Josef Swickard (26 June 1866 - 29 February 1940) was a German-born veteran stage and screen character actor, who had toured with stock companies in Europe, South Africa, and South America.

Career

Swickard entered films with D.W. Griffith in 1912 and by 1914 was playing supporting roles for Mack Sennett. He appeared in Charles Chaplin's Laughing Gas and Caught in a Cabaret. He remained with Sennett until 1917, when he settled into his prolific career of playing mostly aristocratic characters. Modern audiences are perhaps most familiar with his role of Marcelo Desnoyers, the well intentioned but impractical French upper class father in Rex Ingram's 1921 film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. His career in sound films was somewhat limited and he played in low-budget and action serial type films. He played the villainous Prime Minister Kruel in Wizard of Oz.

Family

Swickard was the brother of actor Charles Swickard and the husband of Broadway actress Margaret Campbell.

Death

Despite rumors that Swickard committed suicide by jumping from the Hollywood sign, in fact he died from natural causes.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1913	Cupid in a Dental Parlor
1914	Twenty Minutes of Love	Victim
	Caught in a Cabaret	Father
	A Rowboat Romance
	Laughing Gas	Patient
	The Property Man	Old Stagehand	Uncredited
	The Face on the Bar Room Floor	Drinker	Uncredited
	Lover's Luck	The Girl's Father
	Hello, Mabel
	Tillie's Punctured Romance	Cinema spectator	Uncredited
	Fatty and Minnie He-Haw	Minta's father
1915	Mabel and Fatty's Simple Life	Mabel's father
	Mabel, Fatty and the Law
	Mabel and Fatty's Married Life		Uncredited
	Hogan's Romance Upset
	Love, Loot and Crash	Mary's Father, a Banker
1918	When a Woman Sins	Mortimer West
1921	The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse	Marcelo Desnoyers
	No Woman Knows	The Great Schabelitz
	Cheated Hearts	Colonel Fairfax Gordon
1922	The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
1925	Wizard of Oz	Prime Minister Kruel
1926	Stop, Look and Listen	Old Actor
	Don Juan	Duke Della Varnese
1927	The Golden Stallion	John Forsythe
1928	Sharp Shooters	Grandpère
	Eagle of the Night
1929	The Phantom of the North	Colonel Rayburn
1933	The Perils of Pauline	Haggins, Foreign Consul	Chapter 9
1935	The Lost City	Dr. Manyus
1938	The Secret of Treasure Island	Passenger Ship Doctor	Uncredited, chapter 1
	You Can't Take It with You	Professor
1939	Dick Tracy's G-Men	Presidente Huenemo Mendoza	Chapter 3

References

External links

• Josef Swickard at the Internet Movie Database