Sam De Grasse

• Birth name:

  Samuel Alfred de Grasse

• Date of Birth:

  29 November 1875 Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada

• Height:

  5' 10½" (1.79 m)

Actor Samuel Alfred DeGrasse (June 12, 1875 - November 29, 1953) was born into a French Canadian family. He is the son of Lange DeGrasse and Ellen Comeaux of Bathurst, New Brunswick. Sam is the younger brother of Director Joseph DeGrasse. There were 11 siblings. Sam immigrated to the USA around 1880 as a young child. He trained to be a dentist and married Annie McDonnell in Massachusetts in 1904. Their daughter Clementine Bell was born in 1906. Annie probably died in childbirth. Her date of death in Rhod... more

Actor Samuel Alfred DeGrasse (June 12, 1875 - November 29, 1953) was born into a French Canadian family. He is the son of Lange DeGrasse and Ellen Comeaux of Bathurst, New Brunswick. Sam is the younger brother of Director Joseph DeGrasse. There were 11 siblings. Sam immigrated to the USA around 1880 as a young child. He trained to be a dentist and married Annie McDonnell in Massachusetts in 1904. Their daughter Clementine Bell was born in 1906. Annie probably died in childbirth. Her date of death in Rhode Island is listed as 1909 along with an infant girl, Olive. In 1910, widower Samuel was practicing dentistry and living in Providence along with his older sister (also named Clementine) and her 14 year old son, Jerome Fauchy. Sometime in the next few years, Sam remarried actress Ada Fuller Golden (born in England) and became a step-father to her three children. Older brother Joseph DeGrasse had gone into the fledgling movie business. By 1910, Joe was living in Burbank, California with his wife Ida May Park and their young son Joe Paul. Both Joe and Ida were working as actors. About this time, Sam decided to give acting a try. He traveled to New York City and appeared in his first motion picture in 1912. At first he played standard secondary characters but when fellow Canadian Mary Pickford set up her own studio with her husband Douglas Fairbanks, he joined them in Hollywood. He portrayed the villainous Prince John in Fairbanks' 1922 Robin Hood. Afterward, he began to specialize in villainous roles. He was the uncle of successful cinematographer Robert DeGrasse.