Garry Watson, 1928 – 2026

My British friend Nancy has alerted me to to the death on May 8 of child actor Garry Watson, 97. Garry was one of the seemingly endless supply of Hollywood Watsons: his father was a special-effects designer, and his mother a wardrobe mistress. He was one of eight siblings, all of whom went into the show business: Bobs, Coy, Gloria, Vivian, Louise, Harry, Billy, and Delmar (Garry was the last surviving sibling). His obit in the UK Telegraph calls him the last actor to have appeared in silent movies, but as soon as you say that, someone will pop and and yell “wrong!” Garry appeared in the 1929 film Drag (which boasted the hilarious poster reading “Richard Barthelmess in Drag!,” The Isle of Lost Ships, Live, Love and Laugh, Wild Girl, Life Begins at 40, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Knute Rockne, All American, and The Exile. He left acting in 1947, and became a photographer (he and several of his brothers ran the successful 6 Watson Bros. studio). Garry’s son Dan (also a photographer) said of his father and uncles, “They were an unbelievable group of newsmen with cameras in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s who had the personalities to go into any situation and weren’t timid at all, because of their acting. They were always acting like Vaudevillians, so if you think of a Vaudevillian with a camera shooting an assignment, that’s what it was. They weren’t necessarily creative, but innovative. They’d make whatever equipment they needed to get the picture.”