Lester Cuneo


Lester H. Cuneo was an American stage and silent film actor. He began acting in theatre while still in his teens. His name remains associated with the history of Western film.

Early years

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Cuneo attended Culver Military Academy, and he was a law student at Northwestern University when he turned to acting.

Career

Cuneo's stage career included work with stock theater companies in Brooklyn, Chicago, and Winnepeg.
Cuneo began a film career in 1912 with the Chicago-based Selig Polyscope Company then joined Essanay Studios in 1914. Working in early Hollywood, his popularity increased after he switched from comedic roles to the increasingly popular western film genre. However, his career was interrupted when he served with the United States Army during World War I. He served in France from 1917 to 1919 with the 33rd Division from Illinois.
At war's end, Lester Cuneo returned to film, and in the early 1920s, he started his own production company, making primarily western films. Lester Cuneo Productions.

Personal life

He married actress Francelia Billington in 1920, and they had two children. The two made 14 films together before their divorce in October 1925.

Death

Despondent over the breakdown of his marriage and the downhill slide of his film career, Lester Cuneo took his own life with a gunshot to the head in 1925. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. His year of death is printed on his gravemarker as 1926 which contradicts 1925, the year usually given.

Filmography

Sons of the North Woods According to Law The Double Cross The Peculiar Nature of the White Man's Burden An Unexpected Fortune The Boob A Cowboy's Mother The Whiskey Runners An Equine Hero – Pete Circumstantial Evidence – Hort InglesThe Fighting Instinct The Brand Blotter The Cattle Rustlers Why Jim Reformed A Motorcycle Adventure The Opium Smugglers So-Jun-Wah and the Tribal Law Jim's Vindication The Dynamiters – Joe ThompsonBetween Love and the Law Roped In – The CowboyThe Ranger and His Horse – Pete RogersBuck's Romance – Squaw's FatherA Rough Rider With Nitroglycerine The Gunfighter's Son The Cowboy Editor Bud's Heiress A Canine Matchmaker; or, Leave It to a Dog How It Happened Bill's Birthday Present The Range Law The Bank's Messenger The Deputy's Sweetheart Juggling With Fate – WallaceThe Sheriff of Yavapai County – The Frisco Kid The Life Timer – TomThe Mail Order Suit – SteveHis Father's Deputy – Sam Marvin Religion and Gun Practice – Finely OvermeyerThe Law and the Outlaw – Monty RayAn Embarrassed Bridegroom The Jealousy of Miguel and Isabella The Only Chance – Train DispatcherTaming a Tenderfoot – Willie B. Clever The Marshal's Capture – The marshal's wife's brotherSallie's Sure Shot – Coyote JimMade A Coward – Tom JonesThe Señorita's Repentance The Stolen Moccasins – HardenThe Galloping Romeo How Betty Made Good – JimThe Rejected Lover's Luck BenThe Capture of Bad Brown The Cattle Thief's Escape – Charley PointerThe Silver Grindstone – Harry CusterDishwash Dick's Counterfeit – Dick MasonTwo Sacks of Potatoes The Schoolmarm's Shooting Match – BrownThe Sheriff and the Rustler – The SheriffThe Child of the Prairies – Ed DillonThe Escape of Jim Dolan – Ed JonesCupid in the Cow Camp – Arizona BobThe Rustler's Reformation Physical Culture on the Quarter Circle V Bar – PeteBuster's Little Game – RobinsMother Love Vs Gold – Jim SykesBy Unseen Hand – WarringtonA Friend In Need – Girl's FatherThe Little Sister – First BadmanA Mix-Up on the Plains A Romance of the Forest Reserve Marrying Gretchen Marian, the Holy Terror Algie's Sister Under Royal Patronage – Baron SpitzhausenThe Plum Tree – Norris GriggsA Splendid Dishonor – Dr. AppledanceThe Moving Picture Cowboy – DirectorThe Fable of the Author and the Dear Public and the Plate of Mush The Other Man In the Glare of the Lights – Joe BrandiganThe Private Officer – Capt. OsborneHis Dearest Foes The Prince Party – James AtteridgeThe Place, the Time and the Man Every Inch A King – King LivianThe Loose Change of Chance The Way of the Woman The Shanty at Trembling Hill The Gallantry of Jimmy Rodgers – Ralph MorrisonThe Lieutenant Governor – Dennis McGrathThe Ambition of the Baron Thirteen Down – Baron SchomanThe Accounting – SargallThe Amateur Prodigal The Surprise of My Life The Strength of the Weak The Other Woman's Picture A Night In Kentucky Graustark – Prince GabrielThe Mystery of the Silent Death The Conspiracy at the Chateau On the Dawn Road – GrangerThe Slim Princess – The Only KoldoThe Second in Command – Lt. Sir Walter ManneringThe Silent Voice – Bobbie DelormePennington's Choice – JeanA Corner in Cotton – Willis JacksonThe Come-Back – Mac HebertonThe Masked Rider – Squid ArcherThe River of Romance – Reginald WilliamsA Virginia Romance Mister 44 – Eagle EyeBig Tremaine – Redmond MalvernPidgin Island – Donald SmeadThe Promise – Buck Moncrossen