William Anderson Orlamond (1 August 1867 – 23 April 1957) was a Danish-American film actor. Orlamond appeared in more than 80 films between 1912 and 1938.[1]
Orlamond delivered his finest performance in director Victor Sjöström’s masterpiece The Wind (1928) in the supporting role of “Sourdough.”[2]
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, little is known about Orlamond’s antecedents except that he was born into a family of itinerant actors. He and his brother, Fritz, were included in the traveling acts virtually from infancy. When in his early 20s, he was supporting himself in Germany as a “dialect comedian.” [3]
The date of Orlamond's emigration to the United States is unclear, but by 1912 he was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania working in one-reelers for Siegmund Lubin and appearing in Pathé and Edison Studios production shorts.[4]
Orlamond provided a measure of levity to the over-wrought romance Flesh and the Devil (1926) as the inept but well-meaning Uncle Kutowski. Starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, Orlamond's brief appearance "receives one of the few laughs in the entire nine reels of nostril-flaring passion" according to film historian Hans J. Wollstein. The picture was exceptionally profitable to the newly amalgamated MGM.[6]
Orlamond's "tour-de-force" performance as Sourdough in Victor Sjostrom's The Wind was the high water mark of his career. The "uncouth" Sourdough is among several characters who vie for the favor of Lillian Gish in her ingénue role as Letty. Wollstein reports that Orlamond "stole every scene he was in".[7]
With the advent of “talkies”, Orlamond’s movie offers declined. His Danish accent, though largely anglicized, was contrary to his screen persona he had crafted in the silent era which represented strictly American social types. In 1931, he was cast as the Oklahoma homesteader "Grat Gotch" in Cimmaron, an uncredited role. His final film, Sworn Enemy (1936), was a minor role.[8]
William Orlamond died April 23, 1957 at the age of 90.[9]
Wollstein, Hans J. 1994. Strangers in Hollywood: The History of Scandinavian Actors in American Films, 1910 to World War II.The Scarecrow Press, Filmmakers series no. 43. Anthony Slide, editor ISBN0-8108-2938-X
