Franklin Ritchie (June 26, 1865 – January 26, 1918) was an American actor of the silent film era. Following his film career with the American Film company, he became an automobile dealer.[1][2][3]
Biography
Born as George Frank Ritchie on June 26, 1865 in Ritchie, Clinton County, Pennsylvania,[4] Franklin Edward Ritchie appeared in fifty-one films between 1913 and 1917.
Ritchie died at the age of fifty-two on Friday, January 25, 1918 when a car he was driving skidded off of a mountain road and fell down an embankment near Los Angeles, California after the edge of the road collapsed. A passenger riding in the car of his friend, William Hamilton, Ritchie was reported to have died instantly while Hamilton was left "injured painfully but not seriously."[5][6][7]