Marshall County’s Silent Film Star:
Dick Sutherland
Written by Justin D. Lamb
Dick Sutherland (Archie Johnson) in the 1922 silent film, Grandma’s Boy.
(Courtesy of Silent Era Film Collection)
It has been nearly eighty years since Marshall County’s Archie Johnson appeared on the silver screen. Known in Hollywood as Dick Sutherland, Johnson appeared in seventy-six motion pictures and was one of the premier stars of the silent film era yet his career faded into obscurity following his death in the mid-1930s.
Born on December 23, 1881 along the Tennessee River near Jonathan Creek, Archie Thomas Johnson was the eldest child of William and Nancy Sutherland Johnson. His father passed away when he was five years old and his mother remarried to Eddie T. Howard in the mid 1890s. The family soon welcomed twins as Archie’s half siblings arrived whom Archie became very close to, especially his half-brother, R.M. “Rotchie” Howard which he nicknamed “Kid.”
During his teenage years, Archie worked alongside his brothers and step-father on the farmlands in southeastern Marshall County, but life on the farm soon became tiresome to the young man. He and his brothers soon moved to Paducah where they worked in several shops throughout the city as boilermakers.
Around the time of World War I, Archie and his brothers decided to move west to seek better opportunities and found a job working for the Denver and Oregon Railroad Company. The work was strenuous and back breaking, but Rotchie Howard recalled in a 1972 interview that his brother Archie seemed not to struggle at all with the laborious work: “It was all I could do to hold up the 60 pound air hammers with both hands,” Rotchie Howard recalled. “But Archie would pick up an 80 pound hammer with just one hand and drive those rivets without the slightest bit of trouble.”
By the late 1910s, the brothers went to work for the Utah Copper Company and little did they know that this job would forever change Archie Johnson’s life. According to Marshall County historian Greg Travis, by this time, Archie Johnson had grown into a rugged individual who weighed in at 240 pounds and stood at six feet. His overbearing features were attributed to Acromegaly Syndrome which results in the pituitary gland producing excess growth hormones. “His features were large and domineering but his amenities had a tender heart and pleasing sense of humor,” Travis wrote in 1994. While riding on a train for the Utah Copper Company, a man from a movie studio approached Archie with the idea of casting him in a movie due to his crude and overbearing looks. Thinking that he was being insulted by the man, Archie took one punch and knocked the man off of his feet. The man quickly apologized, expressed his sincerity, and the misunderstanding was soon cleared up. “That’s a hell of a way to approach a man!” Archie told the film producer before agreeing to the film. The rugged boy from Marshall County on his way to Hollywood stardom.
Sutherland plays a dental patient in 1927’s Battle of the Century.
(Courtesy of Silent Era Film Collection)
Once in Hollywood, Archie borrowed his great uncle’s name and made “Dick Sutherland” as his screen name. His looks were perfect for silent films and Dick Sutherland was soon type-casted in many villainous roles with a comedic undertone. According to Greg Travis, one of Sutherland’s characters was even described as an “ape-like villain.” Sutherland also spent time performing on the Vaudeville circuit.
As his career began to grow in the late 1920s, Sutherland was given more serious roles. He was cast as a slave driver in 1927’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin which was the film adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous novel about the antebellum South. In the film, Sutherland showcased his banjo playing abilities that he learned as a child in western Kentucky.
Perhaps Sutherland’s best film was Grandma’s Boy starring comedian Harold Lloyd. Sutherland played a town tramp who was the antagonist to Lloyd who plays the grandma’s boy, a timid coward who cannot gather enough courage to win over his girl and confront his adversary. In the film, Lloyd’s loving grandma gives him a magic charm which gives him the courage to capture a town criminal and win the girl. The “magic charm” turns out only to be the handle of the grandma’s umbrella but it gave Lloyd’s character the ability to find his inner courage. The film was a hugely popular and successful at the box office.
Throughout his fifteen year career, Sutherland worked alongside many Hollywood greats of the time and was cast in some of the most popular films of the era. He worked with John Barrymore in Don Juan, Moby Dick, and the Beloved Rogue. He also worked with the likes of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Cecil B. Demile, and D.W. Griffith.
As the film industry grew in the late 1920s, sound films were successfully introduced which forever changed the way motion pictures were made. When movie studios began to rake in huge profits from “talkie” films, several silent film stars, including Dick Sutherland, found it difficult to transition to the age of sound. Sutherland’s last film appearance was an uncredited role in the 1932 mystery-fantasy film, Chandu the Magician starring Edmund Lowe.
Playing a cook in 1929’s The Hoose-Gow.
(Courtesy of Silent Era Film Collection)
A few years later on February 3, 1934, Dick Sutherland passed away after suffering a heart attack at his Hollywood home. He was 52 years old and was survived by his wife and three children. Sutherland’s death was attributed to heart failure caused by Acromegaly Syndrome. He was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Hollywood.