Background
Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina, the son of Clara Deroulhac (née Alderman) and Walter Steele Blackmer.
Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina, the son of Clara Deroulhac (née Alderman) and Walter Steele Blackmer.
He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on lieutenant While working as a builder"s laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately decided to go into acting. Blackmer went to New York, hoping to act on the stage.
While in the city, he took jobs and extra work at various film studios at the then motion picture capital, Fort Lee, New Jersey, including a bit part in the highly popular serial, The Perils of Pauline (1914).
He made his Broadway debut in 1917, but his career was interrupted by service in the United States. military in World War I. After the war, he returned to the theatre and, in 1929, returned to motion pictures and went on to be a major character actor in more than 120 films. In 1919, Blackmer played a major role in the strike that led to the formation of Actors" Equity Association.
A humanitarian, Blackmer served as the national vice president of the United States Muscular Dystrophy Association. He also helped start up the North Carolina School of the Arts.
In 1972, he was honored with the North Carolina Award in the Fine Arts category.
lieutenant is the State of North Carolina"s highest civilian award. On his death in 1973, Blackmer was interred in the Chestnut Hill Cemetery in his hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina.