Richard Arlen

Richard Arlen (born Sylvanus Richard Van Mattimore) served in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps as a pilot, but he never saw combat. After the war he eventually got a job as a motorcycle messenger at a film lab in Los Angeles. When he crashed into the gates of Paramount Pictures and suffered a broken leg, the executives, impressed by his good looks, gave him a contract. He began his career as an extra in 1921, with his big break coming in 1927 with the silent film Wings. He continued working steadily, with his final credit listed as Mr. Monahan in the 1976 A Whale of a Tale