Career
He appeared in 41 films between 1916 and 1946. After playing leading roles on Broadway and in Hollywood during the Silent era opposite such stars as Mae Murray, Mae Marsh, Norma Talmadge, Nazimova and Marion Davies, Schenck developed "Klieg light eyes". Threatened with total blindness, he interrupted a distinguished stage career and went to Hawaii to rest.
In the South Seas he found a new career as an explorer and ethnologist.
He secured a roving commission from the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, the leading museum in the world in Polynesian research, to make miniatures and gather artifacts of various Polynesian Islands and spent fourteen years traveling from island to island. During this time, Schenck also contributed to the National Geographic and other magazines.
Foreign nine months, he also worked with the United States. Maritime Commission as a government speaker in shipyards and factories to speed up production. He returned to his career as a motion picture actor with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1943, on an "actor-writer" contract.
After suffering from several strokes, Schenck retired to Tahiti where he died in 1962 at the age of 72.
Kaiser"s Finish.