JUST A “HAS-BEEN.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20483, 8 December 1934, Page 25 (Supplement)

JUST A “HAS-BEEN.”

Why Lou Tellegen Took His Life. ELABORATE SUICIDE. NEW YORK, October 31. “ JJOLLYWOOD has no use for a ‘ has-been,’ ” is the pathetic message of farewell to all his former admirers left by Lou Tellegen, the famous actor, known far and wide for two decades as “ the perfect lover,” who was found stabbed to death in his bathroom. Even more pathetic than this note of despair and death is the comment, “ Why should that interest me?” with which the news of his suicide was received by Geraldine Farrar, the former opera star and one of four famous women who successively divorced Tellegen for infidelity. Using a pair of scissors instead of Hamlet's “ bare bodkin ” to decide the question, ‘‘To be or not to be?” this once celebrated actqr and lover stabbed himself stoically seven times before the mirror until the final thrust reached his heart and he fell dead.

A man of over 50, Tellegen had vainly subjected himself to a face-lifting operation in the hope of regaining the appearance of a man of 30 and of thus securing a profitable part in a Hollywood film.

Tellegen in his amazing career had been acrobat, prize-fighter, hack-driver and baker’s assistant.

In Paris his perfect Grecian features and physique attracted the attention of Auguste Rodin, who used him for a model in “ Eternal Springtime.”

With Sarah Bernhardt he toured the United States in “ Madame X.”

The night after the play opened in Chicago his name was emblazoned in lights of equal size with those announcing Bernhardt. He starred with her in a number of plays. Tellegen prepared himself elaborately for his act of suicide. He shaved carefully, powdered his face, brushed his hair, and, posing before a full-length mirror, wrapped a dressing-gown round his body as he drove the scissors into his heart.