George Beranger, also known as André Beranger, was an Australian actor and film director of stage and Hollywood.
Background
Beranger was born George Augustus Beringer in Enmore, New South Wales, Australia, the youngest of five sons of Caroline Mondientz and Adam Beringer, a German engine fitter. His mother committed suicide when he was three years old and he left home at the age of 14.
Education
He studied acting at the College of Elocution and Dramatic Art founded by Scottish actor Walter Bentley.
Career
Beranger began playing Shakespearean roles at the age of sixteen with the Walter Bentley Players. He then emigrated from Australia to California, United States in 1912 and worked in the silent film industry in Hollywood. According to a researcher, he "reinvented himself in Hollywood, claiming French parentage, birth on a French ocean liner off the coast of Australia and a Paris education." Beranger worked under the names George Alexandre Beranger and André de Beranger.
By the 1920s, Beranger had become a star, appearing in the movies of Ernst Lubitsch and Doctorate. West. Griffith.
He also directed ten films between 1914 and 1924. Beranger owned a large Spanish-style home in Laguna Beach, rented a room at the Hollywood Athletic Club and owned an apartment in Paris, France.
Beranger eventually appeared in more than 140 films between 1913 and 1950. Beranger"s career dissipated following the 1930s Great Depression and the advent of sound film, and his roles in later films were small and often uncredited.
He supplemented his income as a draftsman for the Los Angeles City Council.
He sold his large properties and moved into a modest cottage beside his house in Laguna Beach. Beranger retired in 1952 and lived his later years in seclusion. He was found dead of natural causes in his home on 8 March 1973.