Dutch-born silent film and stage actor, film director and screenwriter, a matinee idol considered one of the best-looking male actors on screen.
Tellegen was the illegitimate child of a separated, but not divorced, lieutenant of the West-Indian Army. He made his stage debut in Amsterdam in 1903, and over the next few years built a reputation to the point where he was invited to perform in Paris, eventually co-starring in several roles with Sarah Bernhardt, with whom he was involved romantically. In 1910, he made his motion picture debut alongside Bernhardt in La dame aux camélias, a silent film made in France based on the play by Alexandre Dumas, fils.
In the summer of 1913, Tellegen went to London where he produced and starred in Oscar Wilde’s play The Picture of Dorian Gray. Invited to the United States, Tellegen worked in theatre and made his first American film in 1915, The Explorer, followed by The Unknown, both with Dorothy Davenport as his co-star. He followed up with three films starring with Geraldine Farrar. He became an American citizen in 1918.
Tellegen appeared in numerous films before his face was damaged in a fire on Christmas Day 1929, when he fell asleep while smoking, preparing for an out-of-town tryout for a play. He had extensive plastic surgery in 1931.
Fame fading, employment not forthcoming, and ridden with debt, he filed for bankruptcy. He was diagnosed with cancer, though this information was kept from him, and he became despondent. In 1931, he wrote his autobiography Women Have Been Kind.
On 29 October 1934, while a guest in the Cudahy Mansion in Hollywood, Tellegen locked himself in the bathroom, then shaved and powdered his face. Then while standing in front of a full-length mirror, he committed suicide by stabbing himself in the chest and heart with a pair of sewing scissors seven times, resulting in lurid press coverage. He was 50.
Link to Wikipedia biography