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Actor, born in the USA on the 12th of March, 1857, died on the 1st of April, 1915.
Gay: N/A |
Lesbian: N/A |
Trans: N/A |
Queer: N/A |
It’s unknown whether Ranous was gay or bisexual.
William V. Ranous was born on the 12th of March, 1857 in New York, New York. He joined the Vitagraph Company in 1907, acting in numerous Shakespearean and other classic literary adaptations such as the title roles in Othello and Macbeth, both from 1908, the character of Bottom in 1909’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Lord Steyne in a 1911 adaptation of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.
Though primary an actor, he also directed for Vitagraph, his first film being a potboiler drama set during the American Civil War called The Spy in 1907. The Spy involves a man sent on what he knows is a suicide mission, so he and his girlfriend swap places, and he crosses the enemy lines as a women while she becomes a man. The film ends ambiguously, leaving it unclear whether his guise was successful or if the enemy saw through it he was being led into a trap.
The cross-dressing theme would again be employed in his 1910 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, starring Florence Turner as Viola and the famous Edith Storey as Viola’s brother, Sebastian.
By 1913, his directorial career had dwindled away and his acting one relegated to mostly short and little remembered comedies. He died during the production of his last film, Little Partner, on the 1st of April, 1915.
Aliases
Films
[ Gay feature | Lesbian feature | Trans feature | Queer feature ]
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