Edmund Lowe


Edmund Dantes Lowe was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film.

Biography

Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was at 314 North 1st Street, San Jose. He attended Santa Clara College and entertained the idea of becoming a priest before starting his acting career. He died in Woodland Hills, California, of lung cancer and is buried at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California.

Film career

Edmund Lowe's career included over 100 films in which he starred as the leading man. He is best remembered for his role as Sergeant Quirt in the 1926 movie, What Price Glory. Making a smooth transition to talking pictures he remained popular but by the mid 1930s he was no longer a major star although he occasionally played leading man to the likes of Jean Harlow, Mae West, and Claudette Colbert. He remained a valuable supporting actor at the major studios while continuing in leads for such "Poverty Row" studios as Columbia Pictures where his skills could bolster low budget productions. He also starred in 35 episodes of the 1950s television show, Front Page Detective and appeared as the elderly lead villain in the first episode of Maverick opposite James Garner in 1957.

Marriages

After his first marriage to Esther Miller ended in early 1925, Lowe met Lilyan Tashman while filming Ports of Call. Lowe and Tashman were wed on September 21, 1925. The wedding occurred before the release of the film. The two had California homes in Beverly Hills and Malibu. They were married until Tashman's death from cancer at age 37 in 1934.
Seventy years after Tashman’s death, a book author named E.J. Fleming claimed that Edmund Lowe was a homosexual and that Tashman was a lesbian. If the claims were true, fan magazine writers and newspaper columnists made no mention of them during Tashman’s lifetime or for seventy years after her death.
Lowe's third wife was costume designer Rita Kaufman. They were married from 1936 to 1950.

Filmography