There are no small parts, only small actors observed Czech playwright Milan Kundera.In the case of Richard Barthelmess his expansive silent screen performances didn't fit well with the more verbal and nuance talkies. But what a career he had between 1916 and 1929.
Becoming one of Hollywood's highest paid performers (he was paid $375,000 in 1927), Barthelmess was nominated for consecutive Oscars - for The Patent Leather Kid (1927) and The Noose (1928).
However it was an earlier film Tol'able David (1921) about the struggles of a poor rural family, which contains his stand out performance.
As one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) - the mob who award the Oscars each year - Barthelmess continued his connection with the film industry although he retired from acting in the early 1940s.
He died of cancer at the age of 68 in 1963.
Below is a 2 minute clip of Barthelmess's 1919 film Broken Blossoms, co-starring Lillian Gish:
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