CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Leon De La Mothe

American film director, actor and screenwriter (1880–1943)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ3229633 ↗
Source-derived summary

Leon De La Mothe (born Louis Kent; December 26, 1880 – June 12, 1943) was an American film director, actor and screenwriter of the silent era. He directed 40 films between 1915 and 1925. He also appeared in 28 films between 1915 and 1928. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and died in Los Angeles, California.

Editorial summary

“Leon De La Mothe” enters the record as american film director, actor and screenwriter (1880–1943). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Leon, Mothe and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1880, 1943, 1915, 1925—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1880-12-26. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Leon, Mothe and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Leon De La Mothe” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Leon, Mothe and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3229633. VIAF identifies the subject as 23792714. The Library of Congress control number is n92039317. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880, 1943, 1915 and 1925.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Leon De La Mothe”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Leon De La Mothe primary sources, Leon De La Mothe archive and Leon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Leon De La Mothe”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Leon De La Mothe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.