Jack Pickford (August 18, 1896 – January 3, 1933) was a Canadian-born American actor, film director and producer. He was the younger brother of early film star Mary Pickford.After their father deserted the family, all three Pickford children had to take work as child actors. When Mary broke into films, Jack went to Hollywood with her, but was never in her league. When she signed her first $1 million contract, he was mostly playing the boy-next-door in B-films. Some claimed that he had great talent, but suffered from living in her shadow. At any rate, his life of drink, drugs, syphilis and scandal ruled out any career success, and his three marriages to showgirls all ended in failure. Pickford died in Paris of progressive multiple neuritis, aged thirty-six.
When thirteen-year old Jack arrived on the same train to California acting as his sister's chaperon, he threw such a tantrum about going back that D.W. Griffith agreed to accept him also and pay him $15 a week.
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The actor/director team of Jack Pickford and William Desmond Taylor were considered one of Paramount's best and they collaborated on seven films.
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Was favored and spoiled by his sister Mary Pickford, though he was very close with his sister Lottie Pickford.
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In 2000 a documentary was made on Jack's life by Elaina Archer, then the librarian for the Mary Pickford Institute. Titled "In Mary's Shadow: The Jack Pickford Story" it has yet to be released on DVD, but was released on VHS.
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All 3 of his wives, Olive Thomas, Marilyn Miller, and Mary Mulhern, were Ziegfeld Follies girls.
While in the U.S. Navy Reserve in 1918, he was involved in a scandal that almost got him court-martialed. Along with other officers and enlisted men, he was accused of soliciting and accepting bribes from wealthy enlisted draftees who wanted light shore duty. The servicemen originally assigned to do the light shore duty were then assigned to shipboard duty and sent into combat. Jack's mother, Charlotte Smith, had a secret meeting with President Woodrow Wilson's personal secretary, Joseph Tumulty. Tumulty wrote a letter to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels requesting that Jack be discharged so he could make a movie designed to increase interest in the Army Air Corps. Daniels granted Jack a general discharge before the court-martial began (Charlotte had sought an honorable discharge). The others involved in the scandal were court-martialed, sentenced to up to three years in the brig and dishonorably discharged. Tumulty later claimed no knowledge of the graft charges or Jack's impending court-martial.
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