William Courtleigh, Jr. (1892–1918) was American silent film actor whose promising career was cut short after he fell victim to the 1918 flu pandemic.

Biography

William Thomas Courtleigh, Jr., born March 8, 1892 at Buffalo, New York, was the son of William Courtleigh (1867–1930), a well-known Canadian-born American stage and screen actor. Like his father, Courtleigh began in stock. His film career began the year before playing Rev. Mark Stebbing in the Vitagraph film The Better Man, based on the novel by Cyrus Townsend Brady. Courtleigh appeared in at least 14 films over his brief career and was probably best remembered for playing Neal Hardin in the 1915 serial Neal of the Navy with Lillian Lorraine. Courtleigh played opposite Ann Pennington in her first two films, Susie Snowflake and The Rainbow Princess, both released in 1916. His last film,Children of Destiny, another Brady story, was released in 1920 by Weber Productions.

William Courtleigh died in Philadelphia on March 13, 1918, a casualty of the worldwide flu pandemic. He had just turned twenty-six and was survived by his wife, father and three brothers. Two of his brothers later became actors. Stephen, who sometimes acted under the stage name William Courtleigh, Jr., and Robert Courtleigh both had careers on stage and later in television. All three of his brothers were the product of his father’s second marriage and considerably younger than he.