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Lou Tellegen (b. November 26, 1881, (pbly) Sint Oedenrode, The Netherlands – d. October 29, 1934, Hollywood, California) was an actor.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Move To The United States 3 Later Career and Suicide 4 Unreliable Autobiography 5 External links

Born Isadore Louis Bernard van Dommelem, he was the illegitimate child of a Dutch army lieutenant (Isidore Louis Bernard Edmond Tellegen 1836 - 1902) and a Dutch mother.

He made his stage debut in Amsterdam in 1903 and over the next few years built a reputation to the point where he was invited to perform in Paris, France, eventually co-starring in several roles with Sarah Bernhardt, with whom he was involved romantically. In 1910 he made his motion picture debut along side Bernhardt in La Dame aux camélias, a silent film made in France based on the play by Alexandre Dumas, fils.

In 1910, he and Bernhardt travelled to the United States where the New York Times first published and then retracted the announcement of their impending marriage. (She was 37 years older than he.) Back in France, in 1912 they made their second film together, Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, and the following year, Adrienne Lecouvreur.

In the summer of 1913, Tellegen went to London where he produced and starred in the Oscar Wilde play, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Invited back to the United States, Tellegen worked in theatre and made his first American film in 1915 titled The Explorer followed by The Unknown, both with Dorothy Davenport as his co-star. Considered one of the best looking actors on screen, he followed up with three straight films starring opposite Geraldine Farrar. He married Farrar, a well-known opera 'diva' turned actress, who was herself well-known as the lover of Germany's Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany.

Tellegen's marriage to Farrar did not last and he would go on to marry a total of four times.

He had appeared in numerous films, when his face was injured in a fire. Fame faded, employment was not forthcoming, and he went bankrupt. He was diagnosed with cancer, though this information was kept from him, and he became despondent.

He committed suicide by stabbing himself in the chest with a pair of scissors seven times (supposedly while surrounded by newspaper clippings), resulting in lurid press coverage.

His autobiography, Women Have Been Kind (to which title reviewer Dorothy Parker suggested appending "of Dumb"), is at best unreliable. It contains many false claims, one of which is that he posed for Rodin's sculpture, Eternal Spring.

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