Biography
A dignified stage actor who had earned accolades for The Senator, a play apparently written especially for him, James Neill entered films in the early 1910s with the pioneering Jesse J. Lasky Company (later Paramount). A top supporting actor in the early silent era, Neill portrayed Louis XIII to
Murdock MacQuarrie's
Richelieu (1914), played General Warren in the first version of William de Mille's
The Warrens of Virginia (1915), was Aaron in
The Ten Commandments (1923), and played
Bessie Love's father in
The Idle Rich (1929). The husband of character actress
Edythe Chapman (1863-1948), James Neill died of heart disease. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide