James Neil Hamilton (September 9, 1899 – September 24, 1984) was an American actor best known for his role as Commissioner Gordon on the Batman TV series of the 1960s. In the 1920s, he was a popular silent film leading man.
An only child, Hamilton was born in Lynn, Massachusetts and raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic household.
His show business career began when he secured a job as a shirt model in magazine ads, similar to fellow silent film pe...
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James Neil Hamilton (September 9, 1899 – September 24, 1984) was an American actor best known for his role as Commissioner Gordon on the Batman TV series of the 1960s. In the 1920s, he was a popular silent film leading man.
An only child, Hamilton was born in Lynn, Massachusetts and raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic household.
His show business career began when he secured a job as a shirt model in magazine ads, similar to fellow silent film performer Reed Howes who was known in advertisements as "The Arrow Collar Man". After this, he became interested in acting and joined several stock companies. This allowed him to secure his first film role in 1918, but he got his big break from D. W. Griffith in The White Rose (1923). In 1924, he traveled to Germany with Griffith and made the pseudo-documentary Isn't Life Wonderful, co-starring Griffith's muse and then girlfriend Carol Dempster.
Hamilton was signed by Paramount Pictures in the mid 1920s and soon became one of that studio's most...
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