1874–1947 · Berlin, Germany
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Joseph Henry Kolker (November 13, 1874) [some sources 1870] Berlin, Prussia, Germany – July 15, 1947, Los Angeles, California) was an American stage and film actor and director. Kolker came to America at the age of five and his family settled in Quincy, Illinois. Kolker, like fellow actors Richard Bennett and Robert Warwick, had a substantial stage career behind him before entering silent films. On stage he appeared opposite such leading ladies as Edith Wynne Matthison, Bertha Kalich and Ruth Chatterton. Kolker is best remembered for his motion picture appearances and for appearing with Barbara Stanwyck in the ground-breaking Pre-Code film Baby Face (1933) as the elderly CEO of the company whom Stanwyck's character seduces. Another well remembered part is as Mr. Seton, father of Katharine Hepburn and Lew Ayres in the 1938 film Holiday directed by George Cukor. Kolker entered films as an actor in 1915 and eventually ended up trying his hand at directing. Kolker's best known directorial effort is Disraeli (1921), starring George Arliss which is now a lost film with only one reel remaining. Prints however exist in Europe and Russia.
Born 12 Nov 1874 · Died 15 Jul 1947
A Woman's Face
1941
Judge
Union Pacific
1939
Asa M. Barrows
Holiday
1938
Edward Seton
Bullets or Ballots
1936
Mr. Hollister
The Black Room
1935
Baron de Berghman
The Case of the Curious Bride
1935
District Attorney Stacey
Sisters Under the Skin
1934
Jones
Baby Face
1933
J.R. Carter
Bureau of Missing Persons
1933
Theodore Arno