Bob Curwood(1896-1980)

Silent western actor Bob Curwood was born in Romania in 1899 as John Balas Belasco. His parents were non-professionals Maria and Russen Balas Belasco. His movie-name was changed to Bub Curwood when he was given the lead role in a series of silent western and Royal-Canadian-Mounted shorts at Universal Pictures Corporation, circa 1925. Curwood starred in 26 silent shorts but his strong accent and inability to speak English bought an end to his career when Universal started producing sound films. Some sources credit John Balas Belasco as being a relative of either Universal-president Carl Laemmle, or Mr. Laemmle's wife. Most likely true as no studio in the history of American films had more relatives of the boss on its payroll than Universal.