King Baggot began making films for Carl Laemmle in 1909 and was a major star from 1910 to 1916. Baggot then gained renown as a director in the 1920s and as a character actor in the 1930s and 1940s, but perhaps most notably, he was the first publicized leading man in America. In his two-reel
Shadows
- this was a first in film history - he played ten different characters and also directed. He founded the Screen Club, the first and most prestigious club strictly for film personnel, and became an international star in England with Ivanhoe and in France with Absinthe. As a director, he worked on Kissed, in which Marie Prevost had her first starring role. He also directed The Home Maker, a social drama that explored the role reversal between a husband and wife when such an idea was not at all accepted, and Tumbleweeds, now considered a classic among western films. This work is a biography and filmography of the early film pioneer. It covers his early life before he broke into the film industry, traces his career from his beginnings as a stage actor in 1900 to the peak of his career in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, and ends with his death in 1948. The extensive filmography documents every known film in which he took part, and provides cast and production credits, release date, length, Library of Congress registration number, places where the film can be found today, and other information.