Harry F. Millarde

Who was Harry F. Millarde?

Harry F. Millarde was a pioneer American silent film actor and director.

Millarde was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and began his acting in film in 1913 with Kalem Studios in New York City. In 1916, he directed the first of his thirty-two films the most notable of which was If Winter Comes for Fox Film Corporation that was based on the books of author A. S. M. Hutchinson. Amongst Millarde's other works were Over the Hill to the Poorhouse and the thriller My Friend the Devil based on the French novel, Le Docteur Rameau by Georges Ohnet.

Millarde directed his last film in 1927 and died of a heart attack in New York City in 1931, ten days shy of his forty-sixth birthday. He was married to actress June Caprice whom he had directed in eight films for Fox. Ironically, she also died ten days before her birthday, succumbing to cancer at the age of forty.

Their daughter, June Elizabeth Millarde, was thirteen years old when her mother died. Raised by her grandparents in Long Island, New York, she became a cover girl known as "Toni Seven." The June 17, 1949 issue of Time reported she was the heiress to an estimated $3,000,000 fortune.