Rupert Julian

From his early days on the stage, Percy Hayes was known for singing and impressions; but it was as actor Rupert Julian that he made his name in Australia, then in the pictures in America. After earning a million dollars as director, producer, writer and star of The Kaiser, his directing career peaked with The Phantom Of The Opera in 1925, starring Lon Chaney. He stayed on in a mansion in LA's Hollywood Hills, until his death in 1943. Image: courtesy of Marc Wanamaker/Bison Archive

He looked very severe. He was extremely dignified and he wore a little waxed moustache — it wasn’t caricature, it was a really stunning moustache. He was always beautifully groomed, a little flower in his buttonhole, and he was very, very strict. Silent screen actor Ruth Clifford, in a September 1989 American Cinematographer article by Scott MacQueen