[[Glad Rag Doll (film)|Glad Rag Doll]]'' (1929) as Barry (an actor) * ''[[Darkened Rooms]]'' (1929) as Madame Silvara's Customer (uncredited) * ''[[Lilies of the Field (1930 film)|Lilies of the Field]]'' (1930) as Barber * ''[[The Boudoir Diplomat]]'' (1930) as Potz * ''[[Three Girls Lost]]'' (1931) as Andre * ''[[Annabelle's Affairs]]'' (1931) as Archie * ''[[The Age for Love]]'' (1931) as The Poet * ''[[Surrender (1931 film)|Surrender]]'' (1931) as Fichet * ''[[Ladies of the Jury]]'' (1932) as Alonzo Beal * ''[[Love Is a Racket]]'' (1932) as Manager of Elizabeth Morgan's (uncredited) * ''[[Ex-Lady]]'' (1933) as Dinner Guest / Pianist (uncredited) * ''[[Mama Loves Papa (1933 film)|Mama Loves Papa]]'' (1933) as Basil Pew * ''[[Coming Out Party]]'' (1934) as Waiter at Aladdin's Lamp (uncredited) * ''[[Jimmy the Gent (film)|Jimmy the Gent]]'' (1934) as Steamship Ticket Clerk (uncredited) * ''[[Hollywood Party (1934 film)|Hollywood Party]]'' (1934) as Durante's Barber (uncredited) * ''[[Kiss and Make-Up]]'' (1934) as Jean - Dr Lamar's Butler * ''[[Young and Beautiful (film)|Young and Beautiful]]'' (1934) as Henry Briand * ''[[The Captain Hates the Sea]]'' (1934) as Jeweler (uncredited) * ''[[Clive of India (film)|Clive of India]]'' (1935) as Mr. St. Aubin (uncredited) * ''[[One New York Night]]'' (1935) as Matthews (uncredited) * ''[[Gold Diggers of 1935]]'' (1935) as Head Waiter * ''[[Once in a Blue Moon (1935 film)|Once in a Blue Moon]]'' (1935) as Prince Kolia * ''[[The Flame Within (film)|The Flame Within]]'' (1935) as Prince Hassan (uncredited) * ''[[Don't Bet on Blondes]]'' (1935) as Wedding Dress Fitter (uncredited) * ''[[The Payoff (1935 film)|The Payoff]]'' (1935) as Reporter (uncredited) * ''[[Ship Cafe]]'' (1935) as Tailor (uncredited) * ''[[The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (film)|The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo]]'' (1935) as Casino Assistant (uncredited) * ''[[Stars Over Broadway]]'' (1935) as Man Wanting Testimonial (uncredited) * ''[[Dangerous (1935 film)|Dangerous]]'' (1935) as First Waiter (uncredited) * ''[[Anything Goes (1936 film)|Anything Goes]]'' (1936) as Man with Silly Walk (uncredited) * ''[[The Story of Louis Pasteur]]'' (1936) as Louis Pasteur's Assistant * ''[[The Walking Dead (1936 film)|The Walking Dead]]'' (1936) as Nolan's Butler (uncredited) * ''[[Love Before Breakfast]]'' (1936) as Charles * ''[[Colleen (1936 film)|Colleen]]'' (1936) as Jeweler * ''[[Snowed Under]]'' (1936) as Costume Designer Maza (uncredited) * ''[[The Singing Kid]]'' (1936) as Designer (uncredited) * ''[[Times Square Playboy]]'' (1936) as Jewelry Store Clerk (uncredited) * ''[[Bullets or Ballots]]'' (1936) as Waiter (uncredited) * ''[[Hearts Divided]]'' (1936) as Jefferson's Secretary (uncredited) * ''[[The Big Noise (1936 American film)|The Big Noise]]'' (1936) as Mr. Rosewater * ''[[Hot Money (film)|Hot Money]]'' (1936) as Ed Biddle * ''[[China Clipper (1936 film)|China Clipper]]'' (1936) as Waiter (uncredited) * ''[[Love Begins at 20]]'' (1936) as Eddie as Office Worker (uncredited) * ''[[Walking on Air (1936 film)|Walking on Air]]'' (1936) as Albert, the Valet * ''[[Down the Stretch (1936 film)|Down the Stretch]]'' (1936) as William J. Cooper * ''[[Cain and Mabel]]'' (1936) as Headwaiter (uncredited) * ''[[Love on the Run (1936 film)|Love on the Run]]'' (1936) as Comedy Reactionary (uncredited) * ''[[King of Hockey]]'' (1936) as Evans, Kathleen's Chauffeur * ''[[Stolen Holiday]]'' (1937) as Swiss Waiter (uncredited) * ''[[Ready, Willing, and Able (film)|Ready, Willing, and Able]]'' (1937) as Tenant (uncredited) * ''[[Café Metropole]]'' (1937) as Hat Clerk * ''[[San Quentin (1937 film)|San Quentin]]'' (1937) as Lorenz Review Headwaiter (uncredited) * ''[[Dangerous Holiday]]'' (1937) as Violin Teacher (uncredited) * ''[[Wake Up and Live]]'' (1937) as Pianist * ''[[Fight for Your Lady]]'' (1937) as Florist (uncredited) * ''[[Hollywood Round-Up]]'' (1937) as Hotel Clerk * ''[[I'll Take Romance (film)|I'll Take Romance]]'' (1937) as Male Dressmaker * ''[[The Lone Wolf in Paris]]'' (1938) as Hotel Desk Manager (uncredited) * ''[[Beauty for the Asking]]'' (1939) as Cyril * ''[[He Stayed for Breakfast]]'' (1940) as maître d'hôtel (uncredited) * ''[[She Knew All the Answers]]'' (1941) as Head Waiter * ''[[Two in a Taxi]]'' (1941) as Receptionist (uncredited) * ''[[Our Wife (1941 film)|Our Wife]]'' (1941) as Waiter (uncredited) * ''[[Over My Dead Body (1942 film)|Over My Dead Body]]'' (1942) as Salesman * ''[[Saratoga Trunk]]'' (1945) as Leon (uncredited) * ''[[The Spider (1945 film)|The Spider]]'' (1945) as Apartment Manager * ''[[The Shocking Miss Pilgrim]]'' (1947) as Office Clerk (uncredited) * ''[[Nightmare Alley (1947 film)|Nightmare Alley]]'' (1947) as The Geek (uncredited) * ''[[Cry of the City]]'' (1948) as Barber (uncredited) * ''[[The Snake Pit]]'' (1948) as Patient (uncredited) * ''[[Road House (1948 film)|Road House]]'' (1948) as Lefty * ''[[Unfaithfully Yours (1948 film)|Unfaithfully Yours]]'' (1948) as maître d'hôtel (uncredited) * ''[[Chicken Every Sunday]]'' (1949) as Jake Barker (uncredited) * ''[[The Fan (1949 film)|The Fan]]'' (1949) as Alphonse - Philippe's Assistant (uncredited) * ''[[You're My Everything (film)|You're My Everything]]'' (1949) as Waiter (uncredited) * ''[[Dancing in the Dark (1949 film)|Dancing in the Dark]]'' (1949) as Waiter * ''[[Wabash Avenue (film)|Wabash Avenue]]'' (1950) as Wax Museum Attendant (uncredited) {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite journal|last=Cosgrove|first=Bryony|date=December 2011|title=Missing in Action, Caught on Film: Silent Film Actor "André de Beranger" Goes to War|journal=Screening the Past|publisher=[[La Trobe University]]|issue=32|issn=1328-9756|url=http://www.screeningthepast.com/2011/11/missing-in-action-caught-on-film-silent-film-actor-andre-de-beranger-goes-to-war/}}
==External links== {{Commons category|George Beranger}} * {{IMDb name|0073239}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beranger, George}} [[Category:1893 births]] [[Category:1973 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Australian male actors]] [[Category:Australian male silent film actors]] [[Category:Australian film directors]] [[Category:Male actors from Sydney]] [[Category:Australian gay actors]] [[Category:Australian expatriate male actors in the United States]] [[Category:LGBTQ people from New South Wales]] [[Category:20th-century Australian LGBTQ people]]