Actor. During his youth, he was an accomplished athlete, active in such fields as swimming, horseback riding, football, and track. He also was very interested in an acting career and would frequently attend plays during these years. As a teenager, his family moved from Newark to Manhattan, which gave him a chance to break into show business. He occasionally starred in bit roles in stage plays, though upon his father's insistence he went to business school instead of continuing to pursue an acting career. He briefly found work selling dry goods, but he felt himself being called back to acting and convinced his father to let him pursue his dream. Lockwood quickly found work in vaudeville, stock companies, and musical comedies. He also married an actress named Alma early in his acting career, and in 1908 their only child, William, was born. In 1911 Lockwood transitioned from the stage to the screen when he went to see the director Edwin S. Porter, who at the time was working at the Rex Company. Porter had directed such early film classics as 'The Grain Train Robbery' (1903) and 'The Life of an American Fireman' (1903). Porter was impressed with his letter of recommendation and with his photogenic looks, and immediately began giving him leading roles. A few months later, however, he moved to the nearby Nestor studio, and when they opened a new studio in California later that same year, he went with them. In early 1912 he changed studios yet again, this time working for Thomas Ince. Under the direction of Ince, Lockwood starred in many Westerns and Civil War movies. After nine months with Ince, he once more changed studios. This time he was working for the Selig company, a move which proved to be very profitable both financially and personally. Not only did he gain much more popularity and acting experience, but he also got the chance to play in a wide variety of genres, such as comedies, melodramas, romances, dramas, Westerns, and costume pictures. In 1914 Lockwood's old mentor Edwin S. Porter began working at Famous Players-Lasky Studios, and arranged for Lockwood's release from Selig so he could star in two of his upcoming pictures with Mary Pickford, 'Tess of the Storm Country' and 'Hearts Adrift.' These two films did very well, and Porter urged Adolph Zukor to hire him as a permanent member of the studio. Zukor agreed, and Lockwood starred in a third film with Pickford, 'Such a Little Queen.' He also starred opposite May Allison in 'David Harum' (1915). Their work together in this picture was keenly noted by the director Thomas Ricketts, who hired both Lockwood and Allison away from Zukor and put them in a total of twenty-two films together between 1915 and 1917. Their pairing was so popular that many of their fans falsely believed they were a couple in real life as well as onscreen. Their onscreen pairing came to an end when Fred Balshofer, of Yorke-Metro Studios, where they had both relocated to, came to the conclusion that they were becoming too expensive as a team and that they could each carry a picture by themselves. After this popular teaming came to an end, Lockwood was just as successful as a solo performer, starring with such popular actresses of the day as Vera Sisson, Martha Mansfield, Bessie Eyton, and Carmel Myers. In June of 1918 he began writing a monthly column for Motion Picture magazine, "Funny Happenings in the Studio and on Lockwood," which quickly became very popular. He also continued to act in addition to his fledgling new career as a writer. Like many moviestars of the day, Lockwood was very involved with the Liberty Loan drives that raised money on the homefront during World War I. In early October of 1918, while he was filming an espionage-aviation movie entitled 'The Yellow Drive,' he fell ill with what doctors initially believed to be "la grippe." They soon found out otherwise. Lockwood died of complications of pneumonia later that very month, one of millions upon millions of people all over the globe who were victims of the influenza epidemic of the time. It was believed he had caught influenza while selling war bonds at the Morning Telegraph booth. At the time of his death, he was routinely polled as one of the most popular moviestars in America. Today only six of his over 130 films are known to survive, all six of which are available only in archives.