James Durkin (actor)

James Durkin
Durkin in 1903
Born	James Peter Durkin May 21, 1879 Quebec, Canada
Died	March 12, 1934 (aged 54) Los Angeles, California
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Occupation	actor, director
Years active	1906-1934
Spouse(s)	Maude Fealy (1909-1917) Alice Durkin

James Durkin (May 21, 1879 – March 12, 1934) was a Canadian-born American stage and film actor and director.

He was born in Quebec, Canada and died in Los Angeles, California. Durkin's father was a Commissioner of Crown Lands for the province of Quebec. He was a graduate of De La Salle College (Toronto)

In 1906, he made his Broadway debut in the play Julie Bonbon. The following year, he played the male lead in the play Margaret Fleming at Chicago's New Theatre. While working on Broadway, he met actress Maude Fealy and became her third husband on November 28, 1909. (They would divorce in 1917.) According to the Internet Broadway Database, he acted in six Broadway productions from 1906 to 1923 and directed Chivalry (1925-1926).

After several years on the stage, Durkin moved into film. He worked for the Thanhouser Company from late spring 1913 to 1914, acting and directing his wife. When Fealy and Durkin left Thanhouser, the trade journal Variety speculated that the couple planned to start a film company of their own. In June 1915, he signed on with the Famous Players Film Company as a director. In December of the same year, Durkin left Famous, signing a two-year contract with Lewis J. Selznick's Equitable Pictures. He continued working in film into the 1930s.

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