CHANCE PLAYS PART IN STAR’S CAREER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 364, 26 May 1928, Page 25

CHANCE PLAYS PART IN STAR’S CAREER

Charles Farrell, young Fox star , had reason to recall a picture he saio about six years ago when he put his name to a five-year construct the other day. The picture was “The Prisoner of Zenda." It influenced him to embark on a career in the films. It is such little things that turn humdrum cases into romances. For years he had sen pictures in his father’ss theatres on Cape Cod, but was planning a business or law career until “The Prisoner of Zen la” came along. That romantic drama somehow made him feel that he would like acting, and it was not long afterward until he was Hollywood-bound. It so happened that Frank Borzage, who piloted him to face with Janet Gaynor, in the “Seventh Heaven,” was among the first directors he approached. Borzage, however, thought Farrell, then an extra, might well turn to somthing else. The director saw him as “another good-looking kid

S seeking something easy to do,” as he • remarked recently. Farrell die not take Borzage’s tip. J He persisted making the rounds for jobs, and finally succeeded —as the ; world of mpviedom now knows. It is somewhat of a coincidence that “The , Red Dancer of Moscow,” in which he is featured with Dolores D 1 Rio, sees i ;him in romantic garb—even as the j actors he envied in “The Prisoner of ! Zenda.” ! The new contract, coming" after Ms [fine work in “Street Angel,” means | that Farrell has “arrived” in a decid- | edly big way.