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Richard "Skeets" Gallagher

American actor (1891-1955)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ1765446 ↗
Source-derived summary

Richard "Skeets" Gallagher (July 28, 1891 – May 22, 1955) was an American actor. He had blue eyes and his naturally blond hair was tinged with gray from the age of 16.

Biography

Gallagher was born on July 28, 1891, in Terre Haute, Indiana. As a child he was nicknamed Skeets, short for mosquito, because of his frequent speedy bursts of running.

Gallagher was educated at Rose Polytechnic Institute and Indiana University. He first studied civil engineering and then law. His stage career began by writing a one-act skit that he took to a local theatre group. He started acting in vaudeville, and later signed with Paramount Pictures.

He appeared in Frank Capra's first feature film For the Love of Mike (1927), a silent film now considered a lost film, and in several early sound films.

He died on May 22, 1955, in Santa Monica, California from a heart attack.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Richard "Skeets" Gallagher” is american actor (1891-1955). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Richard, Skeets and Gallagher, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1891, 1955, 1927—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1891-07-28. For this dossier, Richard, Skeets and Gallagher is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american actor (1891-1955)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1765446. VIAF identifies the subject as 10050473. The Library of Congress control number is n86075610. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1955 and 1927.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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 “Richard "Skeets" Gallagher”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Richard "Skeets" Gallagher primary sources, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher archive and Richard 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 “Richard "Skeets" Gallagher”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Richard "Skeets" Gallagher” 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.