Career Highlights: Sweet Rosie O'Grady, The Rag Man, Ports of Call
First Major Screen Credit: Woman He Married (1922)
Biography
A graduate of Brooklyn Polytechnic, tall, dark-haired William Conklin appeared on stage in such melodramas as The Virginian (as Trampas) and The Round Up prior to entering films with the All-Star company in 1913. Usually cast as a villain, Conklin would also play stern fathers, for example Lillian Lorraine's pa in the action serial Neal of the Navy (1915). The following year, Conklin played the Duke of Luxemburg in Cecil B. DeMille's still extant Joan the Woman and he earned an extra round of hisses from the audience when cheating on his wife with femme fatale Louise Glaum in the steamy Sex (1920). Conklin was equally busy in the 1920s, garnering fine reviews for menacing both Tom Mix and heroine Billie Dove in the 1923 Fox Western The Lone Star Ranger. Retiring from films at the advent of sound, Conklin died of a stroke. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
