Ramon Novarro’s Death 39 Years Ago
Ramon Novarro and Barbara La Marr in Trifling Women
I was just thinking of 1920s and 1930s film star Ramon Novarro, the subject of the biography I wrote several years ago, Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro.
On the morning of Oct. 31, 1968, Novarro, aged 69, was found dead at his Laurel Canyon home in the Hollywood Hills. Two brothers, Paul and Tom Ferguson, 22 and 17, respectively, were later accused and convicted of his murder. The night before his bloodied corpse was discovered, Novarro had invited the two young men for a night of partying at his home.
Paul Ferguson’s defense attorney, Cletus Hanifin, in reference to Novarro’s numerous drunken driving episodes — which had begun at least as early as the 1940s — blamed the victim for his brutal death. "For forty years," Hanifin told the jury, "Novarro had been an accident walking around looking for a place to happen."
Tom’s defense attorney, Richard Walton, also placed the blame on Novarro. "Back in the days of Valentino, this man who set female hearts aflutter, was nothing but a queer. There’s no way of calculating how many felonies this man committed over the years, for all his piety." (The Mexican-born Novarro was an ardent Catholic; Walton was also referring to the fact that Tom was a minor when he was invited to Novarro’s home and that homosexual acts were illegal in California at that time.)
District attorney James Ideman blamed the Fergusons, accusing them of killing, beating, and torturing Novarro in order to find out the whereabouts of $5,000 the actor supposedly kept in his music room. (There was no money; the music room had cost $5,000.)
Paul Ferguson blamed his Catholic background. "When [Novarro] kissed me, I reacted like a Catholic, what they call homosexual panic. Some old guy in the desert says, ‘Kill homosexuals.’ It’s inbred. . . . I was too drunk to be civilized. Whatever my most primitive moral standings were, I reacted. It had nothing to do with Novarro, nothing to do with his being homosexual. It all had to do with how I saw myself. And the fact that my brother was there. And that he could see me in that homosexual act. It all had to do with my Catholic upbringing, with my five thousand years of Moses. And that’s the only reason why this whole thing happened. Because that’s what society teaches you. . . . I think after I hit Mr. Novarro . . . I turned around and sat down on the sofa. I got up and went to find [Novarro] in the bedroom. ‘This guy’s dead.’ . . . We didn’t go there to rob him."
I’ve often wondered, Who would Novarro have blamed for what happened?
In any case, though considerably more complex than a clear-cut case of gay-bashing, Novarro’s death was no less tragic or unnecessary.
Luckily, Ramon Novarro’s work can often be seen on Turner Classic Movies. My favorite Novarro performances are those in Ernst Lubitsch’s The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), W. S. Van Dyke’s The Pagan (1929), the poorly received In Gay Madrid (1930), and the crazy pre-Coder The Barbarian (1933). The 1925 version of Ben-Hur was his biggest hit, but Novarro’s performance as the Jewish hero-turned-Christian convert is hardly what one would call subtle. (Yet, despite Novarro’s silent-movie mannerisms, he’s eons better than Charlton Heston in the bloated 1959 remake. And he looks much better, too, as can be attested by the photo on the right.)
Novarro’s extant films for Rex Ingram, The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and Scaramouche (1923), are also worth a look. Trifling Women (1922, top photo) would probably have been a bizarre treat — cinematographer John F. Seitz’s work in that Gothic melodrama seems to have inspired his later chiaroscuro lighting for Sunset Blvd. — and the same goes for the idyllic Where the Pavement Ends (1923), a tale of interethnic romance set on a South Pacific island. (Though filmed in Cuba and Florida.)
The Arab (1924) exists in European archives, but it’s apparently incomplete. Now, whether one or two or three reels are missing, TCM should get a hold of a print, restore it, and show it. They could have it as part of an Arab culture celebration of some kind or other — especially considering that Rex Ingram did at one point convert to Islam.
Quotes: Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro
Trifling Women photo: Matias Bombal Collection
Deborah Kerr – What Lies Beneath
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6 Responses to “Ramon Novarro’s Death 39 Years Ago”
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Unnecessary deaths always leave so many questions. Ramon Novarro calls to mind one of the kings of France who was homosexual and would go through bizarre spells of punishing himself, sometimes even through violence. Self hatred is truly the worst kind. It also makes one wonder how William Haines could be so ribald, even without the factors of religion and upbringing I can’t imagine someone born in 1900 could have dealt easily with his sexuality. I really hope Trifling Women/Black Orchids surfaces one day.
Hey, Marcus,
Well, actually there were people who were “semi-openly” gay long before William Haines’ time. I guess it all depended on your social circle. Haines was apparently quite open within his circle, but not so elsewhere.
And absolutely, “Trifling Women” would be quite *the* find.
I love Ramon Novarro’s work! I wonder if those two men were hired…Do you know of the film The Red Lily(1924)? Do you know how I could get a copy of that? I absolutely LOVED his performance along with Enid Bennett’s in that silent cinema gem.
Those two men *were* hired — by Novarro himself.
“The Red Lily” was shown on TCM not too long ago. I’m assuming it’ll be on again in the not-too-distant future.
I wasn’t crazy about Novarro in that one, but Enid Bennett was excellent in the title role.
What a sad ending for such a talented and handsome man.
It seems one of the killers has published a book. According to the cover, it’s “An autobiography in short-fiction.” I don’t know about that, but what I’ve read so far, ain’t all that bad.