Lew Cody

Lew Cody (born Louis Joseph Côté; February 22, 1884 – May 31, 1934) was an American stage and film actor whose career spanned the silent film and early sound film age. He gained notoriety in the late 1910s for playing "male vamps" in films such as Don't Change Your Husband.^[1]

Lew Cody
Cody, c. 1915
Born	Louis Joseph Côté (1884-02-22)February 22, 1884 Waterville, Maine, U.S.
Died	May 31, 1934(1934-05-31) (aged 50) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Resting place	St. Peter's Cemetery
Nationality	American
Alma mater	McGill University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1907–1934
Spouses	Dorothy Dalton ​ ​ (m. 1910; div. 1911)​ ​ ​ (m. 1913; div. 1914)​ Mabel Normand ​ ​ (m. 1926; died 1930)​

Early life and career

Cody was born on February 22, 1884 (some sources say 1885)^[2] to Louis Joseph Côté and Elizabeth Sarah Côté (née Herbert). His father was French Canadian, with his ancestral lineage dating back to France and Germany, and his mother was a native of Maine. Cody and his younger brothers and sisters were born in Waterville, Maine.^[3][4][5][6] After Elizabeth's death, Louis remarried to Marie Lena Rose Toussaint, and they had a daughter named Cecile Côté.

The family moved to Berlin, New Hampshire, where Cody's father owned a drug store. In his youth, Cody worked at his father's drug store as a soda jerk. He later enrolled at McGill University in Montreal where he intended to study medicine but abandoned the idea of setting up in practice and joined a theatre stock company in North Carolina.^[4]

He made his debut on the stage in New York in Pierre of the Plains.^[5] Cody moved to Los Angeles and began a minor film career at The Balboa Film Studios with Thomas Ince. ^[4] Cody had at least 99 film credits from 1914 to 1934.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Cody was married three times. His first two marriages were to actress Dorothy Dalton. They first married in 1910 and divorced in 1911. They remarried in 1913 and were divorced a second time in 1914.^[7] Playing the debonair leading man, Cody enjoyed the later single life of "a man's man", which added to his acting persona. In what may have been started as a mutual lark, Cody married Mabel Normand in 1926.^[8] Having pre-med schooling, Cody understood that Mabel had acute tuberculosis, so they lived separately and he attended all he possibly could to Mabel's comfort. They remained married until Normand's death from tuberculosis in February 1930.^[8][9]

Death

After Mabel's passing, he successfully transitioned into talking pictures and to even better roles. On May 31, 1934, Cody died of a sudden heart attack in his sleep at his home in Beverly Hills, California.^[3] He is buried in St. Peter's Cemetery, Lewiston, Maine, in the family plot.^[6][10]

Partial filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1914	Harp of Tara	Jim Macy	Short subject
1915	The Tip-Off	Arthur Clarke	Short subject
	The Floating Death	Bruce Graham	Short subject
	His Mother's Portrait	Darrell Blackley	Short subject
	The Mating	'Bullet Dick' Ames	Credited as Lewis J. Cody Lost film
	The Promoter	Jim Howard	Short subject Credited as Lewis J. Cody
	Comrade John	Prophet Stein	Credited as Lewis J. Cody
	Should a Wife Forgive?	Alfred Bedford
1916	The Buried Treasure of Cobre	Professor Peabody	Short subject Credited as Louis Cody
	The Crime of Circumstance		Short subject
	The Grinning Skull	Donald Harvey	Short subject
	The Cycle of Fate	Sid Aldrich	Credited as Lewis Cody
	The Oath of Hate		Short subject
1917	A Noble Fraud		Short subject Credited as Lewis J. Cody
	The Bride's Silence	Paul Wagner	Credited as Lewis J. Cody
	Southern Pride	Robert Orme	Short subject
	A Game of Wits	Larry Caldwell
	A Branded Soul	John Rannie	Lost film
1918	Painted Lips	Jim Douglass
	Daddy's Girl	John Standlaw
	Mickey	Reggie Drake	Credited as Lewis Cody; co-starring Mabel Normand
	For Husbands Only	Rolin Van D'Arcy	Lost film
	Treasure of the Sea	Jim Hardwick
	The Bride's Awakening	Richard Earle
	The Demon	Jim Lassells	Credited as Lewis Cody
	Playthings	John Hayward
	Beans	Kirk
	Borrowed Clothes	Stuart Furth
1919	Don't Change Your Husband	Schuyler Van Sutphen	co-starring Gloria Swanson; directed by Cecil B. DeMille
	Are You Legally Married?	John Stark	Lost film
	Men, Women and Money	Cleveland Buchanan
	Our Better Selves	Willard Standish	Lost film
	The Life Line	Philip Royston	co-starring Wallace Beery
	The Broken Butterfly	Daniel Thorn
	The Beloved Cheater	Bruce Sands	Lost film
	As the Sun Went Down	Faro Bill	Lost film
1920	The Butterfly Man	Sedgewick Blynn	Lost film
	Occasionally Yours	Bruce Sands
1921	The Sign on the Door	Frank Devereaux
1922	The Valley of Silent Men	Cpl. James Kent	Incomplete film
	The Secrets of Paris	King Rudolph	Lost film
	Dangerous Pastime	Barry Adams
1923	Rupert of Hentzau	Rupert of Hentzau	Sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda Lost film
	Jacqueline	Raoul Radon	Lost film
	Souls for Sale	Owen Scudder
	Within the Law	Joe Garson
	Lawful Larceny	Guy Tarlow	Lost film
	Reno	Roy Tappan
1924	The Shooting of Dan McGrew	Dangerous Dan McGrew
	The Woman on the Jury	George Montgomery / George Wayne	Lost film
	Defying the Law	Pietro Savori	Lost film
	Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model	Walter Peck
	Three Women	Edmund Lamont
	Revelation	Count Adrian de Roche
	Husbands and Lovers	Rex Phillips
	So This is Marriage?	Daniel Rankin
1925	Man and Maid	Sir Nicholas Thormonde	Lost film
	The Sporting Venus	Prince Carlos	Starring Blanche Sweet and Ronald Colman
	A Slave of Fashion	Nicholas Wentworth	co-starring Norma Shearer Lost film
	The Tower of Lies	Victor Seastrom	co-starring Lon Chaney and Norma Shearer[11] Lost film
	Exchange of Wives	John Rathburn
	His Secretary	David Colman	co-starring Norma Shearer Lost film
1926	Monte Carlo	Tony Townsend
	The Gay Deceiver	Toto/Antoine di Tillois	Lost film
1927	The Demi-Bride	Philippe Levaux	Lost film
	On Ze Boulevard	Gaston Pasqual
	Adam and Evil	Adam Trevelyan / Allan Trevelyan	Lost film
	Tea for Three	Carter Langford	Lost film
1928	Wickedness Preferred	Anthony Dare	Lost film
	Beau Broadway	Jim Lambert	Lost film
	The Baby Cyclone	Joe Meadows	Lost film
	Show People	Himself	Uncredited
1929	A Single Man	Robin Worthington	Lost film
1930	What a Widow!	Victor	co-starring Gloria Swanson Lost film
	Divorce Among Friends	Paul Wilcox
1931	Dishonored	Colonel Kovrin
	Not Exactly Gentlemen	Ace Beaudry
	Three Girls Lost	William (Jack) Marriott	Starring John Wayne and Loretta Young
	Beyond Victory	Lew Cavanaugh	co-starring ZaSu Pitts
	Stout Hearts and Willing Hands	The Villain	Short subject
	Sweepstakes	Wally Weber
	A Woman of Experience	Captain Otto von Lichstein
	The Common Law	Dick Carmedon	co-starring Constance Bennett and Hedda Hopper
	Meet the Wife	Philip Lord	co-starring Laura La Plante
	Sporting Blood	Tip Scanlon	co-starring Clark Gable
	X Marks the Spot	George Howe
1932	The Crusader	Jimmie Dale
	File 113	M. Gaston Le Coq
	Beautiful and Dumb		Short subject
	The Tenderfoot	Joe Lehman
	70,000 Witnesses	Slip Buchanan
	The Crusader	Jimmie Dale
	Madison Square Garden	Rourke
	The Unwritten Law	Roger Morgan
	A Parisian Romance	Baron	co-starring Gilbert Roland
	Under-Cover Man	Kenneth Mason
1933	By Appointment Only	Dr. Michael Travers
	Wine, Women and Song	Morgan Andrews
	Sitting Pretty	Jules Clark	co-starring Ginger Rogers and Thelma Todd
	I Love That Man	Labels Castell
1934	Private Scandal	Benjamin J. Somers	co-starring ZaSu Pitts
	Shoot the Works	Axel Hanratty