Hugh Trevor

Hugh Trevor (born Hugh Trevor-Thomas on October 28, 1903 in Yonkers, New York) was an American actor whose brief but lively career spanned the turbulent years between silent cinema and the early talkies. After graduating from Harvard University he launched a successful insurance business, a venture that would later provide a safety net when his film career stalled. Through his uncle, the influential producer William LeBaron, Trevor met leading silent star Richard Dix in 1925 while attempting to sell an insurance policy, and Dix was so impressed that he arranged a screen test which Dix himself directed. Trevor’s screen debut came in 1927 with Ranger of the North, a film in which he shared the bill with the canine star Ranger, marking his entry into the rapidly expanding Hollywood studio system. Over the next six years he appeared in nineteen pictures, working for studios such as F.B.O. Productions and later RKO Radio Pictures after the FBO‑RCA merger, and sharing the screen with notable figures including Mary Astor, Bryant Washburn, Chester Conklin, Noah Beery, the comedy duo Wheeler & Woolsey, Betty Compson and Lowell Sherman. Romantic rumors linked him to actress Aileen Pringle after their work on Beau Broadway and to Betty Compson, who at one point considered marriage following her divorce from James Cruze. In 1930 he was featured in Photoplay alongside Olive Borden promoting the new Photophone sound process for the dual‑version film Love in the Desert. The arrival of sound, however, diminished his star potential and he retired from acting in 1931, his final picture being RKO’s The Royal Bed. Returning to Los Angeles he re‑entered the insurance field, partnering with James Ryan to cater to industry professionals. Tragically, just two weeks after his thirtieth birthday, Trevor suffered appendicitis, underwent an appendectomy and died of complications on November 10, 1933, and was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.