Richard Talmadge
25 January 1981 (aged 88)
- Sylvester Metzetti
- Ricardo Metzetti
- Sylvester Ricardo Metzetti
- Richard Metzetti Talmadge
- Actor
- stuntman
- film director
1910–1967
Madeleine Francis Allen
(m. 1917; div. 19??)
1 (stepdaughter)
Early life[edit]
Born in Germany in 1892, Talmadge arrived in Hollywood in 1910 and began his career as a stuntman (including a stint with Douglas Fairbanks) before becoming an actor himself. He began starring in silent action pictures in 1921, and began producing his own vehicles in 1923. His last silent feature, The Poor Millionaire (1930), was the very last silent production filmed in Hollywood (except for two Charlie Chaplin silent features that were released well after the advent of sound).[3]
Personal life[edit]
He was the stepfather of American polo pioneer and Polo's Grande Dame Sue Sally Hale. His brothers, Otto and Victor Metzetti, both had success as stunt performers, and were members of the vaudeville troupe the Flying Metzettis,[8] (or the Five Metzettis[9]) who were the first to perform the quadruple back somersault[10] in 1917, at Barnum and Bailey's, with Richard as voltiguer.[11] The family was close, with brothers Otto, Victor, and Leon working on the Richard Talmadge productions of the 1930s.
Death[edit]
Talmadge died of cancer at the age of 88 on 25 January 1981, in Carmel, California. He is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, his grave marked with the name "Richard Metzetti Talmadge".[5]