Chester Conklin by John Decker, courtesy of Mary Mallory.
Note: This is an encore post from 2013.
“To sing, to laugh, to dream, to walk in my own way and be alone…”
A recording of John Decker’s voice recited this phrase and the other words of Edmund Rostand’s “No Thank You” speech from “Cyrano de Bergerac” at his own Memorial Service on June 10, 1947. The phrase succinctly described how the 52-year-old Decker conducted his life, madly dining at the banquet of life like a male Auntie Mame. His wild life and exact talent as a caricaturist overshadowed his fine skill as an artist.
One of Hollywood’s Three Musketeers, along with actor John Barrymore and writer Gene Fowler, Decker had a colorful life that outshone even the most outlandish film. His surrealist eye captured Hollywood irony. As his stepdaughter Mary Lou Warren noted decades later, “He worked very hard at being a painter, but he worked very hard at being a character too.”
Born Leopold Wolfgang von der Decken in 1895 Berlin, the son of a Prussian count and British opera singer, Decker grew up in Brixton, England, after his parents fled censure of their scandalous relationship. His parents divorced and abandoned him as well as each other, leaving the artistic 13-year-old to fend for himself.
A 1923 article in Daily Variety noted that he studied acting for a short time, performing impersonations of author Charles Dickens in London, which earned poor response. Decker turned to scenery painting for theatrical productions while studying painting and also apprenticing with an art forger.
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